What would happen if we flooded Death Valley with sea water?

Flood Death Valley. Since Death Valley is below sea level could we dig a hole to the ocean and fill it up with water? —Nick Traeden. Yes! We can do anything we want. We shouldn't do this, though, because it would be gross. Death Valley is an endorheic basin[1]"Big hole" in California. read more

Depending on how much sea water was used, you would be making a salt pond or lake. But we can expect history to repeat itself, with this pond or lake drying up. Death Valley (and other salt pans along the Walker Lane) were part of an inland sea in the Pleistocene era. read more

Regarding my opponent's environmental concerns, while no study has been conducted on the ecological impact of flooding Death Valley, some 100 miles to the West of the site, the construction of the Hoover Dam in 1936 created a vast inland lake containing 9,123,839,000,000 galloons of water, almost exactly the same amount of water that it would take to fill Death Valley, with no ill-effects on the environment. read more