The Great Salt Lake in Utah, the most important salt lake within the western hemisphere, is plunging to historic low ranges because the area suffers via an unlimited and relentless megadrought.

Late final month, data collected by the U.S. Geological Survey confirmed the lake ranges at 4,191.2 toes (1,277.5 meters)—a brand new historic low for the lake, based on the Utah Rivers Council, a nonprofit that retains tabs on the lake. The Great Salt Lake takes up round 1,700 sq. miles (4,402 sq. kilometers), an space across the dimension of Delaware. But which can be might proceed to shrink dramatically within the coming months.

The low has been a very long time coming and isn’t essentially completely as a consequence of local weather change. No, as an alternative it’s additionally a mix of different human actions. A 2017 research confirmed that human overuse of the freshwater streams and rivers that feed into the lake have helped shrink the Great Salt Lake to half its original volume, first measured in 1847.