Abandoned Experimental Pond
Tuesday, 16th September 2008 by Alex Turnbull
Here at Google Sightseeing we love to explore abandoned, off-limits places, much as the rest of the Internet does - from a safe distance. In the past we've featured abandoned towns, cities, mines and even whole abandoned islands, but we've never yet featured an abandoned experimental pond.
While not normally the subject of much experimentation (after all, ponds are already very good at being ponds), this particular pond was built in the early 1960s by the Nippon Steel Corporation as part of an investigation into the osmotic pressure produced between fresh and sea water.
As it turned out, the sea water was deemed "too salty", and just like that, Nippon Steel gave up on the whole idea.
Today the pond, known as 'Shintou Jikken Ike', is instead the cosy home to a colony of happy cormorants - which just goes to show you that sometimes a pond is just a pond.
Here's some ground level photos of the pond as discovered by a wandering Japanese photographer.
Thanks to Hide.
About the author
Alex has decided that his title will be Senior Vice President of Stuff.
I always knew the Japanese were crazy, but a pond?
What’s the source of the “too salty” story? Seems to me the saltier the water (compared to the fresh water), the better the osmotic pressure.
Salt Water in ‘Too Salty’ Shocker! HOLD THE FRONT PAGE!
If you go zoom out a bit and and tilt your head to the left, the whole peninsula looks like a fish head – i reckon that’s actually what the Japanese were trying to achieve!
I agree with the fish head idea – would that make this the world’s largest fish-eye?
BTW, just to the south there is an airliner in flight, https://www.googlesightseeing.com/maps?p=&c=&t=k&hl=en&ll=35.398373,139.906238&z=18