Antarctica's Don Juan Pond, the world's saltiest body of water, needs its salt to keep from freezing into oblivion. Scientists had assumed that the saltwater brine that sustains the pond must come from groundwater. But using time-lapse photography, Brown University researchers show the pond actually gets its water from snowmelt, and its salt from nearby surface sediment. The video shows pond levels increasing in daily pulses correlated with peaks in surface temperature (charted on the right), a sure signal that the water comes from melting snow. The saltwater is seen entering the pond from the west. The hydrology of a pond in one of the coldest and driest places on Earth could shed light on the potential for flowing water on Mars.
(Photo Credit: Head Lab/Brown University/Nature Scientific Reports)
Antarctica's Don Juan Pond, the world's saltiest body of water, needs its salt to keep from freezing into oblivion. Researchers from Brown University show that water sucked out of the atmosphere by parched, salty soil is the source of the saltwater brine that keeps the pond from freezing. Combine that with some fresh water flowing in from melting snow, and you've got a pond capable of persisting in one of the coldest and driest places on Earth. The video shows water absorbed from the air by salt on the ground. The water track can be seen forming as soon as the humidity level (shown on the right) spikes.
(Photo Credit: Head Lab/Brown University/Scientific Reports)
Source: Brown University