Lake Eyre After the Deluge

When you finally climb St. Mary's Peak after some arduous kilometers of walking and hiking, you reach the highest point of the Wilpena Pound (1170 m ASL) and if the weather is good enough not to cover parts of the 360° view, you will get to see all of the Flinders Ranges. In the distance, looking southwest, you can see Port Augusta and the Ocean. In the west are the huge stretches of Lake Eyre, covering some 3'700 sqare miles with salt - the world's largest salt lake. National Geographic says about it:

 

South Australia's Lake Eyre isn't usually a lake at all. Most of the time it's the world's largest salt flat […]. Before 1950 it was considered permanently dry; The last time it held any significant amount of water was 1989. But in 2000 heavy rains associated with La Niña filled the lake again. […] Such verdant times don't last - the water usually disappears in about a year. Evaporation is its only form of esacpe; the lake bed is Australia's lowest point, 52 feet below sea level.

 

 

 

from: Geographica;

National Geographic 3 / 2001

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