The Great Salt Lake is an extraordinary natural phenomenon, the “largest salt-water lake in the western hemisphere.”
“A remnant of the massive ancient Lake Bonneville, the lake is now landlocked and its waters are salty,” according to Utah.com. “It is the largest lake between the Great Lakes and the Pacific Ocean, and is the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere.” It is also the subject of many legends, the site notes.
However, the Great Salt Lake has been “shrinking,” according to an Aug. 31 article by Science Daily. That’s led to some discoveries that “stunned” scientists.
“Great Salt Lake, the largest saline lake in the Western Hemisphere, is in crisis,” the University of Utah says on its website, where it sponsors a Great Salt Lake Project. “Decades of unsustainable water consumption, accelerated by drought and climate change, have dramatically reduced water levels. With over 50% of the lakebed now exposed, Great Salt Lake is on a trajectory toward irreversible ecological collapse.”
The Scientists Found ‘Strange Surface Disturbances’ in the Great Salt Lake
According to Science Daily, “as the Great Salt Lake shrinks, scientists are uncovering mysterious groundwater-fed oases hidden beneath its drying lakebed.”
The findings were made by researchers at the University of Utah.
“Reed-covered mounds and strange surface disturbances hint at a vast underground plumbing system that pushes fresh water up under pressure,” wrote Science Daily.
The scientists are “mapping the hidden freshwater reserves” to see whether they “could help restore fragile lakebed crusts, reduce dust pollution, and reveal long-buried secrets of the region’s hydrology,” Science Daily reported.
The Great Salt Lake’s Water Levels Are ‘Far From Constant’
The new research is dependent on water levels, but they are not consistent.
“Water levels in the lake are far from constant. During its recorded low in 1963, some of the lake’s 10 major islands became peninsulas,” Utah.com reports.
“In 1983, when the lake reached its historic high, it flooded houses, farmland and the nearby freeway. Huge pumps were constructed to deposit excess water into Utah’s west desert. The pumps were shut down in 1989.”
The site adds that the Great Salt Lake “is actually the remainder of prehistoric Lake Bonneville, which covered some 20,000 square miles of land in what is now Utah, Nevada and Idaho some 10,000 to 30,000 years ago.”
“The lake is about 75 miles long and 35 miles wide, with a maximum depth of 33 feet. After a series of wet years, the lake’s surface area may be much larger but it will be only a little bit deeper,” Utah.com reported.
