Great Salt Lake

Great Salt Lake Latest News

As the Great Salt Lake shrinks, scientists are uncovering mysterious groundwater-fed oases hidden beneath its drying lakebed.

About Great Salt Lake

• It is a saline lake located in northern Utah, United States.
• It is the largest inland body of salt water in the Western Hemisphere and one of the most saline inland bodies of water in the world.
• The lake is fed by the Bear, Weber, and Jordan rivers and has no outlet.
• The lake has fluctuated greatly in size, depending on the rates of evaporation and the flow of the rivers that feed it. 
• Its surface area has varied from about 6,200 sq.km. at its highest levels in 1873 and the mid-1980s to about 2,300 sq.km. at its lowest level in 2022. 
• It has a length of 120 km and a maximum width of 45 km. 
• The lake reaches an average depth of 4.9 m and a maximum depth of 10 m. 
• Like the Dead Sea, the Great Salt Lake exists within an arid environment and has chemical characteristics similar to that of the oceans. 
• It has a much greater salinity than the oceans, however, since natural evaporation exceeds the supply of water from the rivers feeding the lake.
• Surrounded by great stretches of sand, salt land, and marsh, the Great Salt Lake remains eerily isolated from the nearby cities, towns, and other human habitations.
• The salts are primarily sodium chloride, but there are also sulfates, magnesium, and potassium.

Source: SD

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