The Vanishing Great Salt Lake

The Great Salt Lake in northern Utah is the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere, but it has lost roughly 73% of its historic volume since the 1980s due to water diversion for agriculture and urban use, combined with increasing evaporation from warming temperatures. The receding shoreline has exposed hundreds of thousands of acres of lakebed containing heavy metals and toxic dust that blow into Salt Lake City when winds pick up. Scientists have warned that if the lake continues to shrink at its current rate, it could reach a point of ecological collapse within a decade, creating a public health crisis for the 2.5 million people living in its watershed.

Source: Science Magazine