Wayne Wurtsbaugh
Registered: January 2000
Posts: 497
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An apparent whiting event in multiple bays of the Great Salt Lake Utah between June 17 and 23, 2006. Whiting events occur when chemical equilibria shift and calcium carbonate (limestone) or magnesium sulfate (gypsum) precipitate out as tiny crystals that remain in the water column. High winds prior to this event may have brought nutrients to the surface of the lake, allowing phytoplankton to grow quickly and shift the pH of the water, thus inducing the precipitation event. Alternatively, hydrogen sulfide may have been entrained from the deep brine layers and caused gypsum to precipitate. The two photos were taken by the NASA MODIS satellite.
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