Terry Brown, age 11, of Salt Take City, Utah, for the question:

How did the salt get into the Great Salt Lake?

Every young person of Salt Lake City has been bathing at Saltair Beach. Dipping into the waters of the Great Salt Lake is the greatest of fun. For a person cannot possibly sink in these waters. You can float high and buoyant as a cork or sit upright with head and shoulders above the water.

This buoyancy, we are told, is because of the extra salt in the water. Great Salt Lake is from four to seven times saltier than the sea. The beautiful lake has no outlet to the sea. The Jordan ‑River, the Bear River, the Weber River and countless smaller streams drain into it. So does the Utah Lake. And none of this water is drained out.

grater running down the mountains brings with it a load of salts and other chemicals. All this loot is dumped with the water into the Great Salt Lake. The sun and the wind dry up water from the surface of the lake. But the salty chemicals are left behind. And year by year the busy streams and rivers steal still more salty chemicals from the mountains and dump the loot into the beautiful, wonderful Great Salt Lake.