2020 has been a crazy year, to say the least. My last post was from Craig
L. in February of this year - before the coronavirus pandemic exploded in
America. The noticeable gap in blog posts represents roughly five months of not blogging of which are composed of the following:
Six weeks of my
coming down with mild but very recognizable symptoms of contracting Covid-19; the
heartbreak over the ongoing shootings of black and brown Americans; the anxiety
over social unrest, looting, disappoint with police, disgust with national leadership; furlough from part-time work; heading back to my part-time job with full-time hours; another two weeks of new coronavirus symptoms; underpinned by a full-time job to put my environmental sciences & policy degree to use;
The last five months also represent the dearth of postcards headed my way due to the steep drop off in
travel, shelter in place, blah blah blah. 2020 has been a shit year for many things, and that includes postcards.
That's not to say that I haven't received any postcards. It only took
Craig K. 18 weeks to send his first postcard from Djibouti, and for that I'm
grateful - didn't think I'd get any, tbh. But he delivered.
And Craig K. was right, I did just go down a rabbit hole of saltiest lakes because I'm practically a hydrologist (and geologist). According to his posty, Lake Assal (or Lac 'Assal) is the "third saltiest body of water on Earth." But Wikipedia also has a list of the saltiest bodies of water by salinity, but it's in fifth place - ahead of the more popular saline destinations like the Dead Sea (#7) and the Great Salt Lake (#9). Whatever the rank (because it's Wikipedia and a list after all), it's pretty cool, and the geological formations of these hypersaline lakes fascinating. The chemistry of saline water is fun too. The Don Juan Pond in Antarctica (#6) is so salty that it remains in a liquid state even when temperatures dip to −50 °C (−58 °F).
Maybe a trip to Lake Assal is in order - when travel returns to normal, and we can fly again. If you know when that is, send it to me on a postcard. In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy this lovely jumpstart blogging again. I hope y'all are on the up and up too. Wear your masks, and wash your hands! Oh, And thanks, Craig K. I got your postcard!
Get there!
And Craig K. was right, I did just go down a rabbit hole of saltiest lakes because I'm practically a hydrologist (and geologist). According to his posty, Lake Assal (or Lac 'Assal) is the "third saltiest body of water on Earth." But Wikipedia also has a list of the saltiest bodies of water by salinity, but it's in fifth place - ahead of the more popular saline destinations like the Dead Sea (#7) and the Great Salt Lake (#9). Whatever the rank (because it's Wikipedia and a list after all), it's pretty cool, and the geological formations of these hypersaline lakes fascinating. The chemistry of saline water is fun too. The Don Juan Pond in Antarctica (#6) is so salty that it remains in a liquid state even when temperatures dip to −50 °C (−58 °F).
Maybe a trip to Lake Assal is in order - when travel returns to normal, and we can fly again. If you know when that is, send it to me on a postcard. In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy this lovely jumpstart blogging again. I hope y'all are on the up and up too. Wear your masks, and wash your hands! Oh, And thanks, Craig K. I got your postcard!
Get there!
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