Great Salt Lake Desert
Encyclopedia : G : GR : GRE : Great Salt Lake Desert
The Great Salt Lake Desert is a large playa in northern Utah, located west of the Great Salt Lake. It is an arid region extending west from the Great Salt Lake to the Nevada border. It covers 4,000 sq. mi. (10,360 sq. km) in area.
The sand there is white due to the high concentration of salt in the soil. The salt comes mainly from evaporite deposits left by the extinct Lake Bonneville, of which only the Great Salt Lake and Utah Lake remain. Several small mountain ranges crisscross through and along the edges of the desert, such as the Cedar Mountains, Lakeside Mountains, Silver Island Mountains, Hogup Mountains, and Newfoundland Mountains. On the western edge of the desert, just across the border with Nevada, stands Pilot Peak.
A large portion of the desert is used by the military. A section of Hill Air Force Base is to the north and the Wendover Gunnery Range and Dugway Proving Grounds are to the south. A large section of the desert is still accessible though, where I-80 crosses the desert. The interstate runs exactly east-west and is dead straight for almost 50 miles, between the Cedar Mountains to the east and Wendover on the Utah/Nevada border. The Bonneville Salt Flats have a race track that was the location for land speed records set during the 50s, 60s and 70s. The desert is also home to the Skull Valley Indian Reservation.
The only significant settlements in the desert are Wendover and Dugway, with only about 1,500 residents each.
Certain unusual plants can be found there, having adapted to the harsh conditions. The desert is hot during the summer and cool during the winter. It is warmer than the rest of northern Utah but is cooler than most of the south. Most of the desert receives less than 8 in (20 cm) of precipitation annually.
This region was the site of many unusual experiments made by Dr. Thomas Henry Moray.
|
State of Utah Cities | Counties | Flag | Flower | Governors | Song [[Portal:Utah|Utah portal]] |
|---|---|
| State Capital: | Salt Lake City |
| Regions: | Cache Valley | Dixie | Great Salt Lake | Great Salt Lake Desert | Uinta Mountains | Wasatch Back | Wasatch Front | Wasatch Range |
| '''Metropolitan Areas (with constituent cities):''' |
Logan
Ogden-Clearfield - Bountiful | Kaysville | Layton | Roy Provo-Orem - American Fork | Lehi | Pleasant Grove | Spanish Fork | Springville Salt Lake City - Cottonwood Heights | Draper | Holladay | Midvale | Murray | Park City | Riverton | Sandy | South Jordan | Taylorsville | Tooele | West Jordan | West Valley City |
| Micropolitan Areas: | Brigham City | Cedar City | Heber | Price | Vernal |
| Counties: | Beaver | Box Elder | Cache | Carbon | Daggett | Davis | Duchesne | Emery | Garfield | Grand | Iron | Juab | Kane | Millard | Morgan | Piute | Rich | Salt Lake | San Juan | Sanpete | Sevier | Summit | Tooele | Uintah | Utah | Wasatch | Washington | Wayne | Weber |
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.