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The Salton Sea -

The Salton Sea is the largest lake in California. Set in the Colorado Desert and spanning the state's Imperial and Coachella valleys, the lake's surface area is currently 889 sq km (343 sq mi).

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Created by mistake -

The sea is not the product of the powers of nature. Instead, it's man-made, created from an engineering mistake.

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Flooding - In 1900, water from the Colorado River was diverted for irrigation purposes into the Salton Sink (pictured back in the day), a dry river bed. But in 1905 floodwater created by heavy rainfall and snowmelt breached a series of poorly built canals and headgates to create two new rivers. Over the next two years or so, these waterways sporadically carried the entire volume of the Colorado River into the Salton Sink.

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From dry river bed to enormous sea -

As the basin filled, the town of Salton and surrounding land was submerged. The sudden influx of water and the lack of any drainage from the basin resulted in the formation of the Salton Sea.

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"Welcome to Salton Sea Beach" -

In the 1950s and '60s, the Salton Sea enjoyed success as a resort destination. Along the western shore, places like Salton City, Salton Sea Beach, and Desert Shores became favorite vacation retreats.

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Recreation area - Along the sea's northeast shore, Desert Beach and North Shore thrived. So too did popular Bombay Beach. Hotels, yacht clubs, homes, golf courses, and schools sprung up. Salton Sea also boasted a wildlife refuge. But disaster loomed.

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Limited drainage facilties - The Salton Sea is a shallow, saline, endorheic rift lake. That's to say it's a lake with limited drainage that normally retains water with no method of allowing water outflow to a river or ocean.

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Water quality compromised - As a result, the lake fluctuates in extent and depth over time depending on local precipitation and inflow rates from its sources. In time, high salinity, evaporation, and increased pollution started to jeopardize water quality.

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Sitting on top of the San Andreas Fault - Exacerbating the situation was the fact that the Salton Sea is located directly on top of the San Andreas Fault. Originally a freshwater lake, by the 1960s Salton was laden with salt and toxic minerals, released through the seabed as a result of seismic activity.

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Threat to ecosystem -

The lake's fragile ecosystem was in grave danger of collapsing. With pollutants pouring into the sea, numerous fish species perished, including millions of tilapia, their bleached skeletons littering the shore.

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Dying en masse - With their prime food source vanishing, bird species too began to die off en masse. Many also suffered the harmful  effects of ingesting fertilizer-laden agricultural wastewater.

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Evaporation - Vast areas of the sea literally evaporated into thin air to flat vast plains of saline crust.

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Dry land - What used to be covered by water became dry land. And this had a terrible consequence for birdlife.

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Destruction - Coyotes' tracks are seen where land has formed, turning the sea's Mullet Island, in the distance, into a peninsula and allowing predators to reach and destroy a colony where thousands of cormorants and pelicans used to nest.

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Mullet Island - Disused bird nests lie in scattered abandon on former Mullet Island. The once vibrant habitat is now a wildlife ghost haven. 

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Near terminal decline - Empty bird nests in trees that were once surround by the waters of the Salton Sea stand as testament to an ecosystem in near terminal decline. 

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A lake of salt - By 2014, large swaths of lake bed were exposed and salt levels drastically increased due to mandated water transfers to metropolitan areas along the coast. Limited water inflow only compounded the situation. 

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The last resorts - It's not just the natural world that's been impacted by the shrinking of the Salton Sea. The showcase resorts that once played host to the likes of the Beach Boys and Sonny and Cher have disappeared.

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Bombay Beach - Ironically, chic Bombay Beach was hit by flooding in the early 1970s. But by then the receding Salton Sea had already dampened the vacation spirit.

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Business sinks - The public stayed away, and business and tourism took a direct hit. In time abandoned and salt-encrusted structures were all that was left on the shore at Bombay Beach.

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Beached for good - An abandoned boat is seen beached far from the receding waters of the Salton Sea at the community of Bombay Beach.

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Crumbling foundations - The foundation of the clubhouse of the former PGA golf course that once attracted personalities from singer Frank Sinatra to US President Dwight Eisenhower during the heyday of the Salton Sea resort area.

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Public health warning - Nowadays the dry seabed threatens public health as exposed playa become dust bowls, harming an area already known for high asthma rates and elevated levels of air pollution.

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Worthless - Developed in the 1960s, Salton City's heyday was brief. By the middle of the following decade most of the buildings constructed along the shoreline, including the city's marina, were abandoned and Salton City as a recreational destination fell off the map. Even today, despite attempts at regenerating the area, land remains depreciated, with new build almost non existent.

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Geothermal activity - Evidence of geothermal activity remains visible in the boiling mudpots and mud volcanoes found on the eastern side of the Salton Sea.

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Still working - Taking advantage of this natural phenomenon are a number of geothermal electricity generation plants located along the southeastern shore of the Salton Sea in Imperial County—a welcome source of employment in a region blighted by economic depression.

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Biodiversity - Despite its perilous ecological condition, the lake has been described by the Salton Sea Science Office as a "crown jewel of avian biodiversity."

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Outstanding birdlife - Over 400 species have been documented at the Salton Sea, birds that include eared grebe, northern harrier, and glossy ibis (pictured).

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American white pelican - The Salton Sea supports 30% of the remaining population of the American white pelican. 

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Cleaning up - After decades of neglect, the Salton Sea looks to benefit from an initiative steered by the Salton Sea Authority to evaluate and develop ways and methods to save this iconic body of water.

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Sustainable future -

The ambitious plans include providing clean and safe habitats for fish and birds by building new water bodies for them. And the redevelopment of Salton City has already commenced, driven in part by the escalating California housing market.

See also: The amazing sunken forest of Lake Kaindy

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