The Salton Sea, Imperial Valley, California


The Salton Sea is a saline, endorheic rift lake located directly on the San Andreas Fault. The lake occupies the lowest elevations of the Salton Sink in the Colorado Desert of Riverside and Imperial Counties in Southern California. Like Death Valley, it is located below sea level, with the current surface of the Salton Sea at 226 ft (69 m) below sea level. The deepest area of the sea is 5 ft ( m) higher than the lowest point of Death Valley. The sea is fed by the New, Whitewater, and Alamo rivers, as well as a number of minor agricultural drainage systems and creeks. The lake covers a surface area of approximately 376 sq mi (970 km2), 241,000+/- acres, the largest in California. While it varies in dimensions and area with changes in agricultural runoff and rain, it averages 15 mi (24 km) by 35 mi (56 km), with a maximum depth of 52 ft (16 m), giving a total volume of about 7,500,000 acre·ft ( km3), and annual inflows averaging 1,360,000 acre·ft ( km3). The lake's salinity, about 44 g/L, is greater than the waters of the Pacific Ocean (35 g/L), but less than that of the Great Salt Lake and is increasing by about 1 percent annually


Size: 5983px × 3989px
Location: The Salton Sea, Imperial Valley, California
Photo credit: © Ian Grant / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

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