The Salton Sea
California's largest lake, created by accident and shrinking
The Salton Sea, in the desert of far southern California, is the largest lake in the state by surface area — and one of the strangest, because it was created by accident. In 1905 the Colorado River, being diverted for irrigation, broke through its works and poured for nearly two years into the dry Salton Sink, a basin more than 200 feet below sea level, filling it into a vast inland sea before the breach was finally closed.
For decades the accidental lake thrived, sustained by farm runoff and briefly a booming desert resort. But with no outlet, its water only evaporates, and the inflow of salty agricultural drainage has made it saltier than the ocean and, as inflows shrink, ever smaller. The retreating shoreline now exposes broad flats of toxic dust, threatening the health of nearby communities and the migratory birds that depend on it — a slow-motion environmental crisis at California's lowest, hottest edge.