You’ve likely heard the phrase, “every river meets the ocean.” In many watersheds, that’s true: water flows in and water flows out, eventually making its way to the ocean. But saline lakes don’t follow that same pattern. These unique, landlocked lakes have no outlet for water to escape to the ocean. Water can only exit the lake through evaporation, leaving behind salt and minerals that gradually concentrate, creating a lake that can be up to 10 times saltier than the ocean.
Saline lakes almost always form in semi-arid landscapes, closed basins, and low-lying geography where water can pool but not escape. Great Salt Lake is no exception: it’s trapped in a basin with no outlet, and fed by rivers in a semi-arid climate with hot summers and limited rainfall. Saline lakes are extremely delicate systems: their survival depends entirely on the balance between inflow and evaporation.
It becomes increasingly difficult for saline lakes to maintain their ideal balance when rivers are consistently diverted for cities, lawns and agriculture. Many species that normally thrive in saline lakes can’t survive hypersaline conditions caused by lack of inflow. As species like brine shrimp and brine flies disappear, the 12 million migratory birds that depend on them struggle to find food.
Living within our means is a vital part of protecting these fragile ecosystems.
Photo Credit: Chris Carlson
The creation of the Great Salt Lake is just as mystical as the lake itself. Around 30,000 years ago, much of present-day Utah was covered by Lake Bonneville, a large freshwater lake nearly ten times larger than Great Salt Lake. It stretched across a third of Utah and spilled into Idaho and Nevada, held in place by natural ridges and mountain ranges.
Lake Bonneville existed until about 15,000 years ago, when a natural dam in Idaho gave way. The resulting Bonneville Flood released an enormous rush of water northward and eventually to the ocean. As the climate warmed, much of what was left of the ancient lake evaporated. Today, Great Salt Lake is the largest remnant of Lake Bonneville, surviving as a salty echo of its grand ancestor.
The smaller remnants of this once-massive lake are each unique and have strikingly different stories. Utah Lake, a freshwater lake in Utah County, is sustained by steady inflows and feeds into Great Salt Lake. Meanwhile, Sevier Lake, a saline lake in Western Utah, has been cut off from all consistent water sources. It has almost entirely dried up, is a significant source of windblown toxic dust, and serves as a cautionary tale of what Great Salt Lake could become with continued unsustainable water consumption.
Saline lakes are nature’s mirrors. They reflect the climate around them and the choices we make upstream. When we divert and overuse the water that feeds them, the lakes respond. Their future depends on the decision we make today.
