Waters Changing

Depressions Below Sea Level

There are a number of below sea level depressions on this planet that could serve as vessels for these recreated water bodies. Before and after images illustrate some relatively easy examples of terraforming on earth - the expansion of the Dead and Salton Seas to the level of the world's oceans, the filling of the Qattara Depression in Egypt with water directed from the Mediterranean. Another relatively easy project would be the expansion of the Caspian Sea to the level of the world's oceans.

Currently, these salt water bodies lie below sea level (400 meters below for the Dead Sea and 26 meters for the Caspian). Given the technology possible 200 years in the future, providing a water connection between the ocean and these bodies of water and depressions, with a consequent rise in water level, would not be difficult.

Higher Elevation Depressions

More difficult would be the recreation of higher elevation fresh water lakes that existed in the Pleistocene, but have dried up to remnant salt lakes or flats in the intervening 10,000 years. Examples in the American West are ancient Lake Lahontan in Nevada and Lake Bonneville in Utah. The refilling of Lake Lahontan is illustrated below.

Uncertain Cost-Benefit Balance

The new and expanded water bodies portrayed on this page are extremely speculative. Whether there is a net environmental, recreational, and economic benefit arising from their creation is yet to be determined. Whether the improved technology two centuries in the future will result in a positive benefit analysis is unknown. The benefit would need to more than balance the direct construction and maintenance costs involved, the potential impact on the natural environment to be flooded and the impact on human settlements and agriculture lands that would be lost beneath the waters. The United Nations University has done some current analysis of the potential for connecting the Dead Sea and the Qattara Basin to the Mediterranean Sea.

Dead Sea Area Today	Dead Sea After Red Sea Connection
Israel and Jordan are proposing the construction of a canal that would stabilize the level of the Dead Sea to 400 meters below sea level. The plan envisages generating power utilizing the difference in elevation from sea level to the Dead Sea that will eventually be formed. The image above illustrates a more ambitious project that would create a new sea on the Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian borders.
Qattara Depression	Qattara After Opening to the Mediterranean
Egypt proposes a project where the depression is filled with water from the Mediterranean Sea up to a certain design level that will be maintained later by the transfer of water to replace the amount evaporated. Power would be generated as with the Dead Sea project described above. Originally proposed in the 1980's, the project has been suspended since the assassination of President Sadat because of the cost in billions associated with construction of the connecting canal. If an inland Qattara Sea were created, it could exert a moderating influence on the climate of the surrounding area and might lead to an increase in rainfall.
Salton Sea Today	After filled to sea level
Today the Salton Sea is shrinking and growing saltier. The loss of irrigated agriculture land under the proposed expansion scenario is quite dramatic. Nevertheless, there is at least one advocate for a connecting canal to the Sea of California.
Great Basin Area Today	Great Basin After Lake Lahontan Recreated
This is one big lake! It holds some 10,000 cubic kilometers of water, a little less than Lake Superior, the largest of the Great Lakes. It would take the average flow of the Mississippi River some 16 years to fill it. But what a lake! With its shoreline in the 1000s of kilometers, it is a real estate agent's dream. Think of all those shoreline lots. All that's needed is a huge pipe, cheap energy, a powerful pump, instant desalination and water from the Pacific Ocean piped up through the Sierras into the Great Basin. Lake Lahonton, should it reach its maximum level, would overflow to the north (note the blue arrow) into an expanded Lake Alvord in eastern Oregon.