What is this object 36°27'42"N 113°24'26"W Mohave County Arizona, USA?

Does anyone have any idea what black square could, would be or for?

Found google earth 36°27'42"N 113°24'26"W Mohave County Arizona

I searched the obvious but found no answer, Its near to Mt Trumbull Arizona and i did find other similar objects nearby

My guess is cover for mining camp or means to reduce dam evaporation ??







unsure if this google earth link will work for all users

https://earth.google.com/web/search...WoJ5BpQkAReBQR-ZRhQkAZnXujJc7wXMAhhUqZzbL1XMA

similar objects 30 or so clicks away

36.631717744611905, -113.23253134194964

36.65777130079058, -113.18435349494108

At first glance the spotty reflections look very much like shade balls: Wikipedia
They help to avoid evaporation and bromate buildup under intense sunlight. Which would make sense in the arid conditions in this area.

It is near to something labeled "Little Christman Reservoir" (which appears to be dry), and another black thing is downstream from that. Perhaps they are tapping an underground aquifer in that area rather than surface water?

Edit to add: Googling that reservoir gets you lots of weather forecasts for fishermen, but the image shown looks as dry as a bone in that area.

Ridcully said:

At first glance the spotty reflections look very much like shade balls:

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The "texture" that appears on some of the photos just looks like it's too rectilinearly aligned, and shade balls don't do that, they just form typical hexagonally-packed cells with arbitrarily-aligned grain boundaries. (The final clip of their use in the UK in your video showed that particularly clearly.)

Probably an empty evaporation pond for a mine

e.g. https://flsi.us/portfolio-items/solar-evaporation-pond/

FatPhil said:

The "texture" that appears on some of the photos just looks like it's too rectilinearly aligned, and shade balls don't do that, they just form typical hexagonally-packed cells with arbitrarily-aligned grain boundaries. (The final clip of their use in the UK in your video showed that particularly clearly.)

Click to expand...

That is true. A plausible explanation could be that the images with the rectilinear pattern are water reservoirs without added shade balls where you can see the reservoir lining.

https://www.hlgeomembrane.com/hdpe-geomembrane/geomembrane-for-water-reservoir.html

Mick West said:

Probably an empty evaporation pond for a mine

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Definitely a possibility but I could not find any significant infrastructure in the area that would hint at mining operations. Only small dirt roads. However Google maps shows what seems to be large fencing structures. Cattle farms with the ponds serving as a water source might be an alternative explanation. Which would also explain the possible use of shade balls.

derwoodii said:

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This one looks like @Mick West suggested, a black plastic reservoir liner with no water in it at the time the photo was taken, with the liner sinking into cracked earth.. (Not necessarily for mining wastes though, but possibly for watering cattle.) A lining would be pretty much a necessity to retain any water at all in the sandy desert soil, even if it's only seasonal. Some of the black bits are conspicuously built up to hold a greater depth of water.

Ann K said:

with the liner sinking into cracked earth..

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I am curious if the liner is actually sinking into cracks or if the installation of the liner was just a bit shoddy. The weight of the water in the pond would probably put quite some strain on the liner if the ground beneath was not leveled.

If a thinner and probably cheaper liner was used it might just have folds.

Ridcully said:

That is true. A plausible explanation could be that the images with the rectilinear pattern are water reservoirs without added shade balls where you can see the reservoir lining.

Click to expand...

Is it possible that we're seeing a black plastic sheet used INSTEAD of shade balls? If there is also a lower lining, that would make the reservoirs essentially huge bladders, with water loss prevented above and below. Have not yet found a good example, though -- everybody seems to be into balls or floating hexagonal tiles as a reservoir cover. But plastic sheet covers for swimming pools are common enough , so maybe it's possible.

Did find this image of a reservoir liner, which seems a decent match:


Image source: https://www.btlliners.com/

A few others within a mile that are a bit older -- and do not have clearly visible liners/covers. They are sometimes dry, sometimes have water.


(Small rectangle in the upper right and lower left corners, dry reservoirs.)|




I wonder of the darker one is here is a liner partially covered by windblown sand/silt falling into the reservoir.

Original image seems to have shown up after 2019, the others are older, which might explain why our original image is nice and sharp and black, while the older ones are either too old for linings or are old enough that the lining has been silted over in whole or part.

JMartJr said:

Is it possible that we're seeing a black plastic sheet used INSTEAD of shade balls? If there is also a lower lining, that would make the reservoirs essentially huge bladders, with water loss prevented above and below. Have not yet found a good example, though -- everybody seems to be into balls or floating hexagonal tiles as a reservoir cover. But plastic sheet covers for swimming pools are common enough , so maybe it's possible.

Click to expand...

I haven't seen any examples of this but I don't see why it should not be possible. One thing that comes to mind is that if the covering sheet is also black the water might significantly heat up since it would not be insulating as the shade balls do. It would essentially be a giant garden shower bag.

But don't get me wrong: my own guess with the shade balls is also based only on a low resolution aerial image so I am not certain of that either.

JMartJr said:

I wonder of the darker one is here is a liner partially covered by windblown sand/silt falling into the reservoir.

Click to expand...

The time slider in Google Earth has some images. It does not look like this pond had a liner.

Tried to verify the theory that the ponds might be water sources for farms. Since I could not find any info about the area on Openstreetmap I traced the long straight lines in that area in the assumption that these are fences to see if there is a correlation to the ponds.

