The stromatolites of Hamelin Pool
It’s not a very long drive from the Overlander roadhouse to the old telegraph station of Hamelin Pool, but the dry shrub-like vegetation makes it a rather monotonous one. The barren landscape is an indication of the hot, dry and windy weather in this remote part of Western Australia, a place where summer temperatures average between 35 and 37 degrees Celsius. Those high temperatures create a very high evaporation rate that turns the shallow waters of Hamelin Pool extremely saline – twice as much as regular seawater to be precise. Under normal conditions this hyper-saline water would be diluted by the flow of fresh or low salinity waters, but in Hamelin Pool this is restricted by very low rainfall and a limited tidal flow. So what? Is salt water a good reason to stop in such a desolate corner of the world? Well, in Hamelin Pool it is as this environment is rather unique and one of the reasons why Hamelin Pool – and the whole of Shark Bay – is listed as World Heritage. …