As the Great Lake Solt shrinks, there is something unexpected to rise to the surface

Lake Great Salt Lake has once reached depths of up to 1000 feet and spanned about 20,000 square miles, but today, mostly resemble barren land. So, when the signs of life suddenly began to appear through a drying game, scientists were confused.

In the past few years, the hills covered with reeds appeared off the southeastern beach of the lake. These intensive vegetable oases should receive enough fresh water to preserve the life of the plant, but experts were not sure where this resource comes. Researchers at the University of Utah are working to reach the bottom of this puzzle, gradually revealing the plumbing plumbing system that pumps fresh groundwater in the lake and the wet lands surrounding it.

It seems that “a water resource may be useful in the future, but we need to understand it and not dispense with it at the expense of wetlands,” said co -researcher William Johnson, a professor of geology and geophysics at U of U, at a university. statement.

An environmental crisis deterioration

Excessive exploitation was one of the main motives of Great Salt Lake, search He appears. Humans have increasingly transformed fresh water from their nutrition currents for cultivation and municipal use. As climate change in this baked area of ​​the sun, the tributaries of the tense lake struggled to renew the loss of fast water.

If it is used responsibly, this new potential source of freshwater found below the lake can Dangerous Dust pollution blows in nearby societies. With this goal in mind, Johnson and his colleagues were using a set of tools and data – including peasometer measuring devices, leakage standards, salinity features, and more – to determine the location of fresh water deposits underground.

Under the surface investigation

In February, geophysics rented the Canadian expert to conduct air electromagnetic investigative studies over the Bay of Farmington, located on the southeastern beach of the lake. A helicopter with a carried electromagnetic sensor, which is suspended under it in the network style over the bay, where frequency was transported deep into the lake. Then the reception device recorded the electromagnetic signals that decrease, and collect data that helps researchers determine fresh water deposits.

Jeff Sanderson, the crew leader with expert geophysics, said in a U U of U’s U in U -U’s Us U U U U of U U U’s U OF U in U U M from U or from U U from U U from U from U from U from U U from U U from U U from U from U from U in U U: ”it will give you you. Spectrum, mainly, from magnetic fields, and we will use these data to create a 3D image of what is under the ground. “

The wealth of data collected by the researchers so far indicates that the vast freshwater supplier may extend thousands of feet under the cracked lake. It seems that the tremendous pressure it exerts on the groundwater layer allows water to rise through sediments, albeit very slowly. Thus, Johnson believes that the mysterious hills formed in places where the natural plumbing system provides fresh groundwater to the surface.

The team has not yet published its results, but it made preliminary data in July in the Geo -Association 2025 Goldsmitt conference In the Czech Republic. After that, they will work to appoint this fresh water resource and determine its age and where it originated from it. Johnson said: “The last thing I want to do is get this water resource, but it is very clear, and it is under pressure,” Johnson said. “In my opinion, it can help reduce any dust generation on the open Playa.”