That seems to be the case. All fenced areas I found have at least one water filled pond. Very small dataset of course.

Ridcully said:

It does not look like this pond had a liner.

Click to expand...

Or perhaps there is a black liner that is occluded by windblown dust / sand. Here are a couple of ones a short distance to the west that appear to have very muddy water in them, with what looks like black showing just in the very shallow water at the edge.


Another thing to remember about deserts is that the intense sunshine can degrade plastic very quickly, and I would expect that would happen even more so with a heat-absorbing black color, so such a liner may not have a very long life out there.

The mountain to the immediate West of the pond is called Poverty Knoll, and the pond is not marked on a USGS topographical map from 2021 which may fit with it being a newer feature.


Source: https://mapstore.mytopo.com/products/ustopo_arizona_poverty-knoll (mouse over the image to see it zoomed in, the pond would be in grid square 12).

Here's what it looks like from another imagery provider:

Source: https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/

I am curious what all the white bits are. The Google Earth measurement tool says the pond is 450 feet long, so they would be rather small.

I found an article about installing a lining for brine water distillation pond elsewhere in Arizona that mentions the need for sandbags, so maybe sandbags holding down a liner?

Article:

High winds meant the team had to immediately secure each reinforced polypropylene (RPP) panel with sandbags following deployment and installment.

The distribution seems a bit random for sandbags though. Possibly light reflecting off wrinkles in a liner?

MonkeeSage said:

Here's what it looks like from another imagery provider:

Source: https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/

I am curious what all the white bits are. The Google Earth measurement tool says the pond is 450 feet long, so they would be rather small.

I found an article about installing a lining for brine water distillation pond elsewhere in Arizona that mentions the need for sandbags, so maybe sandbags holding down a liner?

Article: High winds meant the team had to immediately secure each reinforced polypropylene (RPP) panel with sandbags following deployment and installment. Source: https://geosyntheticsmagazine.com/2021/09/30/raven-salt-gradient-solar-pond-geomembrane-for-distilling-large-amounts-of-brine-water-to-potable-water/
The distribution seems a bit random for sandbags though. Possibly light reflecting off wrinkles in a liner?

Click to expand...

Nice find! The light reflections could simply be caused by small waves due to windy weather.

derwoodii said:

Click to expand...

This makes my suggestion of shade balls to explain the image in the first post somehow outdated. The different appearance is probably just due to the different saturation and resolution.

MonkeeSage said:

Possibly light reflecting off wrinkles in a liner?

Click to expand...

Exactly what I was going to say before I got to the last line of your post. Looks like specular reflections off black plastic.

The nearby Cook Pond 36°27'48.08"N 113°23'56.37"W can be found on the Map of Reservoirs in Mohave County https://www.topozone.com/arizona/mohave-az/reservoir/

Several other nearby reservoirs appear in the list which at first glance is pretty comprehensive. The links to individual reservoirs give a little more detail, though unfortunately not the end use for the water ;

Cook Pond is listed in the Reservoirs Category for Mohave County in the state of Arizona. Cook Pond is displayed on the "Poverty Knoll" USGS topo map. The latitude and longitude coordinates (GPS waypoint) of Cook Pond are 36.4624795 (North), -113.3996209 (West) and the approximate elevation is 5,226 feet (1,593 meters) above sea level. If you are interested in visiting Cook Pond you can print the free topographic map, terrain map, satellite/aerial images, and other maps using the link above. The location, topography, nearby roads and trails, and towns around Cook Pond (Reservoir) can be seen in the layers of this interactive map. If you have already visited Arizona's Cook Pond in Mohave County, the nearest Reservoirs are listed above for your consideration.

Click to expand...

Similar information is available on other sites eg
https://www.anyplaceamerica.com/directory/az/mohave-county-04015/reservoirs/cook-pond-3191/
https://www.yellowmaps.com/usgs/topo.cfm?map=az-3191-cook-pond



In terms of the first unknown, it is a reservoir, serving ponds at the four points shown. They are on the line of a pipeline (line of pipe trench showing as a scar) , with cattle clearly visible at the fourth pond. The black lined 'Upper reservoir ' shows no poaching ( damage by foot pressure of animals) in fact they appear to be inside fences, whilst the small circular ponds do have poached areas.
In this particular case, there is clear evidence ie cows drinking, at the fourth pond on the pipeline which is adjacent to Cook Pond.
In this case, the reservoir is for stock water management.

Spinning through the historic google earth images shows the 'upper reservoir' and pipeline were constructed after the 4/2021 .
Previously Cook Pond appears to have been a self contained watering feature with water from the pond itself being made available to cattle via a long pond (dry in the image below) connected to the SE corner.

Drought conditions in the Mohave are widely documented eg https://www.drought.gov/states/arizona/county/mohave and upgrading of infrastructure in order to maintain levels to support stocking levels would be a must.

MonkeeSage said:

Possibly light reflecting off wrinkles in a liner?

Click to expand...

That's what it looks like to me.

I think we know enough now, comparing to other rectangular structures in the area, to say it's a reservoir for holding water, for one of the many purposes water can be put to, possibly agricultural.

ok thanks all the input im happy to rest this query as plastic covered water reservoir or abandoned mining maybe fracking
What they are not are secret bases, portals or space landing fields which was predominantly what found if searched web.


Here a few other possible source that i came across or others provided


https://www.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=4d53e4cd05b6404f9b1ee5f067f55c04






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