These Pools Help Support Half The People On Earth

These Pools Help Support Half The People On Earth

What are these electric blue ponds in the middle of the Utah desert? And why do they keep changing color?

Join Derek Muller (Veritasium) as he looks into the weird, bizarre, and seemingly inexplicable images found on Google Earth to discover what on Earth they actually are. It’s a travel vlog, documentary, and science show wrapped into one. It’s Pindrop.

0:00 Intro
0:29 Electric Blue Ponds
2:13 Finding The Truth
5:47 Importance Of Potash
8:41 Potash From Rocks
14:04 Safer Ways To Mine
15:02 Droning
17:28 Potash The Savior

50 Comments

  1. Karicat Watts on March 22, 2023 at 8:13 am

    This was very interesting, informative, and fun. Thank you!❤

  2. Michael Gian on March 22, 2023 at 8:14 am

    8:52 "Lumber"? Sawn wood? Perhaps "timber" was used?

  3. paco ramon on March 22, 2023 at 8:14 am

    What a cheap way of making an explosive.

  4. Exiled King on March 22, 2023 at 8:14 am

    Now that marijuana is legal in many States….we should been well stocked up on pot ash.

  5. Hans Dunkelberg on March 22, 2023 at 8:15 am

    The map shown to denote Germany for the year 1861 makes little sense. There did not exist an official state of Germany then, just Prussia, Bavaria, Austria, and other smaller entities within the German Confederation of 1815-1866. The area of the German Confederation reached much farther to the east and south than what’s shown at 8:58.

  6. Eric Herde on March 22, 2023 at 8:16 am

    4:24 My high school chemistry teacher was banned from purchasing group I metals.

  7. Kritigya Randhawa on March 22, 2023 at 8:16 am

    I’m glad your channel exists

  8. TheMaxTax on March 22, 2023 at 8:17 am

    This is oddly similar to the Guano Video…

  9. Patricia Schuster on March 22, 2023 at 8:21 am

    So fortunate to have Vetitas! And that’s the truth!

  10. IndiafanFromGermany on March 22, 2023 at 8:21 am

    Thanks for the explanation. We saw these pools from a viewpoint in canyonlands national park back in 2014 and I always wondered about the meaning. Now i know, thanks to Derek!

  11. Galveston on March 22, 2023 at 8:22 am

    Fascinating!

  12. Muhammad Hafizan on March 22, 2023 at 8:24 am

    i learn alot’s from this video .. tq

  13. Demi Frost on March 22, 2023 at 8:24 am

    14:17 That’s kind of like Fracking for natural gas.

  14. Chugwater Jack on March 22, 2023 at 8:25 am

    There are other colored materials in Utah and Northern Nevada – the tailings from various mining operations, some of which I believe have heavy metals or arsenic, and can be seen from I-80.

  15. Name on March 22, 2023 at 8:25 am

    this is so cool

  16. Lissy on March 22, 2023 at 8:27 am

    When you mentioned that mining is one of the most dangerous jobs in the world, it reminded me of another dangerous job. Saturation diving! I’d love to see an episode of that!

  17. John Oldroyd on March 22, 2023 at 8:28 am

    So when do we get to find out about the abandoned city off the coast of Japan?

  18. El Fappo on March 22, 2023 at 8:28 am

    Most dangerous job from a simple physical standpoint is logging. but i guess you couldn’t make a cool science video about how a tree could fall on a person and break their neck. I’m out there every day dodging trees. love your stuff, you’re smart and it seems like we both read James Gleick books. keep it up!

  19. Robert Waid on March 22, 2023 at 8:29 am

    Great video. It shows the interconnectivity and importance of another, largely unknown, industry to the rest of society.

  20. Hodor Hodor on March 22, 2023 at 8:32 am

    how is there only one episode of this series? what . where . who??

  21. Walker Enterprise on March 22, 2023 at 8:32 am

    I have a mysterious photo of something I took while on the flight to California from Atlanta. I was literally sleep and woke up facing my window and as I open my eyes, I saw what looks like a extremely large silver plate. I immediately grab my camera and took a photo. I wish I could get it to this guy.

