California’s largest lake sits 70m below sea level and is shrinking every year, its old shoreline still visible as a pale ring around the water (Salton Sea, California, Sentinel-2, Sep 2026)
Posted by Prudent_Egg9101
California’s largest lake sits 70m below sea level and is shrinking every year, its old shoreline still visible as a pale ring around the water (Salton Sea, California, Sentinel-2, Sep 2026)
Posted by Prudent_Egg9101
25 Comments
Captured by Sentinel-2 on 1 September 2026, centred near 33.180, -115.706.
The Salton Sea wasn’t supposed to exist. In 1905 the Colorado River broke through irrigation works being dug into the Imperial Valley and poured into a dry basin for roughly a year and a half before the breach was closed. What was left behind is the largest lake in California by surface area, sitting about 70 metres below sea level with no outlet at all.
It has been shrinking for decades, mostly because the agricultural runoff that kept it topped up has been reduced. The pale band around the water is exposed lakebed, ground that was underwater within living memory. On the right side of the frame you can see how abruptly it meets the Imperial Valley’s irrigated fields, one of the sharpest water-to-farmland edges anywhere in the country.
Disclosing that I run Fields From Orbit, so this is my own site: the full piece is at [fieldsfromorbit.com/collections/ice-water/the-turquoise-basin-no-1/](http://fieldsfromorbit.com/collections/ice-water/the-turquoise-basin-no-1/)
Such an absolutely cool area to visit. Feels apocalyptic.
The Salton Sea is a man made ecological disaster. Shrinking every year is a good thing.
People will start building on the old shoreline, then there will be an insanely wet season and all those homes will flood. Owners will be like “HOw coULd tHiS HaPpEn?” You see it in new Orleans, Houston, and all up and down the Mississippi.
Nature’s resilience is astonishing, but this is alarming.
The sea that shouldn’t be!
My daughter and I drove out there during a heat wave, decades ago. I have a cherished picture of her holding a thermometer showing 122° F. The smell from the lake was more intolerable than the heat, and the lake water wasn’t just warm, it was **hot**.
Soon it will be Camp Green Lake!
Let’s go dig some holes.
Let’s not forget about all of the lithium
This is also the likeliest place a magnitude 7.5 or higher on the San Andreas fault(AKA The Big One) will originate at
Super crazy place to visit.
The Monster That Challenged The World
The whole thing was an accident.
I used to buy meth from a van parked on a concrete slab in Desert Shores.
terrible algae infestation
Does anyone know the etymology of “Salton” in this context? Like I get that it’s salty, but who actually decided to call it Salt*on*?
All I can find is that Salton Sink was named that before the Sea was present. There doesn’t appear to have been a town there (i.e. Salt-town). Salton is a place name in the UK, so maybe the name was borrowed because of the salt association? Saltón is a Spanish word, but it’s not related. “Salten” is a rare English synonym for “salty”, but that’s not “Salton”.
And please don’t reply with Google AI Overview slop, the claims they provide for the etymology are unsourced.
Farmers there demand more water (as usual) to fix the problem, but not water to directly feed the lake and keep it stable mind you.
Water to go to them, and *the runoff* will feed the lake (why “waste” water?) The same runoff settling industrial chemicals at the lake bottom for a century now. The lake bottom currently receding and exposing a century’s worth of agricultural pesticide/fertilizer as airborne particulates. And not just the arguable stuff like RoundOne and others going through lawsuits. Includes the earlier stuff over the century like DDT.
Since it’s below sea level, id advocate for gravity fed pipeline from the Sea of Cortez to refill it. Yes, it would be seawater going into the lake, but it would lower the salinity of the lake substantially.
This is actually the result of the water saving measures California imposed on farmers in the imperial valley after the feds cracked down on our overdrawing. Less water started running off because it was being conserved.
In early 00s we were drawing 5.2 maf from the Colorado, last year it was 3.8 maf.
Why does it look like there are “cracks” in the middle of the sea?
Not really a permanent lake, It dries up and refills over long periods of time. The most current “refill” was an accident in 1905 when they were trying to bring water from the Colorado river to agriculture in the area. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salton_Sea](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salton_Sea)
That’s actually not sand but fish bones going all the way around
Ive been to slab city, the whole area around this lake is absolutely wild
So there’s a reason why it’s called a “sea” and not a “lake,” and that’s because it’s man-made (accidentally) and highly saline.
California’s largest lake is arguably Tahoe, but part of Tahoe is in Nevada, so a lot of people claim the ironically named Clear Lake instead.