Why is the Great Salt Lake So Salty?
The water flowing into the lake from the mountains carries dissolved mineral salts that have been removed from rocks and soils along the way. After the water enters the lake, there is only one way out – evaporation. As the water evaporates, it leaves behind the salts it brought into the lake, thus increasing the salinity of the lake water. It is estimated that more than 2 million tons of salts are added to the lake each year. As a result, the Great Salt Lake is one of the saltiest bodies of water in the world, with only the Dead Sea, on the border between Jordan and Israel, having a higher salinity. Depending on the lake level, the salinity of the lake in historic times has ranged from about 27% (7.7 times as salty as ocean water) to about 5% (1.4 times as salty).
