Where does the salt in the Salt lake come from?

Question

btw can u swin and fish in that lake?

Answer 1

What happens is that rain water, and melting snow from surrounding areas run into Salt Lake. There is no outlet so over time (thousands of years) the surface water from the lake evaporates and leaves behind salt and other minerals. After doing this over and over again, the water has become salty.

I'm pretty sure you can swim in in and probably fish, but you will want to check with local authorities.

Answer 2

The Great Salt Lake is the remains of the much larger Lake Bonneville. Most of that lake has evaporated, leaving the salt behind.  You may have heard of the Bonneville salt flats, where a lot of racing records have been set. The salts from the rivers feeding the Great Salt Lake have nowhere to go, as there is no outlet from the lake, so the lake just keeps getting saltier.

Tourists sometimes swim in the lake and come out encrusted with salt crystals. Floating is easy; sinking is impossible; swimming is tiring. It is possible to drown in the lake if you get too tired from trying to swim and can't keep your head up.

I suppose you could fish in the lake but you would get some very strange looks. The high salt content would kill any fish.

Answer 3

Salt Lake is endorheic (has no outlet besides evaporation) and has very high salinity, far saltier than sea water. 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 the balance of evaporated water is mineral-free, concentrating the lake further

Because of its unusually high salt concentration, most people can easily float in the lake as a result of the higher density of the water, particularly in the saltier north arm of the lake, Gunnison Bay

The lake provides habitat for millions of native birds, brine shrimp, shorebirds, and waterfowl, including the largest staging population of Wilson's Phalarope in the world.[6]