Western Railroad Discussion > A whole new meaning to foaming and more

1. Taken near the west end of the causeway across the Great Salt Lake near Lake Side. When the wind is blowing from the north or north west, it whips up this foam. I am not sure what the foam is but the mineral content in the north west arm of the lake is quite a bit higher than the rest of the lake. The wind was stiff enough that I simply rolled down the window and took a quick shot. Only got a small amount of the foam in the cab of my truck. Pictures take last Sunday or pi day (3/14).

2. Another shot showing some of the rock filled cribs (groins?) that were put in when the original trestle was built. The bridge is where the causeway was breached back in 1984 to equalize the level of the north west arm of the lake with the rest of lake to lower the main level of the lake to lessen the flooding back in the early 80's.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/19/10 20:35 by sdrake.

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Maybe Utah license plates should be emblazoned with 'Greatest Foam on Earth'
...Lorenzo

3. Looking at the work on the hill with the microwave tower. I am not sure why they are cutting down part of this hill but they are putting considerable work into whatever it is that they are doing. With a high clearance vehicle, you can drive to the top of the hill. You can drive out to Lake Side with a regular car but I would not drive up the hill with a car or drive beyond Lake Side.

4. A rock train waiting for the workweek to start. More of the quarry area extends off to the right. I am not sure where the trainload of rock is going. They were having problems a few years back with the causeway but I believe that has been stabilized.

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If memory serves, it was '84 that I drove from SFO to Boston. I did the I-80 eastbound across Utah at night. The water was very high, and it must have been right in that area where you photographed that the water breached the highway. I crept cautiously through it, but didn't really have any problems. I didn't see much traffic at all in that area, that night. There were no warning devices or patrols around. I always wondered about that.

Thanks for posting.

norm1153 Wrote:
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> If memory serves, it was '84 that I drove from SFO
> to Boston. I did the I-80 eastbound across Utah at
> night. The water was very high, and it must have
> been right in that area where you photographed
> that the water breached the highway. I crept
> cautiously through it, but didn't really have any
> problems. I didn't see much traffic at all in
> that area, that night. There were no warning
> devices or patrols around. I always wondered
> about that.
>
> Thanks for posting.

Lake Side is about 40 or 45 miles north of I-80. During the worst of the flooding, a short stretch of I-80 just west of Tooele was actually lower than lake level. The road was sandbagged or berms were built and the water was continuously pumped out while they raised the surface of the road. The breaching of the ex-SP causeway lowered the main level of the lake about a foot as the northwest arm of the lake was lower than the rest of the lake. They also built a large pumping station at Hogup about 15 miles west of Lake Side that pumped water into large shallow storage ponds for evaporation in the west desert. Warning devices and patrols? what is this -- the east? When I first moved out here, I was amazed by the lack of guard rails and found that the warnings about falling rock were to be taken seriously.

Sam

Probably running out of rock for the causeway. Some interesting drillholes for dynamite near the ledges below the microwave tower facing west.

South winds can carry salt dust into Southern ID. Had that happen in a rainstorm along I84 and couldn't figure out why I couldn't wash this film off the windshield with the wiper blades.

http://geology.utah.gov/surveynotes/gladasked/gladfoam.htm

Ray_Murphy Wrote:
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> http://geology.utah.gov/surveynotes/gladasked/glad
> foam.htm

Thanks for the information. I had wondered why the foam formed. It seem unlikely to be from man-made pollution especially in the north west arm as there is essentially no one out here.

When the wind is just right, it can form foam rollers or wheels that roll along the beach. The wind was really howling last Sudnay and blowing the foam up in the air.

Sam Drake

Thanks for the explanations.

They were dumping out on the far side when I got there. Must still need work.