The photo posted in Mystery Photo #1 was a Delta tire covered in sea salt! A Delta is a large truck that can carry up to 20 passengers. It can travel across snow and sea ice without any trouble! The tires are almost as tall as me (5' 5"). At first I thought the tire was just covered with snow, but sure enough it was a mixture of sea salt and snow (yes, I licked the stuff to make sure it was salt). I am really fascinated by the presence of the sea salt! It makes sense it is there since we were driving the delta over sea ice, which is frozen sea water. The coolest part is that there is a linkage of that sea salt to ice cores!
Scientist measure sea salt concentrations in ice cores to learn about sea ice extent and changing ocean conditions. It was really cool to see a process in action that has been occurring for thousands of years and is an important piece of the ice core puzzle!
Check out the pictures below to see the full mystery photo and some sea salt on my pants from sitting on the ice to take some pictures.
The full picture of the tire covered with snow and sea salt (mystery photo #1).
A photo of the Delta out on the sea ice. Those are some big tires!
Yum! Sea salt crystals on my pant leg. The salt was all over my clothes after I sat in the snow to take some photos.