Physicists have finally uncovered the mechanism behind the spectacular patchwork of hexagons on salt flats. The answer lies hidden beneath the crust and works like a donut-shaped radiator.
The mesmerizing honeycomb patterns found in salt deserts such as Badwater Basin in California's Death Valley and Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia have perplexed tourists and inspired sci-fi movie-makers for decades. Scientists, too, have struggled to elucidate the mechanism behind the iconic shapes."The fantastic landscape demands an explanation," Lucas Goehring , an associate professor of physics at Nottingham Trent University in England, said in a statement .
Previously, scientists suggested that the cracks and ridges form as the salt crust expands and dries out, bending and fragmenting under the strain. Salt deserts aren't as bone-dry as they seem. Beneath the salt crust sits a layer of extremely salty water, which can be reached by digging with your hands. The water evaporates in the hot summer months, leaving only a blanket of salt, some of which dissolves into the next layer of water. This layer is then more dense than the one below it, and the salty water sinks in a ring that surrounds fresher, less dense water rising to replace it.
Normally, a convection roll would adopt a circular donut shape. Because there are so many of them packed closely together on a salt flat, however, the rolls are squeezed against each other to form hexagons, the researchers said.
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