SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — Did you know that there may be a freshwater reservoir hidden beneath the Great Salt Lake? Thanks to a group of geophysicists at the University of Utah, we are one step closer to finding out.
A new breakthrough study from the University of Utah titled “Airborne Geophysical Imaging of Freshwater Reservoir Beneath the Eastern Margin of Great Salt Lake” revealed that under Farmington Bay lies “freshwater-saturated sediments” that reach depths of up to 13,000 feet.
Co-authors on the study include Michael Jorgensen, Bill Johnson, and Kip Solomon of the U Department of Geology & Geophysics, and Leif Cox of TechnoImaging, a university spinoff founded by Michael Zhdanov in 2005.
New University of Utah study reviews dust control options for the Great Salt Lake
The study was conducted last year after university geophysicists documented freshwater welling up beneath the lake’s salty surface around Farmington Bay, a playa on the eastern part of the Great Salt Lake (GSL). Compelled by curiosity, scientists conducted a helicopter-borne electromagnetic survey (AEM) to x-ray geologic formations forming beneath Farmington Bay and Antelope Island…