Utah’s Great Salt Lake is hiding something that could rewrite its entire geological history. Scientists studying the lakebed uncovered evidence suggesting its formation timeline is drastically different from what textbooks claim.
The Great Salt Lake in Utah is sometimes called America’s Dead Sea. It is not entirely dead, but its decline has become a central environmental concern for the region. In February 2023, Lynne de Freitas, executive director of the organization Friends of Great Salt Lake, went to observe the lake as she had for thirty years. Instead of standing at the water’s edge, she stood on dry, cracked salt cru…