Great Salt Lake Facts for Kids

A Picture of the Great Salt Lake
  • Lake Name: Great Salt Lake
  • Location: Utah, USA
  • Type of Lake: Saline Lake (saltwater)
  • Lake Size: 15.3+ million acre-ft
  • Average Depth: 16 feet
  • Maximum Depth: 33 feet

20 Great Salt Lake Facts for Kids

  1. The Great Salt Lake is in Utah, United States, North America.
  2. The Great Salt Lake is a saline lake, also known as a salt lake.
  3. The Great Salt Lake is most well-known for being the saltiest lake in the United States and Western Hemisphere.
  4. The Great Salt Lake is named after the nearby city Salt Lake City.
  5. The GPS coordinates of the Great Salt Lake are 41 °10′N 112 °35′W.
  6. The maximum length of the Great Salt Lake is 75 miles.
  7. The maximum width of the Great Salt Lake is 28 miles.
  8. The surface area of the Great Salt Lake covers 1,700 square miles.
  9. The Great Salt Lake contains 4.53 cubic miles of water.
  10. The average depth of the Great Salt Lake is 16 feet.
  11. The deepest point of the Great Salt Lake is 33 feet.
  12. In 1963, the Great Salt Lake reached a historic water level low and only covered 950 square miles.
  13. In 1988, the Great Salt Lake reached a historic water level high and covered around 3,300 square miles.
  14. The Great Salt Lake is known to produce lake-effect snow, just like the Great Lakes of North America.
  15. Some estimates claim 10% of the average snowfall over Salt Lake City is from lake-effect snow.
  16. According to the Utah Geological Survey there are 11 islands in the Great Salt Lake. There actual number of islands in the Great Salt Lake depend on its water level. The total amount of islands is often debated.
  17. The largest island in the Great Salt Lake is Antelope Island, it covers about 42 square miles.
  18. The Great Salt Lake generates around $1.3 billion dollars annually for the U.S. state of Utah. Around $1.1 billion of this revenue comes from mineral extraction.
  19. Pink Floyd the flamingo, a Chilean flamingo (Phoenicopterus chilensis), was a flamingo who escaped from the Salt Lake City’s Tracy Aviary in 1987 and wintered in the Great Salt Lake.
  20. The North Shore Monster is an alleged monster that lives in the Great Salt Lake.

Additional Resources on the Great Salt Lake

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