Publication in Russian on the Zen blog
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Idaho. A clean, well-groomed, agricultural state, traditionally republican. Large areas are occupied by fields, and a caring human hand is visible everywhere. Everyone is very calm and polite. In rural areas, everything is simple, but everywhere you can see prosperity and care.
We went to the countryside around Idaho's second largest city, Idaho Falls... The nature resembles the nature of the central part of Russia, but the colors are different... There are birch trees, fields and forests... (I just heard someone say that it's boring without birch trees)
Briefly about Idaho, it was just interesting...
In the north, this state already borders Canada, with the province of British Columbia.
Industries important to the state's economy include manufacturing, agriculture, mining, forestry, and tourism.
Agriculture is largely represented by potato cultivation (one third of all potatoes in the United States), and they also grow three types of wheat. The state ranks first in the production of trout, peas and lentils.
Idaho has developed food, woodworking, machine-building and chemical industries, paper production, and electronics.
Idaho is also called the Gem state, and there are large deposits of precious metals, including gold and silver. Enriched molybdenum ores, phosphate rocks, zinc, copper, cadmium, construction sand and gravel, lead, crushed stone and limestone are mined here, and Portland cement is produced. In 2008, Idaho ranked second in the country in the production of zeolites, third in the production of phosphates, silver and molybdenum, pumice and pumicite, fifth in perlite and eighth in precious and semiprecious minerals.
The scientific and technical sector is also developed.
The Idaho National Laboratory, which conducts research in the field of nuclear energy, provides a significant contribution to the economy of the eastern part of the state. The state has become a semiconductor manufacturing center.
During the trip, we had time for walks and strolled around Idaho Falls. I will share with you the beauty of this place. By the way, it was +25 here, and next week it will be +12, and at night the temperatures will be below zero. That's why we were in a hurry to leave before the cold snap, we didn't have any warm clothes...
We're driving through a piece of Arizona... It's a very beautiful place...
This is the 3rd state we are traveling through... In general, the journey from Los Angeles (California) to Idaho took us 15 hours with Restroom stops, snacks and sleep 2 times for 20 minutes... We left at 5 a.m. and arrived in the dark at 9:05 p.m. to our hotel, which we booked through Booking...
VIDEO "Passing through the state of Arizona"
When we were returning from Idaho, our road lay through Utah, and I couldn't help but stop by and look at the famous Great Salt Lake.
It is the largest salt lake in the western hemisphere and the eighth largest cooling lake in the world. The lake has a significant impact on the climate. For example, residents of Salt Lake City, located on its southern shore, have the opportunity to live in a wetter climate due to the influence of the lake. There is 10% more precipitation here than in the whole region, and there are also heavy snowfalls, one of which we witnessed.
Salt Lake has three main tributaries, the Jordan, Weber and Bear Rivers, which together bring about 1.1 million tons of minerals per year to the lake. Since the lake has no outlet other than evaporation, these minerals accumulate and give the lake a high salinity, much higher than that of seawater and density. Because of this density, swimming in a lake is like swimming in zero gravity.
The Great Salt Lake annually brings about $1.3 billion to the Utah economy, including $1.1 billion from industry (mainly from mining), $136 million from tourism, and $57 million from artemia harvesting. The lake provides 35% to 45% of the world's supply of artemisia, and cysts sell for up to $35 per pound ($77 per kg). Artemia began to be harvested in the 1950s and sold as fish food.
US Magnesium operates a plant on the southwestern shore of the lake, which produces 14% of the world's magnesium.
Solar evaporation ponds at the edges of the lake produce salts and brine (water with a high salt content). There are oil deposits in the northern part of the lake, but it is of poor quality, and its extraction and purification are economically impractical.
The lake has another interesting feature. The water in its northern part has a red-crimson color, while the southern part is an interesting green color. Of course, the chemical composition and aquatic fauna of these two parts of the lake are also not similar to each other. I didn't see the crimson part of it, we were in its southern part.
How did it happen that the lake has 2 colors? The reason for this was the dam and the railroad tracks leading to the Pacific coast of the United States. They run right through the center of the lake and were built in the 50s of the last century. An embankment of stones and soil about 19 kilometers long divided the reservoir into two parts - northern and southern, the water exchange between them was disrupted. The northern part, almost devoid of tributaries, began to become shallow, and the salinity level here began to rise. In this regard, not many aquatic organisms could survive here, such as Dunaliella salina algae or Haloarchea microorganisms, which secrete substances that give the water a red-pink hue. In the southern part of the lake, where all the major tributaries flow, the water is fresher, there are fish, crustaceans, artemisia (you can see them in my video), nematodes and, in general, the composition of the aquatic fauna is more diverse. But the most important thing is that blue-green algae, which are responsible for the greenish color of the water, can survive here.
When you drive up to the lake, you notice from afar that it is unusual. The water looks thick, and the lake itself seems dead or somehow slow. It's hard to describe in words, you just notice that the waves are moving unusually slowly. And sometimes it seems that the waves just froze, as in the picture. But when you get closer, it's clear that the waves are still running.
Of course, I couldn't miss such a location and miss the opportunity to see this lake.
There is another lake nearby, it has the same name as the state, it is also called Utah. Utah is a freshwater lake, but it also has a slightly unusual jade-colored water, as you can see in my video. The only river flowing out of the lake is the Jordan River, which flows into the Great Salt Lake. These two lakes are remnants of the larger Lake Bonneville, which existed here during the Pleistocene (Ice Age) about 30,000 years ago.
I share with you the cold beauty of this place!
VIDEO "Journey through Utah, Salt Lake"
God has given man freedom of choice. And no other person has the right to take it away from you. I remain free and wish you all the same, to be free!
Life in America by Anna Kim
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