History
The Salton Sea was formed between 1905 and 1907 when the Colorado River burst
through poorly built irrigation controls south of Yuma, Arizona. Almost the
entire flow of the river filled the Salton Basin for more than a year,
inundating communities, farms and the main line of the Southern Pacific
Railroad.
Continued filling of the Salton Sink was finally stopped in 1907, when a line
of protective levees was built by boxcars dumping boulders into the breach from
Southern Pacific tracks. By then, this inland lake was about 40 miles long and
13 miles wide, covering an area of about 400 square miles.
The Salton Sea is currently 35 miles by 15 miles and can be as long as 40 miles
by almost 20 miles in particularly wet years. It has an average depth of 29.9
feet and, at its deepest, is 51 feet. It contains 7.3 million acre feet of
water and evaporates 1.3 million acre feet each year. There is a five-mile-long
trench on the south end of the Sea that is 51 feet deep. The Sea is currently
228 feet below sea level. Interestingly, the bed of the Salton Sea is only five
feet higher than the lowest spot in Death Valley.
Presently, the fishery in the Salton Sea is thriving. Salinity is slightly more
than the Pacific Ocean. The current salt level of the Sea is in the area of 41
to 43 TH PPM. The Pacific Ocean is about 34.9 TH PPM.. If the concentrated salt
level of the Sea increases greater than 44 TH PPM., it is expected that all the
fish, except the Tilapia, will cease to reproduce. Tilapia can survive up to 60
TH PPM.
