 EPOD - a service of USRA

The Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) highlights the diverse processes
and phenomena which shape our planet and our lives. EPOD will collect and
archive photos, imagery, graphics, and artwork with short explanatory
captions and links exemplifying features within the Earth system. The
community is invited to contribute digital imagery, short captions and
relevant links.


 The Shrinking Great Salt Lake

   October 29, 2020

    Gsldavisky796c_26july20

   Photographer:  Ray Boren
   Summary Author:  Ray Boren

   As with other closed-basin  endorheic, or  terminal, lakes
    around the world — often in  arid or  semi-arid climates,
   from Africa’s  Lake Chad to central Asia’s  Aral Sea — North
   America’s  Great Salt Lake is out of balance and shrinking in size
   and storage. This is due in part to climate change but more
   particularly, hydrologists and other researchers say, because of human
   damming and upstream diversion of its water sources for agriculture and
   urban uses.

   One result, as shown in this photograph, looking west from near the top
   of Utah’s  Wasatch Range on July 26, 2020, is a depleted Farmington
   Bay. The lagoons in the middle of the picture are primarily diked
   fresh-water impoundments of Utah’s  Farmington Bay Waterfowl
   Management Area, a key habitat for migrating and nesting birds.
   Otherwise, a small and sinuous river of lake water winds through the
   desiccated eastern lake bed and mudflats toward  Antelope Island,
   the lake’s largest isle and a state park. Deeper water is visible
   beyond the island in Great Salt Lake’s central Gilbert Bay.

   According to the  US Geological Survey, the average  surface
   elevation above sea level of Great Salt Lake — itself a remnant of the
    Pleistocene’s  much larger  Lake Bonneville — is 4,200 ft
   (1,280 m), at which point it covers about 1,700 sq mi (4,403 sq km). In
   the mid-1980s, as a result of several years with above-average
   precipitation, the lake elevation surged to 4,211.6 ft (1,283.7 m),
   with a much-expanded surface area of 3,300 sq mi (8,547 sq km). It was
   at its lowest historic surface elevation in 1963, when it dipped to
   4,191 ft (1277.4 m) and covered only 950 sq mi (2,460.5 sq km) — a
   status Great Salt Lake has again approached in recent years. In
   September 2020, the USGS recorded the  lake surface elevation at
   4,193 ft (1,278 m) above sea level. In addition, the  National
   Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported this summer that 68
   percent of the Western United States, including Utah, is  again in
   drought.

   Photo Details: Camera NIKON D3200; Exposure Time 0.0020s (1/500);
   Aperture ƒ/11.0; ISO equivalent 360; Focal Length (35mm) 105.
     * Farmington Bay, Utah Coordinates:  41.03738, -112.15494

Related EPODs

    The Shrinking Great Salt Lake  Mass Balance  Archive -
   Longest Day  Ice Out on Sebago Lake in 2020  Archive -
   Breidamerkurjökull Ice Cap  Death Valley’s Zabriskie Point

Climatology Links

     *  Aerosols: Tiny Particles, Big Impact
     *  JetStream - An Online School for Weather
     *  Climate History
     *  National Centers for Environmental Information
     *  Global Climate Animations
     *  NOAA Climate Analysis Branch
     *  Vital Climate Graphics

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   Earth Science Picture of the Day is a service of the  Universities
   Space Research Association.

https://epod.usra.edu
 
