Question for PIT crews

[NEDude]

Flying into PIT this weekend, I noticed a lake/resevoir located about 15 NM northwest of Pittsburgh that is VERY bright blue. It looks almost sickand un-natural, that's how bright it is. It sits not far from some industrial plants, but is surrounded by farms. In any case the water looks totally unlike any other body of water around it. I am curious if anyone knows what the story is with it. Thanks.

 

[njcapt]

Damm, I've been wondering about that lake for ten years. Even thought about posting a question to the forum, but you beat me to the punch. I've asked scores of crew members from the PIT area about 'Cobalt Lake' and nobody seems to know anything about it.

I assume the color comes from runoff from a strip mine. Can somebody set us straight?

 

[EagleRJ]

I haven't seen that particular lake, but I've seen other lakes around the country that have that bright turquoise color. I'm pretty sure it's a mineral runoff from a mine or rock quarry. What mineral is that color? Phosphorus? I can't remember from chemistry class...

 

[HAL]

If it's the ones I'm thinking about, they're the cooling ponds from the Shippingport nuclear plant. The plant is up on the Ohio river, just where it makes a big curve from flowing northwest to southwest, about 15 miles NW of PIT. The plant is down in the valley, just on the south side of the river, and and ponds are on the plateau above the river to the south.

I think the color comes from the algea growth caused by the warm tempuratures of the water.

HAL

 

[jumppilot]

Dang, after an afternoon of swimming/boating in that, you'd come out looking like swamp thing!

 

[dmspilot00]

Hm, I commute to a college in that area. I can always see the steam from the nuclear plant but can't actually see the plant itself from the road I take. One day earlier this semester I had the pleasure of witnessing them move two giant "radioactive" containers (and it was during a snowstorm) on a main roadway, evidently fresh out of the power plant.

Anyway, my friend tells me that he thinks it is not from the nuclear plant.

We have many mines in Pennsylvania, so EagleRJ's hypothesis might be right.

While we're on the subject, when I flew out of Orlando about four months ago on my way home, I noticed a small artificial square of *lime* green liquid at an industrial site, somewhat north of the airport. Interesting things you see...

 

[efiscompmon]

I believe that it is cuperic oxide in the water. There used to be strip mines for copper in that part of Pennsylvania.

In the last ten years I am amazed by the number of people I have met who have seen it, particularly flying between PIT and DTW/CLE!

 

[LearLove]

Its Limestone boyz, Limestone

Although SYR crews don't get to PIT much (mostly SCE and BGM crews) I do know the "lake" your talkin about. Its actually an old limestone quarry (probibly got copper there too). Limestone is very acidic making the water that color. The great lakes especially lake ERIE are limestone base but because of the amount of water in them (size) you don't see it as much.

You can however see lighter colored water on ERIE along the eastern shore in shallow water where the deposits tend to run. Chit Taco lake by Jamestown NY also has the same look in the SE end.

The western most finger lakes in central NY, Lake Keuka (Y shaped with Penn Yan at the north and Mr Glenn Crurtis's Hammondsport at the south end) and Lake Canadaigua just to the east are the same color at their shallow south ends.

There are a few quarrys around ABE like this too. One is just off the departure end of rwy6 to the left at maybe 2-3 miles. Same color blue as the one in PIT.

If you ask how I got this ramdom info I went to HS in PA so in science we always had classes on mining in PA and that sort of stuff. Also I had a student that was a geo prof. from penn state, I tought him how to fly in the lehigh valley/delaware water gap area of eastern PA and the Poconos. I'm not sure who learned more, him and how to fly or me and reading the land geo and devlopment from the air.

Some pretty cool stuff, I'd recommend picking up a basic geo book from the library and maybe some VFR sectionals. Read the book take notes and the next time you fly in the NE especially look down and realize alot of neat stuff. between 10 and 15 thousand on a clear day is the best for seeing detail and the whole pic. I may sound dorky but it better than reading the paper but not as good as the latest playboy.

 

[bigD]

Cool thread! I've seen lakes like what you're talking about, and was curious what it was.

So now I have another mystery for you guys - although this one is in Texas, specifically about 10nm west of Fort Stockton. Take a look at this picture:

Race Track?

I took this from 8000' travelling west in a 182 on a trip from Austin to L.A.. This was taken just a couple of minutes after passing over the town of Fort Stockton in west Texas. Now, I want to say it's just a race track, or test track of some sort. It's not shown at all on the sectional. But I don't see any pit areas, or paddock areas. It's also HUGE - much bigger than your typical track. And the circular ring in the center? Looking at that reminds me of a particle accelerator! Here's a picture of the Fort Stockton airport, from the same altitude, and same angle. The main runway there is 7,500' long. It kind of gives you an idea of the size of this track:

Fort Stockton Airport

So is this just a race track, or am I looking at something else?

 

[LearLove]

bigD

"And the circular ring in the center? Looking at that reminds me of a particle accelerator!"

the circular ring looks like a particle accelerator to me. On Long Island NY just to the east north east of Islip (ISP) and west of Calverton (CCC vor and the old Grumman aircraft plant, 2 very long runways w/ hangars and assembly buildings in the middle) there is the first attempt at a particle accelerator. It was a joint venture with the govt., Princeton University and Lehigh University.

Back in college I had to take one Chem. Eng. class. The professor told us about the long island site and that they made the "track" too small and could get the atom/particle or whatever fast enough to break whatever they wanted it to slam into and make energy or something like that. If I remember correctly he said that they were building a bigger one in Texas, coincidence? I think not. Small world isn't it.

I will try to get a pic of it next time I fly that way but we only get out there on the Philly to Worchester Mass flyin which we don't do, maybe I can get a shot on a philly New Haven fligh which goes over CCC but at a lower alt. Then we can compare the pics.

 

[dmspilot00]

That thing is huge! Has to be at least four miles long.

My guess is an automobile test track.

Here is a picture of a test track in Germany: http://forums.audiworld.com/a4gen2/msgs/284686.phtml

They look similar. The lake in that Germany picture looks an interesting color

 

[Lazyrider]

bigD,

Bridgestone / Firestone owns the proving grounds you were looking at around Ft. Stockton. They also have proving grounds in Brazil and Mexico.

 

[EagleRJ]

There are a lot of tracks for hot-weather testing in the desert SW. There's another one just north of Laredo. You can see cars driving around them most days. That must be the most boring job in the world!

I don't think that round thing is a particle accelerator. I've seen the one at Brookhaven National Lab on LI, and it's got lots of support buildings and stuff around it. That one in the picture just looks like another testing track.

Has anyone ever seen the VLA radio telescopes in New Mexico? There are several dozen of them in the desert southwest of Albuquerque, in a triangular shape 20 miles across, so you can easily see them from the flight levels. They've been in a lot of movies.
http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/vla/html/vlahome/genpublic.html