Salt glacier

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Salt domes (hills) and salt glaciers (dark areas) in the Zagros Mountains of southern Iran.

A salt glacier is a flow of salt (typically halite) that is created when a rising diapir in a salt dome breaches the surface, much like toothpaste from a tube. Gravity causes the salt to flow like glaciers into adjacent valleys. The resulting tongue-shaped bodies can extend for kilometers, with repeating bow-shaped ridges separated by crevasse-like gullies and with steep sides and fronts. Clays may be brought up with the salt, turning it dark.

[edit] References

• Iran's Salt Glaciers. NASA Earth Observatory. Retrieved on 2006-04-27.

This article contains material that originally came from a NASA website. According to their site usage guidelines, "NASA material is not protected by copyright unless noted". For more information, please review NASA's use guidelines.

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