Big white blob!

It was impossible to follow Mark's route today south of Qom and not be struck by the huge expanse of white which lay some 20 kms to his east. Investigation reveals that this area is right on the edge of the 400,000 hectare Kavir National Park . The white 'blob' is a salt lake known as Daracheh ye Namak. There is a really excellent aerial photo of the national park here on NASA's Earth Observatory website along with a good description of the area.

One of the striking features of the photo is that despite the current aridity of the area (it receives only around 150mm of rain per year), there has clearly been a lot of water around at some time in the past to create these 'fans' of material which have been washed down from the high ground in the middle of the national park.

As for the white blob, here's what it looks like at close quarters...