The Salt Pyramids of Bonaire
Sent by my friend Strasy from Kralendijk in Bonaire.
One of the most notable features that greet arriving visitors, both by sea and by air, are a distinctive line of white salt pyramids at the southeastern end of the island. Each pyramid, roughly 50-feet high, contains approximately 10,000 metric tons of 99.6% pure salt. Depending on the time of the year, there can be upwards of 200,000 metric tons of salt neatly stacked in long rows awaiting shipment.
The solar salt facility, one of the largest in the Caribbean, is today owned by Cargill, the Minneapolis, Minnesota based private company. The facility covers approximately 13 percent of the island, about 16 square miles of land, on the flat, southeast corner. The entire location is only a few feet above sea level.
The operation utilizes a series of 250-acre condenser ponds. Saltwater drawn directly from the Caribbean, at around 3.5 percent salinity, or from the adjoining brine lake, the Pekelmeer (Dutch for brine lake), at five percent salinity, moves through a succession of condenser ponds where the salinity of the brine is successively increased as the unrelenting sun and wind steadily evaporate the water (read more).
