Salt water is an interesting phenomenon. Don Juan Pond is a lake located in the Dry valleys of north-eastern Antarctica. The pond is famous for its saltiest water in the world and is also known as Don Juan Lake. Therefore, it is actually a large puddle, with an average depth of less than 6 inches (15 cm).
Its water is so salty that it never freezes, despite the ambient temperature of – 122 °F (-50 ° C). Water is salty by 40 percent. Therefore, it is eighteen times saltier than sea water and more than two times saltier than in the Dead Sea (which is only eight times saltier than the ocean water).
Scientists accidentally discovered Don Juan Pond in 1961. The water body got its name after two US Navy helicopter pilots, Lieutenants Donald Rowe and John Hickey (hence “Don Juan” in Spanish). They were in the first group to study it. This is perhaps the most interesting puddle on earth.
Considering that the Antarctic Dry Valleys are the driest, coldest places on our planet, it’s amazing that there is water at all, no matter how salty it is.
There is no precipitation at all, because it’s too cold and windy. Water comes only from the ground, gradually becoming salty, when the top layer of water evaporates.
Despite these conditions, the first researchers amazingly found life in the lake. There are blue-green algae that nurture a thriving community of bacteria, yeasts and fungi. For the unclear reasons after the first expedition the water level in the pond decreased by more than half. Besides, there was no life left in it.
But the pond water still contains nitrous oxide (more commonly known as laughing gas), the production of which requires organic life.
If liquid water existed on Mars, it would probably be in the form of a cold, salt basin, just like Don Juan.
Unlike Don Juan Pond, there are many forms of life in the Dead Sea. There is no fish in the sea, but there are a lot of algae. They feed on the so-called halobacteria.
They appeared in the Archaean (a geologic eon between Hadean and Proterozoic) and are the oldest forms of life on the planet.
Archean is so ancient that, on the evolutionary time scale, human beings are closer to bacteria than bacteria to halobacteria. Like the former residents of Don Juan pond, the halobacteria are “extremophiles”, surviving in conditions that are considered impossible for life.
Halobacterium is also known as the “Reviving Virus”, because it can repair its DNA (which is damaged by high salt concentration). Scientists keep trying to use it for cancer patients or even for astronauts who travel to Mars. As it can protect their DNA from the effects of external radiation from the interplanetary space.
English astronomer Edmund Halley was the first scientist who in 1715 justified the origin of salt water in the sea. He suggested that rivers had washed out salt and other minerals of the soil and delivered them to the sea.
On reaching the ocean, the salt remained and gradually concentrated. Halley mentioned that most of the lakes that did not have a water connection with the oceans had salt water. Halley’s theory is partly true. In addition to it, experts mentioned that sodium compounds had been washed out from the bottom of the oceans at the early stages of their formation.
Experts explained the presence of another element of salt, chlorine, by its release from the depths of the Earth during eruptions of volcanoes. It happened in the form of hydrochloric acid. The sodium and chlorine ions gradually became the main components of the salt composition of the sea water.
But we do not know if we can explain this by the presence of such a huge amount of salt in the oceans. If you dried all the oceans, you could build a wall of 143 miles (230 km) in height. It would also get a thickness of almost 1,2 miles (2 km) from the remaining salt.
Such a wall could circumnavigate the entire globe along the equator. Or another comparison. The salt of all the dried oceans is 15 times larger in volume than the entire European continent! The usual salt, which we use every day, is obtained from sea water, salt sources or the development of deposits of rock salt.
Sea water contains 3-3.5% salt. Inner seas, such as the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, contain more salt than open seas.
The Dead Sea, occupying only 234 sq mi (605 km2), contains approximately 10 523 000 000 tons of salt. There is so much salt in it that it is almost impossible to drown in such water, because the density of water has increased due to salts.
On average, a liter (0,3 gallon) of sea water contains about 1 ounce (30 grams) of salt. Deposits of rock salt in various parts of the earth formed many millions of years ago as a result of the evaporation of sea water. It is necessary that nine-tenths of the volume of seawater evaporate to form rock salt. Scientists believe that the place of modern deposits of this salt were the internal seas. They evaporated faster than the new sea water came in seas, it’s how deposits of rock salt appeared.
Miners extract the main amount of food salt from rock salt, using special mines for salt deposits extraction. Pipes pump clean water to dissolve salt. This solution rises to the surface by the second pipe.
In Hong Kong, local services widely use sea water in drainage systems in order to save fresh water. This practice began in the 1960s and 1970s, when the extraction of fresh water supplies became a problem for residents of the former British colony.
Besides, everyone knows that the sharks are the most dangerous sea inhabitants, but few of us know that there is also suc a dangerous animal as the saltwater crocodile. Crocodiles in the sea? This is a not mistake, everybody knows that crocodiles live only in the rivers and lakes of the tropics. However, you can meet very dangerous saltwater crocodiles to humans in certain regions of Asia. Males can reach sizes up to 6.30 m (20.7 ft) and up to 7.0 m (23.0 ft) in length.
People can drink sea water in small amounts without harm for health for 5-7 days. Meanwhile, a glass of salty water can make wonders.
If you drink salty water for a week, the body will respond you with incredible gratitude. Your bones will got strength, blood sugar will normalize, metabolic processes will get acceleration, and immunity will improve.
Salt water treatment is the easiest way to rebuild and regulate the organism operation, strengthen all its systems and resume functions. Experts claim that drinking warm water with sea salt on an empty stomach n the morning can regenerate every cell of the body in 7 days. You need to dissolve 1 tsp. of salt in a glass of hot water. If it turns out that its taste is too salty for you, you can dilute it a little with water.
As you know, water is the source of life, it is absolutely natural for our organism. However, it should be noted that salt water treatment is contraindicated for people who suffer from any impairment in the work of the kidneys.
Everyone should understand that water with sea salt is a real mineral storehouse necessary for our body. In this case, the salt acts as a natural antibiotic for the intestine.
And the use of water and salt accelerates the process of digestion. Salt water helps prevent osteoporosis and brittle bones. A glass of such liquids maintains the normal level of fluid in the body.
Regular drinking of salt water normalizes emotional state and improves sleep. You will completely forget about insomnia and troubles with the nervous system. At the same time the salt maintains the necessary level of serotonin and melatonin, the most important antidepressants.
Meanwhile, salt excellently liquefies mucus in the lungs and sinuses of the nose during cold and flu, helps to get phlegm from the body. And what’s more pleasant: a glass of salty water returns to the skin an even tone and fresh complexion.
