Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-03-23
POTASH IN PLENTY
California Deposit May Last
Twenty or Thirty Years.
six TO TEN MILLION TONS
Field Struck by Two Government
Searching Parties.
LOCATED IN MOJAvE DESERT
Department of Agriculture Gives
Further Light Upon Important
Discovery in West.
IN MOJAvE DESERT

discovery in West.
Following the announcement by the geo.
logical survey that a survey party in con-
nection with a party from the Depart
ment of Agriculture had located a potash
deposit in the Mojave desert, the Agri-
cultural Department tells more about the
deposit and the circumstances under
which it exists.
The department states that pocket has
been found down in the Mojave desert in
southern California containing from six
to ten million tons so far as can be as
certained now. The prospect is that il
will last twenty or thirty years and tide
the country over till a more thorough
search can be made.
The deposit was struck simultaneously
by the two searching parties in the BOraX
lake region of the Mojave This section.
like most of this southwestern desert
country, is an old lake bed. The borings
for potash were made in a section Of
plya or hard desert sand. The strata in
regions of this sort usually carry va
rious sorts of salts that formerly were
held in solution by the water that formed
the sea or lake
Underlaid by Brine.
The region that has been investigated is
underlaid by a big body of natural brine
that comes to the surface in the form of
wells when behring's are made. The brine
is almost strong enough to float nail.
there being about forty-fOur grams OF
solids in 100 cubic centimeters Of the solu-
ton. Much of this is common salt with
sulphate and carbonate of soda. but there
is nearly per cent of potassium oxide in
solution The brine body Is about sixty
feet thick and covers an area or eleven
square miles, according to present inves-
LEGATIONS. The climate is favorable to
natural evaporation for the recovery Of
the salts. Experiments for the separation
of the potash from the other salts now
are being carried on in the bureau OF
Soils
the many playas or internationally wet and
dry lakes common throughout the arid re-
gions OF the west. 1t lies between the
Argus and Slate ranges, In the Monave
desert Borax lake was the original scene
Of famous borax mines. The lake or nat
is about ten miles long and five miles wice
and has received the drainage from the
surrounding mills for many thousands OF
years. vast quantities of dissolved miner
ais being thus concentrated in It, The
water has been evaporated under the IN
tense heat of the long, hot seasons, but
the salts have remained, so that 1or most
of the wear, in fact often throughout the
year. the bed is glistening plain of white
salts, in attempting to cross which under
q brazen sun men have lost their lives
Mirage Plays Tricks.
The mirage plays its strange tricks
here, and at the driest places the traveller
can generally see what appears to be
broad expanse of water covering the bed
a little way ahead-always a little dis
lance off. until he approaches the shore
of Borax lake. Then when he looks be-
hind him he sees the water apparently
covering the ground over which he has
lust come The lake occupies a valley
made by faults-breaks and slips in the
earth's crust-where a great area has been
dropped down. Behring'S have been made
through the mud and water underlying
the lake to a depth of some hundreds or
feet, the deepest bortngs bringing up not
mud.
Many useful and curious minerals are
found in the muds and other deposits OF
Borax lake, including. of course, Dorax.
Among them are gypsum. glauberite'
carbonate and sulphate of soda, salt,
thenardite and hanskite. The last carries
as much as 2.33 per cent OF potassium,
equivalent to 4.44 per cent of potassium
chloride.
Water Under Crust.
The salts are not evenly distributed over
the surface of the lake. Borax was found
plentifully over about three square miles,
common salt is everywhere. and sodium
carbonate and sodium sulphate are widely
distributed. One boring is said to have
passed through twenty-eight feet of solid
trona (hydrous carbonate Of soda) of
great purity. At other places there is
twenty-five feet of solid mixed sulphate
and carbonate of soda, with smaller
quantities Of other salts. Although the
lake bed is dry most OF the time. few
inches under the outer crust there is al
ways water-a bitter heavily impreg-
ma ted with salts.
Several years ago an English company
attempted to work the soda deposits on an
extensive scale, but for some reason the
project has not been pushed.