  22. DJ Ice on March 22, 2023 at 8:34 am

    amazing video also love the tv theme

  23. MKM on March 22, 2023 at 8:35 am

    Why today November 30, 2022 are farmers saying there’s a shortage of potash ?

  24. Paul Hawkins on March 22, 2023 at 8:35 am

    The Potassium Recipe goes back So Far in history,
    I wish I could go back in time and find out just what it was that inspired that First guy to even want to try to discover Potassium.
    I always wonder about mundane things like that.
    What made that very first guy even want to try to find something No One Else even knew Anything about.
    I’m certain the vast majority of them were purely Accidental discoveries.

  25. Gavin G. Griffon on March 22, 2023 at 8:36 am

    Wouldn’t the copper sulfate need to be removed from the potash somehow?

  26. Britt K on March 22, 2023 at 8:38 am

    This is so interesting

  27. Yungskiz on March 22, 2023 at 8:39 am

    I’ve seen the word before, no idea what it meant, thought it was pronounced poe-tash 😆

  28. Glen Anderson on March 22, 2023 at 8:39 am

    18:27 "Sports People" are called Athletes my friend. 😄

  29. RoninMcKay on March 22, 2023 at 8:40 am

    How did that NOT shatter the bucket?! Lol

  30. Divakar Hosamani on March 22, 2023 at 8:41 am

    Small crackers don’t pain if you burst them in hand

  31. Parth Patil S-4125 on March 22, 2023 at 8:42 am

    Plz bring more of this

  32. mat games on March 22, 2023 at 8:43 am

    what did you think was going to hapin like francim is the same thing but stronger its also a non-metal also potasim

  33. Rushi Kumthekar on March 22, 2023 at 8:44 am

    Kid* – hey dad look i made the model that looks like real minining site
    Veritasium CEO* – If you don’t mind can i blow it for content

  34. Divakar Hosamani on March 22, 2023 at 8:46 am

    Our well had same colour but water’s clean and tasty. More tasty than treated water

  35. Captain Fordo on March 22, 2023 at 8:46 am

    4:27 boom.

  36. steve41557 on March 22, 2023 at 8:47 am

    Very cool video!

  37. Ludicrous on March 22, 2023 at 8:52 am

    NOW I know why if you cover a huge stump with sacks of fertilizer and ignite it the stump will be blown out of the ground!!🔥

  38. TheRhondaebayer on March 22, 2023 at 8:52 am

    so interesting….thanks

  39. Eva4 Adam on March 22, 2023 at 8:53 am

    Better no background music.

  40. yashodhan barve on March 22, 2023 at 8:55 am

    Can someone tell me how to separate copper sulphate from the potash solution????

  41. C SH on March 22, 2023 at 8:57 am

    He looks weird dressed like Geo. Washington.

  42. Šimon Macháček on March 22, 2023 at 8:57 am

    I guessed it correctly.

  43. Katie's_Old_Videos on March 22, 2023 at 8:58 am

    I love practical science experiments! I will use this information, for sure!

  44. Guy on March 22, 2023 at 8:59 am

    And they put that stuff in bananas?!

  45. Kate Hu on March 22, 2023 at 9:04 am

    I learned about potash because of our food crisis. Russia is a major supplier of potash and you can bet Putin is using global dependency on potash to his advantage during the war.

  46. Patrick Conlon on March 22, 2023 at 9:05 am

    Sports people lol

  47. Kevin Ufkes on March 22, 2023 at 9:07 am

    So blue Gatorade is blue because it’s full of copper sulfate. I never knew that! COOL!

  48. Caden Luther on March 22, 2023 at 9:08 am

    The bucket of water landed

  49. Dhenok Ayu Setianingsih on March 22, 2023 at 9:10 am

    awesome

  50. Tino F on March 22, 2023 at 9:11 am

    Thank you so so much! You just made me a subscriber.

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