The Salton Sea

​

The Salton Sea is a shallow, saline, endorheic rift lake located directly on the San Andreas Fault.

 

It was created in the early 1900s after heavy rain caused the Colorado River to burst through the banks of an irrigation canal, sending millions of gallons of water into a previously dried-out lake bed in the California desert. 

 

In the 50s it became Palm Springs but with beaches; it would regularly attract over half a million visitors annually.

 

By the 70s, the water was becoming too hostile to sustain much of any kind of life and the shoreline became littered with thousands of dead fish. The smell of these dead fish combined with rotting algal blooms, making the water putrid.

 

The Salton Sea is the most enigmatic place I’ve been.