Pink Lake

While we were on holiday in WA we discovered this famous pink colourish lake: Hutt Lagoon!

The lagoon, or marginal-marine salina, is an elongate depression about 70 square kilometres (27 sq mi) in area, with most of it lying a few metres below sea level. It is separated from the Indian Ocean by a beach barrier ridge and barrier dune system. Similar to Lake MacLeod, 40 kilometres (25 mi) to the north of Carnarvon, Hutt Lagoon is fed by marine waters through the barrier ridge and by meteoric waters through springs.

Due to the salina’s sub-sealevel position, seepage of seawater into the salina is continuous year round. During the winter wet season, the amount of water coming into the salina is substantially increased by the influx of meteoric groundwater. Hutt Lagoon has a Mediterranean climate; high evaporation rates (2,150–2,400 millimetres (85–94 in)) are characteristic of the summer. There is moderate rainfall in the winter. These factors combine to form a setting within which salt is deposited seasonally and the rates and style of precipitation follow a balance between influx of water and removal by evaporation. During the summer about 95% of the salina surface is a dry salt flat.

Hutt Lagoon was named by the explorer George Grey who camped on its eastern edge on 4 April 1839, while on his second disastrous expedition along the Western Australian coast. He mistook the wet season lagoon for a large estuary and named "the river and estuary now discovered" after William Hutt, M.P., brother of John Hutt, the second Governor of Western Australia. Hutt was a British Liberal politician who was heavily involved in the colonization of Western Australia, New Zealand and South Australia.

After Grey's arrival back in Perth, Governor Hutt dispatched the schooner Champion to investigate the large estuary and river discovered. In summer, January 1840, the crew of the Champion found the Hutt River at its mouth to be dry, and could not locate the large estuary described by Grey.

source: Wikipedia

To log this Earthcache:
1. Explain the pink color of the lake.
2. Explain how the water level is increasing and decreasing.
3. Explain the high level of salt in the lake.
4. From the ref point, can you advise me how many metres from the water to the defined edge of the lake. Do you think the level is increasing or decreasing at the moment? Why do you think this?
5. (Optional) Post a photo with you and/or your team with the Pink Lake in the background.

You are welcome to log your answers straight away to keep your TB's and Stats in order but please message me with your answers within 1 week of your log. Cacher’s who do not fulfil the Earth Cache requirement will have their logs deleted.

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