In the 1970s most of the buildings constructed along the shoreline of the Salton Sea had to be abandoned due to rising sea elevation. Because of mandated water transfers to metropolitan areas and the California drought the water inflow to the sea was limited starting in the 1980s. The evaporation of the lake water was not compensated by enough water inflow resulting in increasing salinity and pollution of the lake and exposing of large swaths of lake bed, many of the settlements have been abandoned since then..Salton Sea Beach, Salton Sea, Imperial County, California, USA. .© March 4 2008 Marco van Middelkoop/Aerophoto-Schiphol