The Kennecott Copper Mine, owned by Rio Tinto Corporation, is located in the Ochre Mountains of northern Utah. The open pit mine is one of the largest in the world. The tailings pond lies in the foreground on the shore of the Great Salt Lake. The smelter is visible on the far right. This smelter and many others that operated in the valley from the late 1800's. The chronology of deposition of lead, copper, arsenic, cadmium, mercury and other metals has been determined by paleolimnogical cores of the lake's sediments, and in sediments 100 km away in the Uinta Mountains.


Photo: 28 May 2012.


Limnology: The study of inland waters