File:Salton Sea, Mecca, California (15470825080).jpg

The Salton Sea is a shallow, saline, endorheic rift lake located directly on the San Andreas Fault, predominantly in California's Imperial and Coachella valleys.

The lake occupies the lowest elevations of the Salton Sink in the Colorado Desert of Imperial and Riverside counties in Southern California. Currently, its surface is 234.0 ft (71.3 m) below sea level. The deepest point of the sea is 5 ft (1.5 m) higher than the lowest point of Death Valley. The sea is fed by the New, Whitewater, and Alamo Rivers, as well as agricultural runoff, drainage systems, and creeks.

The modern sea was accidentally created by the engineers of the California Development Company in 1905. In an effort to increase waterflow into the area for farming, irrigation canals were dug from the Colorado River into the valley. Due to fears of silt buildup, a cut was made in the bank of the Colorado River to further increase the water flow. The resulting outflow overwhelmed the engineered canal, and the river flowed into the Salton Basin for two years, filling the historic dry lake bed and creating the modern sea, before repairs were completed. While it varies in dimensions and area with fluctuations in agricultural runoff and rainfall, the Salton Sea averages 15 mi (24 km) by 35 mi (56 km). With an estimated surface area of 343 square miles (890 km2) or 350 square miles (910 km2), the Salton Sea is the largest lake in California. The average annual inflow is less than 1,200,000 acre·ft (1,500,000 dam3), which is enough to maintain a maximum depth of 44 ft (13 m) and a total volume of about 6,000,000 acre·ft (7,400,000 dam3). However, due to changes in water apportionments hammered out for the Colorado River under the Quantification Settlement Agreement of 2003, the overall water level of the Sea is expected to decrease significantly between 2013 and 2021.

The lake's salinity, about 54 g/l, is greater than that of the waters of the Pacific Ocean (35 g/l), but less than that of the Great Salt Lake (which ranges from 50 to 270 g/l). The concentration increases by about 1% every year.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salton_Sea