Great salt lake

Great salt lake
	Satellite photo from August 2018: The different colors show the different salt contents of the lake, which is largely divided into two by a railway embankment
Geographical location	Large pool
Tributaries	Bear River , Jordan River , Weber River
Drain	drainless (evaporation)
Places on the shore	Salt Lake City , Ogden
	Data
Coordinates	41 ° 9 ′ N , 112 ° 36 ′ W Coordinates: 41 ° 9 ′ N , 112 ° 36 ′ W
Altitude above sea level	1280 m
surface	4th 404 km²
length	120 km
width	45 km
volume	18.92 km³
Maximum depth	10 m
Middle deep	4.8 m
particularities	8 to 15 islands
	Map of the Great Salt Lake

The Great Salt Lake ( English Great Salt Lake) is a salt lake in northern Utah in the United States , whose salt content exceeds the sea far. The color caused by the salt content also makes the lake an eye-catcher from space.

geography

The lake is about 1280 meters above sea level, about 120 kilometers long and 48 to 80 kilometers wide. It covers an area of around 4400 square kilometers. The depth of the lake is around 4.5 meters on average, the deepest point around 10 meters. It is a remnant of the prehistoric Lake Bonneville in the Great Basin . The city of Salt Lake City was named after him, the city and its suburbs are located on the east coast of the lake. The great salt desert connects to the west and southwest .

The lake has three major tributaries: the Bear River and the Weber River flow from the Wasatch Range and the Uinta Mountains , and the Jordan River flows from Utah Lake to the south . The three rivers all flow into the southern part (Gilbert Bay), which means that the northern half of the lake (Gunnison Bay) is significantly salty. The salt content is around 9 percent in the southern part and around 25 in the northern part. Halophilic bacteria give the northern part a distinct red color. The lake is difficult to reach in many places as it is lined with tidal flats .

The main component of the dissolved salts is sodium chloride , i.e. table salt that is obtained in shallow artificial ponds for commercial purposes. It has been estimated that the lake contains around five billion tons of sodium chloride in dissolved form.

East bank
East bank ( Wasatch chain in the background)
The Great Salt Lake from Antelope Iceland from

Water level

The water level of the lake can fluctuate greatly depending on the weather. On the one hand, there are annual fluctuations that depend on the seasons - the lake has its annual low in autumn. But there are also longer-term fluctuations to be followed. In heavily rainy years the water content increases, in dry years it can decrease rapidly, as water from the tributaries is used for the city and agriculture and therefore never reaches the lake. In addition, the water levels of the northern and southern parts of the lake vary due to the Lucin Cutoff that cuts through it .

The lowest water level measured so far (1963) was 1277 meters above sea level. NN., The highest, however, with 1284 meters above sea level. NN. in 1986 and 1987 about 7 meters higher. In recent years (2002/2003), however, the level has dropped sharply again. As a result, some of the salt mining sites have become islands in the middle of a salt desert . The level of the lake is a good indicator of the local climate .

As a result of the drainage of water in the lake's tributaries for agriculture since the organized settlement in the mid-19th century, the lake has suffered great losses of water. Adjusted for seasonal fluctuations, the water level has since fallen by around 3.30 m (11 ft) and the volume of the lake by around 50%. As a result, the salt content rose by almost half and around half of the former area of the lake fell dry. This is associated with losses for economic uses as well as the increase in dusts in the air we breathe due to whirled up mineral deposits on the former lake bed.

habitat

Despite the maximum salt content of 27 percent, several species of creatures have been found in the lake, including many different saltwater shrimp . In addition, branchiopoda like brine shrimp available. The brine shrimp has been harvested in large numbers since the 1950s, also called Sea Monkey in this context , and sold as fish feed, among other things. Many water birds such as the California gull and insects feed on it .

use

The lake is used economically in several ways. This includes the breakdown of salts and minerals such as potassium sulfate , magnesium chloride and table salt . Next are brine shrimp harvested. The neighboring cities and agriculture draw water from the lake. However, the lake was heavily polluted by the city and agriculture. The lake attracts tourists ; there is also the option of sailing on the lake .

The Great Salt Lake is also the location of Robert Smithson's landscape art Spiral Jetty (1970).

Lucin Cutoff Railway Embankment

Lucin Cutoff 1971: In the foreground the old 19 km long wooden bridge, to the north and parallel to it the railway embankment that replaces it (top right in the photo).

The Lucin Cutoff , a railway line whose dam divides the lake in two, runs through the lake . The connection between Ogden and Lucin was originally opened on March 8, 1904. The 103- mile route ran over a 12-mile (about 19 kilometers ) long wooden bridge, which was the longest in the world at the time. In July 1959 the bridge was replaced by a parallel dam.

As a result of the continuous division of the lake into two parts, the water level of the northern part sank, the salinity of which in turn increased as a result. In the absence of an outflow in the northern part, the water level in the southern part increased so much that in the following decades floods began to increase in the surrounding area. As a consequence, the railway embankment had to be broken through again: the replacement of part of the embankment with a bridge in 1984 was followed by the construction of a second one in 2016. Since then, the northern and southern parts of the water level and salinity gradually equalize again.

Web links

Commons : Great Salt Lake - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

^ ^A ^b ^c ^d Erik Crosman, John Horel: MODIS-derived surface temperature of the Great Salt Lake. Remote Sensing of Environment 113.1, 2009, pp. 73-81 ( online PDF 2MB).
↑ Citylab: Thanks to Humans, the Great Salt Lake Is Drying Up , March 2, 2016.
↑ Baumann, Joseph; Thompson, Jan: Pent-up lake flows into saltier north arm. In: Deseret News. August 1, 1984, accessed April 2, 2020 .
↑ Emma, Penrod: Union Pacific agrees to delay breach of Great Salt Lake causeway. In: Salt Lake Tribune. September 24, 2016, accessed April 2, 2020 .
^ USGS Surface-Water Daily Data for the Nation. In: waterdata.usgs.gov. US Department of the Interior, April 1, 2020, accessed April 2, 2020 .

[Crosman_2009-1] A ^b ^c ^d Erik Crosman, John Horel: MODIS-derived surface temperature of the Great Salt Lake. Remote Sensing of Environment 113.1, 2009, pp. 73-81 ( online PDF 2MB).

[2] Citylab: Thanks to Humans, the Great Salt Lake Is Drying Up , March 2, 2016.

[3] Baumann, Joseph; Thompson, Jan: Pent-up lake flows into saltier north arm. In: Deseret News. August 1, 1984, accessed April 2, 2020 .

[4] Emma, Penrod: Union Pacific agrees to delay breach of Great Salt Lake causeway. In: Salt Lake Tribune. September 24, 2016, accessed April 2, 2020 .

[5] USGS Surface-Water Daily Data for the Nation. In: waterdata.usgs.gov. US Department of the Interior, April 1, 2020, accessed April 2, 2020 .