Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T13:44:47.508Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Lake-Level Variation in the Lahontan Basin for the Past 50,000 Years

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

L. V. Benson  and
R. S. Thompson
L. V. Benson
Affiliation:
U.S. Geological Survey, MS 404, Denver Federal Center, Denver, Colorado 80225 USA
R. S. Thompson
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912 USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Selected radiocarbon data on surficial materials from the Lahontan basin, Nevada and California, provide a chronology of lake-level variation for the past 50,000 yr. A moderate-sized lake connected three western Lahontan subbasins (the Smoke Creek-Black Rock Desert subbasin, the Pyramid Lake subbasin, and the Winnemucca Dry Lake subbasin) from about 45,000 to 16,500 yr B.P. Between 50,000 and 45,000 yr B.P., Walker Lake rose to its sill level in Adrian Valley and spilled to the Carson Desert subbasin. By 20,000 yr B.P., lake level in the western Lahontan subbasins had risen to about 1265 m above sea level, where it remained for 3500 yr. By 16,000 yr B.P., lake level in the western Lahontan subbasins had fallen to 1240 m. This recession appears synchronous with a desiccation of Walker Lake; however, whether the Walker Lake desiccation resulted from climate change or from diversion of the Walker River is not known. From about 15,000 to 13,500 yr B.P., lake level rapidly rose, so that Lake Lahontan was a single body of water by 14,000 yr B.P. The lake appears to have reached a maximum highstand altitude of 1330 m by 13,500 yr B.P., a condition that persisted until about 12,500 yr B.P., at which time lake level fell ≧100 m. No data exist that indicate the level of lakes in the various subbasins between 12,000 and 10,000 yr B.P. During the Holocene, the Lahontan basin was the site of shallow lakes, with many subbasins being the site of one or more periods of desiccation. The shape of the lake-level curve for the three western subbasins indicates that past changes in the hydrologic balance (and hence climate) of the Lahontan basin were large in magnitude and took place in a rapid step-like manner. The rapid changes in lake level are hypothesized to have resulted from changes in the mean position of the jet stream, as it was forced north or south by the changing size and shape of the continental ice sheet.

