Salton Sea

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Salton Sea

lake, California, United States

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Mar 27, 2024 • Article History

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Mar. 27, 2024, 11:29 AM ET (AP)

Tiny, endangered fish hinders California's Colorado River conservation plan

Salton Sea, saline lake, in the lower Colorado Desert, southern California, U.S. The area that is now the lake was formerly a salt-covered sink or depression (a remnant of prehistoric Lake Cahuilla) about 280 feet (85 metres) below sea level until 1905–06, when diversion controls on the Colorado River broke a few miles below the California-Mexico border and floodwaters rushed northward, filling the depression. Subsequent deepening of the sink was stopped in 1907, when a line of protective levees was built. The lake at that time was about 40 miles (60 km) long and 13 miles (21 km) wide and ...(100 of 274 words)

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