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The Salton Sea, however, is unnatural. Before humans interfered, it was just a dry valley. It was never sustainable, regardless of the usage pattern or climate
by scythe 4y ago
The Salton Sea, however, is unnatural. Before humans interfered, it was just a dry valley. It was never sustainable, regardless of the usage pattern or climate trajectory.
- giraffe_lady 4y agoWasn't it one of the two end-points the colorado used to alternate between? When it was draining that way it was there, and when it flipped every few decades or centuries it wasn't. There's not ever a firm line between "natural" and "after humans interfered" as if those are separate, unrelated and incompatible things. But in this case it is particularly fuzzy.
- s1artibartfast 4y agoI think the switching occured much less frequently, with the lake drawing down and drying in between. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Cahuilla#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Cahuilla#History The lake existed in several stages over the last 2,000 years, periodically drying and refilling and eventually disappearing sometime after 1580. Between 1905 and 1907, due to an engineering accident, the Salton Sea formed in parts of the lower basin of Lake Cahuilla. Were it not for human intervention, the sea might have grown to the size of prehistoric Lake Cahuilla.
- scythe 4y agoWhen the Colorado flowed into that valley, it also flowed out through the Hardy River, with the exit near Nuevo Leon. The metastable state that existed then inundated most of what is now the Imperial Valley; the city of Mexicali (pop ~1M) would be underwater.
- hinkley 4y agoLike the world's worst case of an oxbow lake I suppose?