23rd Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest Drone/Aerial
Brine Traces

Yellow brine, coloured by concentrated salts and dense microbial growth, fills an evaporation pond on the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Pale plumes spread out from the embankment, drifting into the pond, while a truck moves along the dike, almost lost against the scale of the basin. Once part of a broad wetland fringe, this shoreline is now held in compartments for mineral extraction as the lake recedes. Photographed from a small aircraft, the image captures a landscape where chemistry and infrastructure now shape the contours of a vanishing shoreline.

Photo Detail
Date Taken: 08.2025
Date Uploaded: 11.2025
Photo Location: Utah, United States of America
Copyright: © Alex Visbal