[Geology2] Re: The Salton Trough

Very pretty picture, but the Salton Sea itself is a huge problem. The
irrigation runoff that keeps it full is making it saltier and saltier,
threatening to turn it into a dead sea. Big fish die-offs, etc.
Government agencies are spending millions on experimental schemes to try
to find some way to reduce the salinity.

Guess that's what happens when you frack around with mother nature.

Vic



--- In geology2@yahoogroups.com, Lin Kerns wrote:
>
> M
> y favorite place on earth (so far):
>
>
> [image: Salton Trough]
>
> acquired June 21, 2013
> download large
> image (528 KB, JPEG, 1440x960)
>
> The Imperial and Coachella Valleys of southern California, and the
> corresponding Mexicali Valley and Colorado River Delta in Mexico, are
part
> of the Salton Trough. This large geologic structure, known to
geologists as
> a graben or rift valley, extends into
> the Gulf of California. The trough is a geologically complex zone
formed by
> the interaction of the San Andreas transform fault system—which
is, broadly
> speaking, moving southern California towards Alaska—and the
northward
> motion of the Gulf of California segment of the East Pacific Rise,
which
> continues to widen the Gulf of California by seafloor spreading.
>
> Sediments deposited by the Colorado River have been filling the
northern
> rift valley (the Salton Trough) for several million years, excluding
the
> waters of the Gulf of California, and providing a fertile environment
for
> the development of extensive, irrigation-aided agriculture in the
region
> (visible as green and yellow-brown fields at image center). The Salton
> Sea, a favorite
> landmark of astronauts in low-earth orbit, was formed by the
> rupture of an irrigation canal in 1905 and today is sustained by
> agricultural runoff water.
>
> A wide array of landforms and land uses in the Salton Trough are
visible
> from space. In addition to the agricultural fields and Salton Sea,
several
> metropolitan areas are visible, including Yuma, Arizona;
> Mexicali, Mexico;
> and the San
> Diego-Tijuana conurbation on
> the Pacific Coast (image left). The 72-kilometer-long Algodones
> Dunefield also
> is visible at image top right.
>
> Astronaut photograph
> ISS036-E-11034 was
> acquired on June 21, 2013, with a Nikon D3S digital camera using a 50
> millimeter lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations
> experiment and Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, Johnson Space
Center.
> The image was taken by the Expedition 36
> crew. It
> has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts
> have been removed. The International Space Station
> Program supports
> the laboratory as part of the ISS
> National Lab to
> help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest
> value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely
> available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and
> cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut
Photography
> of Earth. Caption by William L. Stefanov,
> Jacobs/JETS at NASA-JSC.
>
> http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=81711&src=eoa-iotd
>
>
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