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Salton Sea

USA / California / Bombay Beach /
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Saltwater lake below sea level

The Salton Sink started off as just this muddy area that no one could cross but then got flooded in 1905 due to a tear through a fragile irrigation canal. The canal fed the Salton Sink for about 18 months before it could be controlled and with the flooding it got its new name the Salton Sea. The Salton Sea is one of the biggest lakes in California to this day with about 375 square miles. The Salton sea used to be used by many people in its glory days. There used to be speed boat races, fishing, camping along the lake, and even swimming. Now though the Salton Sea attracts people for a whole different reason. Many people come to see how the Salton has turned out and it calls attention to hundreds of scientist a year who come and want to help fix the enormous lake. The Salton Sea is still being used today as a place to store the runoff from fields and as testing on the environment for scientist
cleantechnica.com/2021/12/05/lithium-brine-bummer-could...
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salton_Sea
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   33°18'47"N   115°50'4"W

Comments

  • Werner Ludwig (guest)
    Largest lake? Maybe, but it's the worst smelling lake too...
  • Zeltaen (guest)
    Water? There's no water. It's like 90% fertilizer runoff and dead bodies now.
  • wagonmaster (guest)
    The runoff won't be a problem for long. Most of the water has been allocated to San Diego and in 20 years this lake will be gone...just a dry patch of poisonous windblown sand. Yum.
  • Jayne
    The Salton Sea is replenished by more than one million acre-feet (1.2 km³) of runoff water from irrigated farmland.
  • portola (guest)
    The History Channel had an engineering disaster segment about this lake. There are ecology and environmental groups that want to preserve this lake in some way to assist the migration of over 400 varieties of birds that use this place as a watering hole. Supposedly with most of the California coastland marsh areas now gone, birds are using Salton Sea as a migratory rest stop.
  • coozemonster
    the All American and Coachella canals have singlehandedly kept the Salton Sea alive, the tens of thousands of acres of farmland in the valleys on each end of the sea are irrigated by these canals, and the irrigation runoff finds it's way into the basin occupied by the sea. If not for the serious agriculture in this part of the state, the Salton Sea would have dried up decades ago. There has gotta be another solution for the New River, other than letting it drain into the Salton Sea. A terrible source of pollution.
  • firetruckmechanic (guest)
    If you are ever down in the area dring down 86 s and look at the mountains to your west you can see the old water line of the lake which would have made the lake a alot bigger and deeper than it is now
  • PCmaps
    Originally, the Sea of Cortez inundated the Imperial Valley to near the Beaumont/Banning pass. Gradually, the Colorado River filled the valley with as much as 2,000' of silt, filling in and eventually cutting off the Sea of Cortez. The water in the cut off section slowly evaporated, forming the Salton Basin. The lowest point in the Salton Basin is near the north end of the Salton Sea, where the elevation is 273 feet below sea level, approx the same elevation as Death Valley. The broad flat ridge of the Colorado River delta extends from the Colorado River near Yuma to it lowest point near Sierra Prieto, which point is approximately 40 feet above sea level. This broad flat saddle divides the Colorado River delta into two portions, one which drains to the north and the Salton Basin, and one which drains to the south & the Sea of Cortez. As the Colorado River meandered across its delta, it would periodically flow north into the Salton Basin and thus formed a large lake known as Lake Cahuilla. The ancient shoreline of Lake Cahuilla has an elevation of approx 30 feet above sea level, which is the height at which the lake would overflow back into the Sea of Cortez. The lake was some 110 miles in length, with an average width of 34 miles, and a max depth of over 300 hundred feet. For at least the last 500 years, though, there had been no major diversion of the Colorado River into the valley. The lake had thus evaporated, and the area lain a naked burning wasteland. The Imperial Valley is one of the most arid sections of the United States, with an annual rainfall average of approx 3", and in some years amounting to less than 1/2". The valley is without a potable local water supply, and thus water for all purposes, including domestic use in the cities, must come from the Colorado River thru the canal system. In the early 1900s, a canal was dug from the Colorado River around the south end of the Glamis sand dunes in Mexico, and then back north toward Calexico. In 1905, unusual floods enlarged the canal, causing the entire Colorado River to flow thru the canal into the Salton Basin, forming the Salton Sea. It took almost 2 yrs to dam the canal and return the Colorado's flow to the Sea of Cortez. Imagine if they hadn't dammed the river, what an Awesome freshwater lake we would have . . .
  • Daniela Ruano (guest)
    The Salton Sink started off as just this muddy area that no one could cross but then got flooded in 1905 due to a tare through a fragile irrigation canal. The canal fed the Salton Sink for about 18 months before it could be controlled and with the flooding it got its new name the Salton Sea. The Salton Sea is one of the biggest lakes in California to this day with about 375 square miles. The Salton sea used to be used by many people in its glory days. There used to be speed boat races, fishing, camping along the lake, and even swimming. Now though the Salton Sea attracts people for a whole different reason. Many people come to see how the Salton has turned out and it calls attention to hundreds of scientist a year who come and want to help fix the enormous lake. The Salton Sea is still being used today as a place to store the runoff from fields and as testing on the environment for scientist. The Imperial Valley is well known for the Salton Sea once as a great place to visit and relax on the weekends and now to scientist coming from all over the states to come and try to fix the problem. The Salton sea is not only a monument but it's the reason that the imperial valley still exist today. If it weren't for the lake still being here then we would have tons of toxins in the air from all the runoff from agricultural fields. This would not only affect the imperial valley but tons of towns around the Salton Sea affecting around four million people. That's why it's so important that we keep this monument intact.
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