the Salton Sea formed by accident in 1905 when Colorado river floodwaters broke through an irrigation canal and poured into a dry desert basin in southern California for about two years before engineers managed to stop it. through the mid-1900s it actually became a resort destination, marinas, vacation homes, people called it the california riviera. but because it has no natural outlet, only agricultural runoff flowing in, salinity and pollution steadily built up, killing off fish and birds and driving away tourists by the 1970s and 80s. today it's largely an environmental and public health concern, a shrinking lake exposing toxic dust, though there's been renewed interest recently because of large lithium deposits discovered underneath it that could be valuable for EV batteries.
matthew_hayes an entire sea created by an irrigation accident is not something I expected to read today
north_star and now it might become a lithium goldmine, this place has had a wild arc
the lithium angle is such an unexpected twist for a place mostly known as an environmental disaster now
the accidentally created a lake origin story alone is wild, and then it became a whole resort era before collapsing