Floating Islands
Digital Infrared, Kite Aerial Photography
Floating and formerly floating islands in Dry Lagoon, Humboldt County, California. The lagoon was drained in the early 1900's for agriculture, but the crops they tried did not grow well and it quickly returned to a natural wetland. It is now part of Humboldt Lagoons State Park. Four major lagoons are kept separate from the ocean by semi-permanent spits supplied with sand from rapidly eroding headlands. Cores in the lagoons show significant salinity variations due to changes in precipitation, breaches in the spit, tsunamis, and uplift/subsidence during large earthquakes.
Floating islands form when buoyant emergent aquatic plants pull up the sediment they are rooted in (many of these plants have air channels which bring oxygen to their roots and help maintain the orientation of their foliage in the water). Wind will move the islands and sometimes tear them apart. If they are stationary for a bit they may anchor to other islands or to the shore. Prevailing south winds 10 months of the year stack the floating islands on the north side of Dry Lagoon.
Floating Islands
Digital Infrared, Kite Aerial Photography
Floating and formerly floating islands in Dry Lagoon, Humboldt County, California. The lagoon was drained in the early 1900's for agriculture, but the crops they tried did not grow well and it quickly returned to a natural wetland. It is now part of Humboldt Lagoons State Park. Four major lagoons are kept separate from the ocean by semi-permanent spits supplied with sand from rapidly eroding headlands. Cores in the lagoons show significant salinity variations due to changes in precipitation, breaches in the spit, tsunamis, and uplift/subsidence during large earthquakes.
Floating islands form when buoyant emergent aquatic plants pull up the sediment they are rooted in (many of these plants have air channels which bring oxygen to their roots and help maintain the orientation of their foliage in the water). Wind will move the islands and sometimes tear them apart. If they are stationary for a bit they may anchor to other islands or to the shore. Prevailing south winds 10 months of the year stack the floating islands on the north side of Dry Lagoon.