Great Salt Lake

Lake in northwest Utah, USA, 18 km/11 mi northwest of Salt Lake City. It is 130 km/81 mi long and 80 km/50 mi wide, with an area of approximately 4,145 sq km/1,600 sq mi, although it fluctuates greatly in size. The lake is generally 5 m/16 ft deep but its depth, too, varies. The lake is fed by the Bear, Weber, and Jordan rivers, but has no outlet other than evaporation. This is the second most saline body of water in the world after the Dead Sea; the manufacture of salt is an important industry. The lake attracts bathers.

Great Salt Lake lies some 1,280 m/4,200 ft above sea level, situated in the eastern part of the Great Basin near the foot of the Wasatch Mountains. It is the last remainder of Lake Bonneville, see Bonneville Salt Flats, an inland sea that was once 51,800 sq km/20,000 sq mi and stretched into Idaho and Nevada. The lake's water contains sodium chloride, magnesium chloride, and sodium sulphate; Glauber's salt (hydrated sodium sulphate) occurs in large quantities in some parts of the lake. Owing to the high specific gravity of the water, the human body will not sink in it.

Great Salt Lake is an important nesting ground for waterfowl.