![]() ![]() ![]() India’s largest inland salt lake, Sambhar Salt Lake, is in severe decline, as is Africa’s Lake Chad. The Aral Sea in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, once the world’s fourth largest lake, has at times in recent decades withered to a tenth of its historic 68,000-square-kilometer surface area. Lake Poopó, a high-elevation lake in Bolivia that used to stretch 90 kilometers long and 32 kilometers wide, is now a salty mud flat. And as the lakes shrink, their concentration of salt increases. Residents siphon water from streams and rivers into canals, pipelines or reservoirs before it reaches the lakes. Since they are usually found in arid landscapes that receive little precipitation, saline lakes are the first in line to be affected by long-term droughts, which are becoming more common with climate change.Īt the same time, the people who live in these deserts divert freshwater for crops, homes and industry. As water evaporates, salts are left behind from the minerals that wash off the surrounding landscape. Saline lakes are terminal lakes - they have no drain, meaning no rivers flow out of them. Many of the world’s saline lakes are facing a double whammy: People are taking more water from the tributaries that feed the lakes, while a hotter, drier climate means it takes longer to refill them.įound on every continent, saline lakes include the Caspian Sea, the largest lake in the world, as well as the lowest, the Dead Sea. “It’s now on the forefront of every Utahan’s mind.”Īnd the Great Salt Lake isn’t unique. Exposed sediments can also reduce air quality and so threaten public health. The low lake level and increasing salinity threaten to disrupt economic mainstays like agriculture, tourism, mineral extraction and brine shrimp harvesting. As the lake recedes, its namesake city and surrounding communities face a host of potential problems. The decades-long decline in lake level is raising alarm bells for millions of people who live in the region. The lake’s shrinking threatens to upend the ecosystem, disrupting the migration and survival of 10 million birds, including ducks and geese.ĭuck hunters aren’t the only ones worried about the Great Salt Lake. The lake’s elevation sank to nearly six meters below the long-term average, shriveling the Western Hemisphere’s largest saline lake to half its historic surface area. Last fall, the Great Salt Lake hit its lowest level since record keeping began. ![]()
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