Steve Rauzi, age 13, of Moab, Utah, For his question:

Is great Salt lake as salty as the sea?

Utah's great Salt lake is saltier, far saltier than the waters of the ocean. An average sample of the lake water contains about 5 times more dissolved chemicals than a sample of average sea water. The content of its salty chemicals varies from time to time and from place to place. A sample may be from four to seven times saltier than the sea.

As in the sea, most of the dissolved material is ordinary table salt. Great Salt lake yields almost a quarter million tons of ordinary salt every year. Its beaches and several small isles in the lake are crusted with snowy white layers of salty deposits.