Thursday, May 18, 2023

Salt extraction train crossing a pink lake in Siberia





He writes:

Let me tell you about the most spectacular one called Burlinskoye lake. I really wanted to visit this place for long time but something always stopped me from this - either different other trips or the weather wasn't suitable for it. In order to be able to see that famous pink colour of these lakes for sure, you need to visit them during hot and dry weather in the end of summer. The water in these lakes turns pink due to small crustaceans and microalgae which breed only in very salt water. The concentration of salt in this lake is 200 grams per 1 litre.

Owing to the large salt deposit there has been established a salt extraction. Kitchen salt has been extracted from the lake since 1768 and the nowadays volume of extraction makes up 65000 tons of salt a year. But just take a look at how it is done: they literally scrub the lake bottom and bring the mixture of salt and silt into the train which gets into the water along the railway.