"The Salton Sea is a saline, endorheic rift lake located directly on the San Andreas Fault in Southern California. It is approximately 3 hours southeast of Los Angeles off the 10 freeway, 60 miles past Palm Springs. The deepest area of the sea is 5 ft (1.5 m) higher than the lowest point of Death Valley. It is located below sea level, with the current surface of the Salton Sea at 226 ft (69 m) below sea level. The sea is fed by the New, Whitewater, and Alamo rivers, as well as a number of minor agricultural drainage systems and creeks.
In the 1920s, the Salton Sea developed into a tourist attraction, because of its water recreation, and waterfowl attracted to the area.The Salton Sea has had some success as a resort area, with Salton City, Salton Sea Beach, and Desert Shores on the western shore and Desert Beach, North Shore, and Bombay Beach built on the eastern shore in the 1950s.The lack of an outflow means that the Salton Sea is a system of accelerated change. Variations in agricultural runoff cause fluctuations in water level (and flooding of surrounding communities in the 1950s and 1960s), and the relatively high salinity of the inflow feeding the Sea has resulted in ever increasing salinity.
The future of the Salton Sea is unclear, as intervention is required to manage the increasingly unstable system. Such intervention would require massive policy and financial commitments from the state and federal governments. The growth of San Diego, and its willingness to pay high prices for water, entices water districts to sell their water rather than dedicate it to agricultural purposes. As the Salton Sea is nearly completely dependent on agricultural water runoff, the lake is highly dependent on the path of water politics in the coming years"
In March 2009 Myself and a friend took a weekend trip out to the Salton Sea to take some photos and experiment with our photographic techniques, filters and equipment. Here are the images from my perspective of the area.
Extracts of information taken from the wikipedia article which can be found here.
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