Surrounded by sand, the Salton Sea glistens like a jewel in California’s crown. Less than an hour’s drive from Greater Palm Springs, this huge body of water was actually born accidentally in 1905. It was even once meant to be the Riviera of the Americas, but Mother Nature had other plans., In California’s southeastern desert, the Salton Sea stretches across a wide, shimmering basin, a lake where there shouldn’t be one. At about 340 square miles, it’s the state’s largest lake. But it wasn’t created by natural forces. It was the result of a major engineering failure., UCLA researchers have found high levels of hydrogen sulfide gas at the Salton Sea causing health issues to those that live near the lake., Despite being the largest lake in California in terms of surface area, the Sea has a shallow average depth of only 30 feet. Over the last several hundred thousand years, the Colorado River would periodically flood the Salton Basin to form an ancient lake., The Salton Sea is a terminal sea meaning that it has no outflow. The present filling of the Salton Sea occurred in 1905 when the Colorado River flooded into the Salton Sink due to extreme flooding that year., The Salton Sea and its watershed, showing the main irrigation canals carrying water from the Colorado River to the agricultural areas, and the waterways, primarily the Alamo River and New River, that convey inflows to the Sea..