Ok, I’m wondering what these shiny green sqaurish ponds are in this photo-map of Haiti. People have told me rice paddies (one vote) or salt flats (two votes). There is a very precise rectangle off to the east that looks more like a rice field, but these other ones look very oddly shaped. I was told that the closeness to the sea does not mean they cannot be rice fields as fresh water can pass by them for irrigation on its way to the sea (and that sea water is going to “flow” inward). Still, seems like an odd place (and pattern) for rice fields. No?
This aerial photo of the exact same location suggests salt pans to me.
Edit… although comparing it to the Google Maps image, it looks like they were under construction when the photo was taken.
Fish farms?
They seem to be fed by the channels, which suggests fresh water not salt pans.
Or they could be rice paddies.
Just south of port-des-barques, france, you see what are obviously salt pans. Or Bourcefrance-les-Chapus, France?
You never know.
Google Earth recently updated the photos of our area. Our vegetable GARDEN is a pure white rectangle in that image. I can tell you it isnt a pond, it wasnt covered in snow or ice or white plastic at the time, and we do not grow cotton.
Go figure.
Wow. How did you find that?
Shrimp ponds???
The ones in Hawaii look like these: http://maps.google.ca/maps?client=firefox-a&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=21.690131,-157.967134&spn=0.004556,0.008358&t=h&z=17
I worked in Haiti for a period of one year on a salt production project. If you look on the google maps image you’ve put up, and look to the far right, there is a large rectangular salt field with 16 large pools and 10 smaller pools. This is a “modern” salt field. This facility is able to produce iodizable sea salt whereas the other salt pools pictured are not.
It is difficult to tell from the google maps image that these are salt pools because the water in the pools has a low level of salinite and I believe that they may have fresh water in them, meaning that it might have been the rainy season when this photo was taken.
However this photo:
http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/3921438.jpg
Clearly shows that these are salt pools. Notice the whiteness of some of the pools on the left with a hint of orange in the middle. The white is the salt and the orange is a mixture of other minerals found in sea brine. In this picture you can actually see people harvesting the salt. Zoom in and you’ll see on the left that there are people taking salt and putting it on the embankments that surround the salt basins. You can also see this all with the pools on the right but they are too far away.
This land is clay/sand and is probably unsuitable for much else.