Earth from Space - Image Description

STS51B-146-0118 Great Salt Lake Desert, Utah and Nevada, U.S.A. May 1985
The dry, salt-encrusted bed of prehistoric Lake Bonneville is apparent in this south-southeast-looking, low-oblique photograph. The Great Salt Lake Desert is a small remnant of the prehistoric lake that covered portions of present-day Idaho, Nevada, and Utah during the last ice age 12 000 years ago. Parts of the Great Salt Lake Desert are sometimes covered with shallow ponds as a result of above-normal precipitation. When these small ponds dry up, the thick, salt-encrusted desert floor is increased. The extreme western portion of Great Salt Lake is visible in the upper left of the photograph.

This service is provided by the International Space Station program and the JSC Earth Science & Remote Sensing Unit, ARES Division, Exploration Integration Science Directorate.