where did the Great Salt lake come from?

buschmaster

millions of years ago, North America had a lot of water on it.



by 1 million years ago it had receded some.



after that went away, the eastern shore left the sandhills that we have in western Nebraska.
the other states with a shoreline didn't get sandhills because they didn't need them.

in the last ice age there were large lakes in the Western US, and Texas was finally able to play football.



lake Bonneville was about as big as Lake Michigan.

around 15,000 BC a natural dam broke and it spewed all over Idaho, drowning foxes and deer and bunnies.
it left the Great Salt Lake which is 10 times smaller.

Sam06

Poor bunnies

Rocky Raab

Bonneville grew and shrank numerous times. We have what are called "benches" here along the Wasatch Front. Five or six of them are easily seen; scientists say there are at least nine. You can see them as straight lines stretching out all along the mountainsides, looking a bit like bleacher rows. Each one was a Bonneville shoreline for significant lengths of time and formed terraces. The highest ones mean that Lake Bonneville was something like 900+ feet deep at some point.

At its highest, it managed to breach through at its northern end, and the resulting water flow and erosion carved a cleft that drained almost all of it down the Snake River. The Snake River Grand Canyon is a result, and estimates are that all that rock was carved away in as little as a month. Talk about a gusher!

Today, Great Salt Lake is a terminus lake. It has no outflow. All the water that feeds into it disappears only by evaporation, leaving whatever salts and minerals the water contained behind. Thus we have Bonneville Salt Flats, and the GSL itself, which can be up to eight times saltier than the oceans.

Brookwood

Interesting stuff I didn't know! Are there any fish or life in general in the Great Salt Lake? Instead of google, thought I'd ask here.

Rocky Raab

Only brine shrimp (aka "Sea Monkeys"). The harvesting of their eggs brings millions of dollars, surprisingly. Brine shrimp eggs are sold as food for fish farms in Asia. The shrimp, tilapia, and other imported seafood you eat were raised on sea monkey eggs!

Everything else that gets washed into GSL soon dies due to the salt level. Even kills carp. There's a species of brine fly that lives on algae and lays its eggs in the GSL. There are bazillions of those non-biting flies and eggs, which become a magnet for all kinds of waterfowl from ducks and shorebirds to geese and swans. The waterfowl hunting here is amazing. GSL also breeds a small but extremely aggressive mosquito, unfortunately. Way too damn many of those!

bustedknee

Sears & Roebuck?

Rocky Raab

Besides brine shrimp eggs, the major and even larger harvest from the GSL is minerals. Companies like Morton have square miles of evaporating ponds where GSL water is pumped in, evaporates and leaves all the salt and minerals behind. 90% of road salt and the majority of table salt comes from the GSL. They also reap large amounts of potassium, magnesium, calcium, and even zirconium - which is used in nuclear reactors.

It's not due to GSL or even the old Lake Bonneville, but we have salt mines in southern Utah that were deposited by the ancient seas shown in the first part of this thread. Redmond Sea Salt is the product, and it is indeed a great tasting salt. I rank it with the most expensive Hawaiian or Himalayan stuff for variety of flavor and "sweetness" due to its pristine and ancient chemical content.

montanajoe

...something changed the climate,,

jimdeere

?Where did the Great Salt Lake come from??
Nowhere. It?s been there all along.

TRAP55

I've always wondered what brought seagulls out there. Were they lost, or one told the rest, "hey, lets leave this ocean full of fish snacks, and fly out into that desert"?

buschmaster

He Dog

I understand they got it from Philadelphia.

buschmaster

if they got it from Chicago you can bet they would have got ripped off somehow.

hmm... it was as big as Lake Michigan, but it shrunk to 1/10 the size... and who's got a Lake Michigan now? hmm...

discusdad

interesting reading of the dam breakage, as its very similar to what happened here in Missoula Mt and formed the Bitterroot valley, scouring the terrain far into Idaho, and Washington. PBS has a great episode on "Glacial Lake Missoula"

Brookwood

Thank you Rocky for the info on GSL wildlife! If I lived close to that lake I'd be using the water to brine my meat and fish for smoking! :P

As a young boy I once ordered Sea Monkeys from an add in a comic book. They sure didn't match the pictures in the sales promos! :shock: I kept them alive for several months before my younger brother put a goldfish into my Sea Monkey bowl!

Rocky Raab

You would not want to brine your meat in GSL water. It's far too salty for one, and it's far from sterile for another. And stink? Whoooeeee! That's more the product of vegetation decay, but when the lake level is down and the wind is wrong... whoa.

There is a massive resort/dance hall/spa called Saltair on the shore near the City. Very popular back in the day. But it slowly corroded and dissolved in that brine, the lake smell dropped attendance, and it suffered major fires. There have been three revisions of it, and the last one is essentially abandoned. People used to take photos of themselves bobbing like corks in that super dense water - all tourists. No local will go near that water. There's a marina on the lake that's popular with some folks, but it's all sail boats. No engine lasts long in that brine. Or anything metal, for that matter.

SALTAIR

jimdeere

If you?re interested in this subject, look into the ancient Teays River in current West Virginia, Ohio, etc.
https://www.nytimes.com/1983/11/29/science/a-great-lost-river-gets-its-due.html

Cornflk1

Thanks for all the posts, I love all that great history of how the land was formed.

Horse Plains Drifter

jimdeere wrote:

If you?re interested in this subject, look into the ancient Teays River in current West Virginia, Ohio, etc.
https://www.nytimes.com/1983/11/29/science/a-great-lost-river-gets-its-due.html

Interesting read, thanks for posting.

Brookwood

Rocky Raab wrote:

You would not want to brine your meat in GSL water. It's far too salty for one, and it's far from sterile for another. And stink? Whoooeeee! That's more the product of vegetation decay, but when the lake level is down and the wind is wrong... whoa.

There is a massive resort/dance hall/spa called Saltair on the shore near the City. Very popular back in the day. But it slowly corroded and dissolved in that brine, the lake smell dropped attendance, and it suffered major fires. There have been three revisions of it, and the last one is essentially abandoned. People used to take photos of themselves bobbing like corks in that super dense water - all tourists. No local will go near that water. There's a marina on the lake that's popular with some folks, but it's all sail boats. No engine lasts long in that brine. Or anything metal, for that matter.

SALTAIR

Just WOW! Instead of naming it the Great Salt Lake, I'd of named it America's Dead Sea! Pretty sure there were real estate agents involved in what we call the place!

Rocky Raab

The earliest white people to arrive were trappers and such. They thought they'd come to the Pacific Ocean, the lake is so big. The Indians just snickered, of course. Alas, the joke was on them because the damn whites wouldn't stop coming. Still are: Utah is one of the fastest growing states in population.

CaptFun

discusdad wrote:

interesting reading of the dam breakage, as its very similar to what happened here in Missoula Mt and formed the Bitterroot valley, scouring the terrain far into Idaho, and Washington. PBS has a great episode on "Glacial Lake Missoula"

Dont believe anything you see/hear on PBS. They are liars extraordinaire. The foulest of the snake tongued fake news machines.

kimi

montanajoe wrote:

...something changed the climate,,

Yep, the Longhorns travelled a long way to get a crowd of two with Paul and Old Blue...and the Aggies think they have a big bonfire!

kimi

TRAP55 wrote:

I've always wondered what brought seagulls out there. Were they lost, or one told the rest, "hey, lets leave this ocean full of fish snacks, and fly out into that desert"?