EXPLORING THE SALT MINES UNDER LAKE ERIE

Written By RYAN DEWEY

nb: these texts & images appeared on an earlier version of this site, published on February 16, 2016.

In October I led a trip with Geologic Cognition Society into the salt mines almost 2000 feet under Lake Erie. This was in preparation for our exhibit at SPACES gallery in Cleveland Ohio which opened on January 29th. Details about the show are here.

This deposit is over 300 million years old from when the Great Lakes region and much of upper North America were covered in the shallows of a Silurian tropical sea. The coral reefs at the floor of this shallow sea fossilized and turned to limestone which formed a solid basin for the salt deposit to form over time as the waters evaporated. Time passed, glaciers came and went, and the salt deposit was covered with glacial till and rock. Here are some study shots I took of the salt deposit inside the mine. I used these during the production of the salt chamber that we installed in the vault at SPACES. Take a peek:

Inside the immersive salt chamber installed at SPACES gallery in Cleveland Ohio.

RYAN DEWEY
I build opportunities that help people experience the world in new ways.
http://www.RyanDewey.org
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