ISS010-E-6681

Browse image
Resolutions offered for this image:
1000 x 1332 pixels 540 x 719 pixels 540 x 540 pixels 3032 x 2064 pixels 639 x 435 pixels
Cloud masks available for this image:

Spacecraft nadir point: 27.3° S, 114.6° E

Photo center point: 26.0° S, 113.0° E

Photo center point by machine learning:

Nadir to Photo Center: Northwest

Spacecraft Altitude: 191 nautical miles (354km)
Click for a map
Width Height Annotated Cropped Purpose Links
1000 pixels 1332 pixels No Yes Earth From Space collection Download Image
540 pixels 719 pixels Yes Yes Earth From Space collection Download Image
540 pixels 540 pixels Yes Yes NASA's Earth Observatory web site Download Image
3032 pixels 2064 pixels No No Download Image
639 pixels 435 pixels No No Download Image
Other options available:
Download Packaged File
Download a Google Earth KML for this Image
View photo footprint information
Download a GeoTIFF for this photo
Image Caption: Shark Bay, Australia

This image shows large solar salt works developed in Useless Loop and Useless Inlet, Shark Bay, Western Australia (for a regional image of Shark Bay, see Phytoplankton in Shark Bay ). The salt (sodium chloride) is produced when ponds are repeatedly flooded with seawater, which is progressively concentrated by evaporation. This particular salt farm opened in 1967 and expanded operations in the 1990s. Today, this salt farm comprises over 50 ponds'the newest pond is the outermost pond in Useless Inlet, which provides the first evaporation cycle to increase the salinity of the water prior to entering the next pond. Complex chemical and biological adjustments occur in the system each time the configuration of ponds is changed.

Solar salt production has increased along the world's arid coastal regions. Global demand for salt is on the rise, primarily because salt is a basic feedstock to the chemical industry (the largest salt consumer). Commercial solar salt ponds are frequently controversial components of coastal ecosystems. The hypersaline conditions are toxic to preexisting ecosystems in and around the converted land, and valuable coastal wetlands may be impacted by flooding, changing water levels and salinities. However, salt ponds have also been successfully converted to wetlands, and the shallow ponds can support shellfish and bird populations.