To obtain potas­si­um chlo­ride, also known as potash, from the desert land­scapes of Utah, Intre­pid Potash, Inc. uses a series of evap­o­ra­tion pools whose daz­zling blue waters stand in stark con­trast to the red desert that sur­rounds them.

Intre­pid Potash, Inc. oper­ates three potash mines in the Unit­ed States: one in New Mex­i­co and two in Utah. The most famous and most pho­tographed of these places is in Moab, Utah, where blue potash evap­o­ra­tion ponds cre­ate a psy­che­del­ic spec­ta­cle amid the red­dish desert.

At the Moab mine, min­ers pump water from the Col­orado Riv­er deep under­ground to reach potash ore that lies about 3,900 feet (1,200 meters) below the sur­face. The water dis­solves the sol­u­ble potash into a brine, which is then pumped into under­ground caves. After com­plete dis­so­lu­tion, the potas­si­um brine is pumped into one of the evap­o­ra­tion ponds. And that’s when things get weird.

The water in the evap­o­ra­tion ponds is col­ored bright blue to bet­ter absorb sun­light and heat. This reduces the time it takes for potash to crys­tal­lize, after which it can be removed and processed for use as fer­til­iz­er. The evap­o­ra­tion process at Moab Ponds takes about 300 days, and the mine pro­duces 700 to 1,000 tons of potash per day.

As the evap­o­ra­tion process occurs, the ponds change col­or. At times, most ponds are paint­ed a bright elec­tric blue. Some­times, how­ev­er, ponds show dif­fer­ent col­ors, cre­at­ing a rain­bow of blue next to stripes of turquoise, orange, yel­low and white, indi­cat­ing dif­fer­ent stages of evap­o­ra­tion. Either way, it’s quite a sight to behold, with ponds cre­at­ing an oth­er­world­ly land­scape along the banks of the Col­orado Riv­er.