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by LarryMullins
1254 days ago
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The chart shows year-to-year change, not lake level. It shows many periods in which the lake level drops year after year. In any case, even temporary drops of a meter or less will expose some lakebed and contaminate the entire area. And that contamination sticks around. The area doesn't get much rain to wash it away, so the region will be progressively poisoned as time goes on. Short of large-scale geo-engineering projects, the SLC area seems doomed. Not a good place to set root and raise a family. |
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Did you read the caption?
>Figure 3. Reconstructed Great Salt Lake water year level
The y-axis says "elevation change", which may be confusing, but it most likely means the difference from baseline. If the authors had uncovered evidence that the basin were completely dry, they would say that. It would be an interesting discovery: scientists want to highlight the interesting things they learned.
>The area doesn't get much rain to wash it away
Salt Lake City gets 95 days of precipitation per year, though the total is only 15 inches.
>Short of large-scale geo-engineering projects, the SLC area seems doomed. Not a good place to set root and raise a family.
This is completely unjustified by the evidence you've presented. If an area is definitely at imminent risk of catastrophe then scientists who study the region will be clear about that. See, for example, the Cascadia subduction zone, South Florida, the Salton Sea, and so forth.