how salty is the great salt lake?

[anitashott]

is it saltier than the ocean? what causes it? do they use it for anything?

[byzandula]

It is quite a bit more salty than the ocean. It is VERY easy to float in due to displacement. This is from wikipedia: The Jordan, Weber, and Bear rivers (the three major tributaries) deposit around 1.1 million tons of minerals in the lake each year,[1] and since water (but not the minerals) is constantly being evaporated, the concentration of minerals increases further.

That's a lot of salt and it is ever increasing. It is like North America's own dead sea.

It is used for boating (usually sailboats), though is very under used in my opinion. It is very shallow so that could be the reason behind it.

-Byz

[slakwhere]

there's lots of salt mining and brine shrimping as well out there.

[rshosted]

For some reason it seems to be less salty than years ago....

[brewmasterorr]

It?s pretty salty . It?s the closest thing we have to the Ocean though and you can get some good sailing in. Just stay away from the shore in the summer all the brine shrimp dry up on shore and it stinks!

[nebben]

The salinity varies depending on water level and in which part of the lake you're measuring it.

Technically, although salt is extracted from the lake, it is also replenished via the streams that empty back into it.

So in short, it depends

[doclouie]

Yes more salty than the ocean. That is why almost nothing grows or lives in it.

[jonmoab]

It's salt content is so high that you do not want to swim in it! I remember swimming there as a kid and it was nasty back then. I think it has gotten even worse as the water level receeds.

[remmons]

There ws an episode on T.V a few months back on How It's Made about the Morton Salt Company and their operations there. It was cool to watch!

[lomondpeak]

so salty an anorexic will float...way more than the ocean....