8/30/2010
Ecology and Natural History of Great Salt Lake: Introduction and Geography
The Great Salt Lake is bounded on the east by the Wasatch Range and the west by the Great Basin Desert.
Falls within 5 Utah
Falls within 5 Utah counties
• Shallow basin
• 70 miles long x 30 miles wide
• 10 ft deep
• 1700 sq miles
• 6th largest lake in United States
Great Salt Lake (4,400 km2)
• 4th largest terminal lake in the world
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Inputs
• Precipitation – 31% • Bear River – 40%
• Jordan River – 13%
• Weber/Ogden River – 13%
• Ground Water – 3%
Salinity is variable
• time • location
• depth
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What is solubility – ability of gas, liquid or solid to dissolve in water
Solution consists of a liquid (solvent) with a substance (solute) dissolved in it.
Parts per expressions
Water body
Salinity
(parts per thousand)
Ocean
35
Mono Lake (CA)
78
Great Salt Lake
140
Dead Sea
(4x higher than ocean)
• one part per hundred (pph) = percent (%), grams solute/100mL of water • one part per thousand (ppt) = (0/00), grams solute/L (1 L water = 1 Kg) To convert % into ppt then multiply by 10
14% or 14 pph = 140ppt
220
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Measuring Concentrations
• one part per million (ppm) = the number of parts of solute in one million parts of solution (mg solute/L ; Kg of water).
Percent
Concentration in ppm is calculated using the following formula:
An aqueous solution contains 0.011 g of sulfuric acid and 2,000 grams of water.
You add 11 mg of sulfuric acid to 2,000 grams of water. What is the resulting concentration of sulfuric acid, in ppm?
f lf i
id i
?
1. 2. Why ?
Conversions ‐
1 mg/L = 1 ppm
1,000,000 ppm = 100%
1 000 000 mg/L = 100%
1,000,000 mg/L = 100%
• Inputs (precipitation, in‐flow)
• High – dilutes lake, less saline
• Low – concentrates, more saline
• Temperature
• Solubility
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Why ?
• Inputs (precipitation, in‐flow)
• High – dilutes lake, less saline
• Low – concentrates, more saline
• Temperature
• Solubility
• Evaporation
Other Saline Lakes
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1966
Great Salt Lake: the 4th largest terminal saline lake in the world –
THE ONLY ONE LEFT!!
1999
Lake Balkhash
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Mapping
Great Salt Lake
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