Today, we set
off for our “half-day” of work to the Italkali Salt Mine in Realmonte. The drive itself was wonderful, as yesterday’s rain cleared the sky, leaving Sicily free to invite us to some even more majestic scenery. The windy roads, smoking lorries, shady Sicilian overtaking manoeuvers and croaking walky-talkies added to the serene drive to the salt mine. Once there, the grandeur of the mine was striking only by its large entrance, big enough for semi-trucks to drive in. We buckled up and followed our miner-guides down the tunnel with our vehicles. We had to leave John Pohl’s car at the mine parking lot, since for flammability reasons, only diesel engines are allowed down the mine. We drove down for ~1 km, ending up in a very large “salt hal
l”. Yes, salt. While I knew I was in a salt mine, I was not expecting that the entire mine was drilled through salt. Salt Everywhere! Ceiling, walls, floor everything was salt! The dip (tilt) of the depositional beddings were very apparent by the darker (but very thin) clay layers that draped the beds back in the days (5+ million years ago), when those beds were the surface of the Earth. In this gigantic hall, an altar and ecclesiastical engravings were carved in the salt!
After spending some time our nose stuck to the walls, noticing how the grain sizes changed in different beds, and finding a dessication surface (like the cracked surface of dried mud, but salt instead), we hopped back into vans and drove further down the mine, ending up 75 meters below sea-level, and 200 meters below the surface. At these depth, salt, looses
some of its mechanical strength and starts to flow because of the overburden pressure. As a result, we observed absolutely stunning folds in the salt layers, the different colors of the layers being due to their different compositions. While most of the layers were halite (“regular” salt) and white
, other thinner ones were kainite (a complex salt containing magnesium and potassium) and yellow, while the thin brown ones were clay-rich. The wavelength of the folds were in fact related to the thicknesses of the layers! The thinner the layer, the more folds were present per unit distance. Then, the miners showed us a pile of salt (which were rock chunks, not like the powdery salt one buys in the supermarket), and we all went crazy! Nothing like a pile of rocks to distract geologists! After filling our packs and vans with samples, we returned to the vans and drove off, out of the mine.
We had two hours to kill before our lunch, soo… of the “Lido del sabbia d’oro”, or “the beach of the golden sand”! After negotiating some tight turns in this charming locality, some of us went to explore the lower gypsum unit exposed down the beach, while others took this opportunity to relax a little or take a swim in the sea, which had fun waves due to yesterday’s windy day. 15 minutes before 1pm, we started de-sanding ourselves, and headed to the beach-front restaurant. What a meal! Goodness, none of us expected such amazing food, particularly enhanced by the director of the mine, who treated us to 3 deserts, coffee and some liqueur!), but let’s backtrack
a little… The restaurant outdoor tables are located on a wooden platform, under a tent, to protect us from the blazing sun, but with most of the sides open to allow a beautiful view of the beach and the sea. After downing several bottles of water, our first dish arrived and consisted of succulent shrimp-pasta with shrimp-and-lobster sauce, with pistachio “sprinkles”. Of course, this is only the antipasti, the main meal is yet to come, although several of us could not resist getting seconds on that pasta.. The main meal was a full fish, a dorade, cooked with tomatoes and other delicious herbs, served on a plate and aluminum foil. The result was a light and tender fish, accompanied wonderfully with local white wine. Dessert was a small fruit bowl, but then the generosity of our Sicilan hosts was made apparent when a second desert appeared in front of us, a layered cake with ricotta cheese in the middle. Delicious and stuffing! But suddenly, a third desert (!) was distributed! A “semi-freddo”, or “half-cold” ice-cream. Some of us had vanilla, others coffee. Feeling semi-comatose, a good meal in Sicily cannot be ended without the timeless espresso. Ahhh this frothy nectar of the gods was more than welcome, but who knew more was to come! A “spicy jaegger” liqueur called Amaro body-slammed the taste-buds one last time. This food extravaganza lasted 3 hours, ahhhh Sicily ☺
The mine director, who payed for the desserts, coffee and liqueur, then dr
ove us to a site where apparently large gypsum (“gesso” in Italian) crystals lay in selenite (coarse-grained gypsum beds). We Indiana Jones’ed our way to the outcrop and did find some spectacular crystals (but secondary, thus not representing the crystals at the original time of deposition). We got back to “Verdetechnica”, our Agriturismo in Sciacca at almost 5pm; so much for our half-a-day work schedule! But what a day, and what a perfect example of how hospitable Sicily is!
There were a lot of sleepers on the way to Alpecucco.
