Beautiful San Francisco Multi colored Salt Ponds

 If you ever fly over San Francisco Bay, be sure to peer out of the window to catch a glimpse of one of the world's most incredibly coloured landscapes - the salt evaporation ponds operated by Cargill, Inc.

Salt evaporation ponds are shallow artificial ponds designed to produce salts from sea water or other brines. The seawater or brine is fed into large ponds and water is drawn out through natural evaporation which allows the salt to be subsequently harvested. During the five years it takes for the bay water to mature into salt brine, it is moved from one evaporation pond to another. In the final stages, when the brine is fully saturated, it is pumped to the crystalizer where a bed of salt 5 to 8 inches thick is ready for harvest.

Salt ponds range from blue green to deep magenta – colored naturally by the microorganisms that thrive as salinity levels increase. The color indicates the salinity of the ponds and the type of microorganisms that’s breeding on it. Three microorganisms in particular, Synechococcus, Halobacteria, and Dunaliella, influence the color of salt ponds.

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Arizona's White Pocket, Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, Arizona

 The White Pocket is an isolated, notoriously hard-to-reach patch of sandstone hidden within the desert expanse of Vermillion Cliffs National Monument near the Arizona/Utah border. The entire area is covered in a gray rocky layer, sometimes only a few centimeters thick, above the red sandstone where the formations heave and drip that makes the entire landscape look like as if it was covered with icing sugar. In some spots the stone layers are completely twisted, just like an enormous marble cake.

The extraordinary geology at White Pocket is not easily explained. Some geologist proclaim that White Pocket is a result of “soft sediment deformation”, meaning the contortions and twisting and turning at White Pocket occurred back in Jurassic time while the sand was saturated and before the sand was completely turned into rock.

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Mossbrae Falls (Water Falls) , Dunsmuir, California, USA

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Largest Gorge — Grand Canyon, United States

Grand Canyon, United States Nearly 220 miles long and more than a mile deep, the Colorado River is responsible for carving out the world’s largest gorge.

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