r/todayilearned • u/P_a_s_g_i_t_21 • 7h ago

TIL "Kalimanjaro" or "Monte Kali" is a spoil heap made of salt (sodium chloride; contaminated with potassium chloride ("potash"); not pure, edible table salt (NaCl). Located in Heringen (Hesse, Germany), the heap stands 1,710 feet tall, being dumped there first in 1976 by K+S chemical company.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Kali
368 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

32 comments sorted by

56

u/OcotilloWells 6h ago edited 4h ago

Is the potash (fertilizer ingredient) difficult to separate from the sodium cloride?

58

u/jv223 6h ago

Just not worth it, it's a byproduct they are mining for the potash there

9

u/OcotilloWells 6h ago

There we go, the full story. I didn't know the reason it was there in the first place.

15

u/jv223 6h ago

Actually the full story is that it is heavily pollution the soil and water, literally "salting the earth".

6

u/OcotilloWells 6h ago edited 4h ago

Yeah, I imagine a mountain of contaminated sodium cloride would do that. Kind of surprised they were permitted to do that, it was the mid 70s, it wasn't like it was the 1950s.

2

u/Confident-Poetry6985 4h ago

Nope. It was decades later, when they knew it was wrong, but the common folk had no idea, and if they did, they probably didn't know about this lol

46

u/pkinetics 7h ago

And they will continue to dump til 2030, when their permit runs out.

88

u/Chance-Audience-7661 7h ago

Would calling it Salzburg have been too obvious?

18

u/luleelurah 5h ago

Potassium is Kalium in German, so it's already a naming pun for them

1

u/cockOfGibraltar 1h ago

Thanks, I missed that. I was aware of the Latin name for potassium because of chemistry and know a bit of German but I didn't know they used the Latin name for potassium so the pun flew over on head. Also is potassium in English just for potash+ium as in the metal from potash?

36

u/Katarassein 7h ago

Salzberg might be a tad more fitting!

3

u/og-lollercopter 6h ago

Hab die Deutsche gefunden!

6

u/Richard7666 6h ago

We had this thread yesterday and this was the first joke in there as well haha.

56

u/NEUTRONonmyPINKY 6h ago

"The invertebrate fauna was reduced from 60–100 species to 3"

17

u/BokChoyBaka 6h ago

You're going to want a radius for it to mean stuff

1

u/cockOfGibraltar 1h ago

Yeah, I'd imagine that a massive mountain of salt and potash is terrible for the environment for a fairly large area but the post above doesn't give much indication as to how bad it is.

15

u/DaveOJ12 4h ago

The mountain is open for visitation, usually on the weekends and a ticket costs €8. Yoga courses and special tours on the mountain are also possible.

I didn't expect yoga.

13

u/gilbert2gilbert 6h ago

But you can eat potassium chloride. They could sell it as half and half for people who want to reduce sodium chloride intake but don't need to 100% reduce it

7

u/loggic 4h ago

Potassium chloride is safe to eat & sold as sodium-free salt. It is surprising to me that this isn't sold for use in foods...

5

u/ThatChap 7h ago

I want to ski down this

-1

u/a4hope 7h ago

Always thought it would be possible for man to build a ski hill. Turns out I was right.

5

u/settingsaver 5h ago

The artificial ski slope following may be of interest:

The incinerator and the ski slope tackling waste

"There are absolutely no hills or mountains in Denmark", says Danish architect Bjarke Ingels.

"So we got to the idea that we could actually create a manmade mountain for alpine skiing."

His firm is behind the design of a new artificial ski slope in Denmark's capital Copenhagen, built on the roof of a huge incinerator that burns waste to produce heat and electricity.

...

From:

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-49877318

10

u/Richard7666 6h ago

Are you sure it want yesterday you learnt this, when we had this thread already?

1

u/QuipCrafter9 1h ago

Potassium chloride is a common salt substitute- to most the population (not if you have the gene that makes cilantro taste like soap to you), it literally tastes just like table salt but way less sodium. Which is actually pretty cool. I have a mix of sodium chloride and potassium chloride (lite salt) in my cupboard right now. Also next to the pink salt, idolized salt, and msg lol all of them with their different micronutrient profiles

I don’t think it’s the fact that it’s potassium chloride that makes it inedible. Probably just that the entire pile is industrial grade not food grade. Which is the same for rock salt used on roads and such.

-9

u/Sparta49 7h ago

Skeet: Oh, okay, Mister Magic Man. I also did not hear you say "Big McThankies from McSpanky's" to the customer!

Jimmy: Well, frankly, it struck me as clichéd. What do you think about this? "Don't let our food be denied you - put our polyunsaturated fats and triglycerides inside you!"

Skeet: Big McThankies from McSpanky's. (chuckles and turns to Jimmy) Hey, dude. (points down to the floor) You missed a spot.

Jimmy: I got it. (an opened salt packet is lying on the floor) Just a little sodium chloride.

Skeet: (picks up the salt packet) Actually, dude, it's salt.

Jimmy: That's what I said, sodium chloride.

-5

u/GpasGhostlyGoonsesh 3h ago

Use it to solve the salinity crisis in the ocean

2

u/GGme 2h ago

What salinity crisis?

-2

u/GpasGhostlyGoonsesh 1h ago

Too much ice is melting at the poles and causing a salinity imbalance, which threatens to disrupt ocean currents and polar habitats. We should find a way to add this salt along with the melting polar ice to ameliorate that.

1

u/GGme 1h ago

I think instead of adding more salt, which we are constantly doing in the name of safe winter roads, in addition to nature adding salt constantly through the natural water cycle, in addition to this giant mountain of salt eventually making it's way to the ocean through that same cycle, we should just figure out how to stir the ocean better. If we could push the saltier water from closer to the equator up to the salt depleted poles, I think that would be better for the struggling sea life.

1

u/timshel42 1h ago

that is so insanely stupid