The Salton Sea is a saline, endorheic rift lake located directly on the San Andreas Fault in California's Border Region. The lake occupies the lowest elevations of the Salton Sink in the Colorado Desert of Imperial and Riverside Counties in Southern California. Like Death Valley, it is below sea level; currently, its surface is 69 m below sea level. Read more
Scientists Search for a Pulse in Skies Above Earthquake Country
When a swarm of hundreds of small to moderate earthquakes erupted beneath California's Salton Sea in March, sending spasms rumbling across the desert floor, it set off more than just seismometers. It also raised the eyebrows of quite a few concerned scientists. The reason: lurking underground, just a few kilometers to the northeast, lays a sleeping giant: the 160-kilometer-(100-mile) long southern segment of the notorious 1,300-kilometer- (800-mile) long San Andreas fault. Scientists were concerned that the recent earthquake swarm at the Salton Sea's BombayBeach could perhaps be the straw that broke the camel's back, triggering "the big one," a huge earthquake that could devastate Southern California.