The Salton Sea is a shallow, landlocked, highly saline endorheic lake in Riverside and Imperial counties in Southern California. It lies on the San Andreas Fault within the Salton Trough, which stretches to the Gulf of California in Mexico. The lake is about 24 by 56 km at its widest and longest. A 2023 report put the surface area at 823.6 km². The Salton …The Salton Sea is a shallow, landlocked, highly saline endorheic lake in Riverside and Imperial counties in Southern California. It lies on the San Andreas Fault within the Salton Trough, which stretches to the Gulf of California in Mexico. The lake is about 24 by 56 km at its widest and longest. A 2023 report put the surface area at 823.6 km². The Salton Sea became a resort destination in the 20th century, but saw die-offs of fish and birds in the 1980s due to contamination from farm runoff, and clouds of toxic dust in the current century as evaporation exposed parts of the lake bed.