New Bathymetry of the Great Salt Lake

GeoCarta's Roger Hart just reminded me of something I miss: the Great Salt Lake. Follow the links through his blog to the USGS's new bathymetric maps of my favorite little inland sea. Back in the day, I fished for perch and sailed in Gunnison Bay. Evaporation from the lake contributes to the annual 500" of snow dumped on Alta. Sea Monkies (Artemia franciscana) frolic in the smelly, briny compartment south of the railroad causeway. The modern lake is a remnant of ancient Lake Bonneville, which suddenly poured into the Snake River about 14,000 years ago. Estimates of the flow during the flood event are as high as 33 million cubic feet per second.

The image to the left of ancient and modern lake levels is from an online class at the University of Utah.