It’s cool. It’s happened for eons, periodically.
It may start to happen more often.
Having lakes appear where we don’t expect them might have some unwelcome side effects.
The puzzling arrival and surprisingly long life of a new lake in Death Valley National Park has captivated park rangers, visitors and researchers this winter.
The temporary lake arrived with the rainy remnants of Hurricane Hilary last August. It remains thanks to a series of “atmospheric river” storms that kept delivering more rain. Its presence has raised questions about its past − and its future.
For example, could the moisture helping keep the lake alive prompt a rare wildflower “superbloom?” How long might the lake remain? What’s the connection to El Niño? And could the lake, which has made surprise appearances in the past, return more often in a warming world?
Lakes have appeared and disappeared in Death Valley for hundreds of thousands of years, leaving behind the park’s scenic terraced shorelines that bear testimony to the much wetter past of the driest place in North America. Its newest lake isn’t expected to last long enough to leave that kind of geologic evidence, but it’s still “pretty special,” said Elyscia Letterman, an interpretive ranger at the 3.4-million-acre park.
“It’s really beautiful at sunrise and sunset,” Letterman said. “It’s really magical to see the peaks reflected in the lake.”
One of my patented Cane Toad Projects* is to build a seawater aqueduct from the Pacific Ocean to Death Valley (hundreds of feet below sea level) to put a dent in sea level rise.
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*Its motto: “Great plan! What can possibly go wrong?”
or to Great Salt Lake.
easy!