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Month: July 2017

The Lovely Rosy Waters of the Great Salt Lake

The Lovely Rosy Waters of the Great Salt Lake

THE GREAT SALT LAKE The Great Salt Lake is so salty that no fish can live in it. Regardless, it supports its own unique fishery based on Artemia salina, the brine shrimp. Only organisms adapted to extreme salinity can survive. The microscopic ones give the northern half of the lake its rosy color. The conditions that support these rosy-color organisms are: an accident of geography ( interior drainage). a railroad causeway An accident of geography The Great Salt Lake is…

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Methylmercury Poisoning

Methylmercury Poisoning

When people worry about mercury in fish, it’s organic methylated mercury they’re worrying about. METHYLMERCURY SOURCES While there are a multitude of mercury chemicals, the ones that concern human life are methylated compounds of mercury. One major source of methylmercury is industry. The chlorine-chemical plants and pulp-paper mills have historically discharged fluids contaminated with methylmercury into rivers, lakes and oceans as part of their waste stream. This practice is now illegal in many places, like the United States and Sweden,…

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Death by Hot Spring

Death by Hot Spring

The world is full of hot spring enthusiasts who trek from hot spring to hot spring in order to soak their cares away and commune with other of their ilk. In fact, there is a whole subculture out there for “hot potting,” the practice of finding and visiting natural hot springs untouched by any development. What many hot potters do not realize is that hot springs can kill you or cause you lasting harm. Hot Spring Facts The US National…

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