Type
Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 28 , Issue 1 , July 1987 , pp. 69 - 85
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Antevs, E. The Great Basin, with emphasis on glacial and post-glacial times—Climatic changes and pre-white man, Chap. III. Bulletin of the University of Utah Biological Series 38 1948 168 191 Google Scholar
Benson, L. V. Fluctuation in the level of pluvial Lake Lahontan during the last 40,000 years. Quaternary Research 9 1978 300 318 Google Scholar
Benson, L. V. Paleoclimatic significance of lake-level fluctuations in the Lahontan Basin. Quaternary Research 16 1981 390 403 Google Scholar
Benson, L. V. Hydrochemical Data for the Truckee River Drainage System, California and Nevada 1984 U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 84-440 Google Scholar
Benson, L. V. The Sensitivity of Evaporation Rate to Climate Change—Results of an Energy-Balance Approach 1986 U.S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigations Report 86-4148 Google Scholar
Benson, L. V. Mifflin, M. D. Reconnaissance Bathymetry of Basins Occupied by Pleistocene Lake Lahontan 1986 U.S. Geological Survey Water Resources Investigations Report 85-4262 Google Scholar
Born, S. M. Late Quaternary History, Deltaic Sedimentation, and Medlump Formation at Pyramid Lake, Nevada 1972 Center for Water Resources Research, Desert Research Institute University of Nevada System unnumbered publication Google Scholar
Broecker, W. S. Kaufman, A. Radio-carbon chronology of Lake Lahontan and Lake Bonneville. II. Great Basin. Geological Society of America Bulletin 76 1965 537 566 Google Scholar
Broecker, W. S. Orr, P. C. Radiocarbon chronology of Lake Lahontan and Lake Bonneville. Geological Society of America Bulletin 69 1958 1009 1032 Google Scholar
Broecker, W. S. Walton, A. The geochemistry of 14C in freshwater systems. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 16 1959 15 38 Google Scholar
Clarke, F. W. 5th ed. The Data of Geochemistry 1924 U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 770 Google Scholar
Currey, D. R. Oviatt, C. G. Durations, average rates, and probable cause of Lake Bonneville expansions, stillstands, and contractions during the last deep-lake cycle, 32,000 to 10,000 years ago. Kay, P. A. Diaz, H. F. Problems of and Prospects for Predicting Great Salt Lake Levels. 1985 Center for Public Affairs and Administration, University of Utah 1 9 Google Scholar
Davis, J. O. Bits and pieces: The last 35,000 years in the Lahontan area. Madsen, D. B. O'Connell, J. F. Man and Environment in the Great Basin. 1982 53 75 Society for American Archaeology Papers No. 2 Google Scholar
Davis, J. O. Level of Lake Lahontan during deposition of the Trego Hot Springs tephra about 22,400 years ago. Quaternary Research 19 1983 312 324 Google Scholar
Davis, J. O. Sediments and geological setting of Hidden Cave. Thomas, D. H. The Archaeology of Hidden Cave, Nevada Vol. 61 1985 80 103 Anthropological Papers of the Moseum of Natural History Google Scholar
Davis, J. O. Elston, R. Townsend, G. Coastal geomorphology of the south shore of Lake Tahoe: Suggestion of an altithermal lowstand. Elston, R. Holocene Environmental Change in the Great Basin. Nevada Archaeological Survey Research Paper No. 6 1976 41 65 Reno, Nevada Google Scholar
Harding, S. T. Recent Variations in the Water Supply of the Western Great Basin 1965 University of California Archieve Series, Report 16 Google Scholar
Hattori, E. M. The Archaeology of Falcon Hill, Winnemucca Lake, Washoe County, Nevada 1982 Nevada State Museum Anthropological Papers No. 18 Google Scholar
Heizer, R. F. Preliminary report on the Leonard Rockshelter Site, Pershing County, Nevada. American Antiquity 17 1951 89 98 Google Scholar
Horn, L. H. Bryson, R. A. Harmonic analysis of the annual march of precipitation over the United States. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 50 1960 157 171 Google Scholar
Hubbs, C. L. Bein, G. S. Suess, H. E. La Jolla natural radiocarbon measurements. III. Radiocarbon 5 1963 254 272 Google Scholar
Hubbs, C. L. Bein, G. S. Suess, H. E. La Jolla natural radiocarbon measurement. IV. Radiocarbon 7 1965 66 117 Google Scholar
Imbrie, J. Hays, J. D. Martinson, D. G. McIntyre, A. Mix, A. C. Morley, J. J. Pisias, N. G. Prell, W. L. Shackleton, N. J. The orbital theory of Pleistocene climate: Support from a revised chronology of the Marine δ18O record. Berger, A. L. et al. Milankovitch and Climate. 1984 Reidel Boston 269 305 Part 1 Google Scholar
Jones, J. C. The Geologic History of Lake Lahontan 1925 3 50 Carnegie Institute of Washington Publication No. 325 Google Scholar
King, G. Q. The Late Quaternary History of Adrian Valley, Lyon County, Nevada. Unpublished M.S. thesis 1978 Department of Geography, University of Utah Google Scholar
Kutzbach, J. E. Wright, H. E. Jr. Simulation of the climate of 18,000 yr B.P.: Results for the North American/North Atlantic/European Sector. Quaternary Science Reviews 4 1985 147 187 Google Scholar
Maxey, G. B. Eakin, T. E. Ground Water in White River Valley, White Pine, Nye, and Lincoln Counties Nevada 1949 Nevada State Engineers Water Resources Bulletin 8 Google Scholar
Morrison, R. B. Lake Lahontan: Geology of Southern Carson Desert, Nevada 1964 U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 401 Google Scholar
Morrison, R. B. Frye, J. C. Correlation of the middle and late Quaternary Successions of the Lake Lahontan, Lake Bonneville, Rocky Mountain, Southern Great Plains, and Eastern Midwest Areas. Nevada Bureau of Mines Report 9 1965 Google Scholar
Peltier, W. R. Hyde, W. A model of the ice age cycle. Berger, A. L. et al. Milankovitch and Climate. 1984 Reidel Boston 565 580 Part 2 Google Scholar
Pyke, C. B. Some Meteorological Aspects of the Seasonal Distribution of Precipitation in the Western United States and Baja California Wa 1972 University of California Water Resources Center Contribution No. 139 Google Scholar
Riehl, H. Alaka, M. A. Jordan, C. L. Renard, R. J. The jet stream. Meteorological Monograph 2 1954 23 47 Google Scholar
Russell, I. C. Geological History of Lake Lahontan, A Quaternary Lake of Northwestern Nevada 1885 U.S. Geological Survey Monograph 11 Google Scholar
Sabbagh, M. E. Bryson, R. A. Aspects of the precipitation climatology of Canada investigated by the method of harmonic analysis. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 52 1962 426 440 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Snyder, J. O. The Fishes of the Lahontan System of Nevada and Northeast California 1918 31 86 U.S. Bureau of Fisheries Bulletin 35 Google Scholar
Thompson, R. S. Benson, L. V. Hattori, E. M. A revised chronology for the last Pleistocene lake cycle in the central Lahontan Basin. Quaternary Research 25 1986 1 9 Google Scholar
U.S. Geological Survey Compilation of Records of Surface Water of the United States Through September 1950 1960 Part 10, “The Great Basin.” U.S. Geological Survey Water-Supply Paper 1314 Google Scholar
U.S. Geological Survey Compilation of Records of Surface Water of the United States, October 1950 to September 1960 1963 Part 10, “The Great Basin.” U.S. Geological Survey Water-Supply Paper 1734 Google Scholar
U.S. Geological Survey Water Resources Data for Nevada (1961–1984) 1961–1984 U.S. Geological Survey Water-Data Report Series Google Scholar