The Giant Salt City!!

OK, so this is old news…but it is still new for me…I just saw this info on FB…and WOW!!

"There’s enough salt under Detroit to last us for 70 million years!

There’s a salt mine 1,200 feet below the surface of Detroit, Michigan. The salt mines spread over 1,400 acres and have over 50 miles of roads that cover them. The salt bed actually spreads across Ontario, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and West Virginia.
It is estimated that the salt mines are so large that they could last 70 million years supplying us. Glaciologists believe the salt was created when a huge sea covering the region evaporated more than 400 million years ago, forming salt deposits which were gradually buried by glacial activity. Salt flats are dried-up desert lakes.

They form in closed hollows where rainfall can’t drain away. In a wet climate, a lake would form but, in a desert, the water is heated and evaporates into vapor faster than it is replenished by rain. The salt and minerals dissolved in the water are left behind as a solid layer.

Some salt flats are massive. Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, USA, were formed by the evaporation of an ancient lake as large as present-day Lake Michigan. They are flat enough to be used as a raceway for setting land-speed records."

Now I found this bit of info really cool (the part in bold) :

“Fine, one might say. Salt. Big deal. It’s not oil and not gold. True, but there was a time when salt was a precious commodity and as valuable as gold. In early China, for example, salt coins were a popular means of payment and salt cakes served the same purpose in the Mediterranean. **The Romans often paid their soldiers in salt – that’s why we’re still using the term salary today from Latin ‘sal’ – salt.”
**
Source : The Giant Salt City 1200ft Beneath Detroit


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Re: The Giant Salt City!!

pretty awesome!

Re: The Giant Salt City!!

neat! I had no idea.....

I guess that's where the term "worth your salt...." comes from too.

Re: The Giant Salt City!!

Awesome!

Tell me why the first thing that crossed across my mind was licking the wall to determine if it really is salt.......:/

Re: The Giant Salt City!!

yeaa…that would make sense!

:cb:

Re: The Giant Salt City!!

Very informative, Ms. Khan.

To add to the salt folklore, in the Mahabharata, when Kunti approaches her son Karna to fight alongside his younger brothers, the Pandavas, the great Karna replies " I have eaten Duryodhana's salt. And I will fight for him."

Karna was no namak haram.

Re: The Giant Salt City!!

great, now there is no excuse not to pickle detroit for good.