Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-gtxcr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T11:55:23.983Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Late Pleistocene to present lake-level fluctuations at Pyramid and Winnemucca lakes, Nevada, USA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2019

Kenneth D. Adams  and
Edward J. Rhodes
Kenneth D. Adams*
Affiliation:
Division of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences, Desert Research Institute, 2215 Raggio Parkway, Reno, Nevada 89512, USA
Edward J. Rhodes
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S10 2TN, United Kingdom
*
*Corresponding author e-mail address: kadams@dri.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A new lake-level curve for Pyramid and Winnemucca lakes, Nevada, is presented that indicates that after the ~15,500 cal yr BP Lake Lahontan high stand (1338 m), lake level fell to an elevation below 1200 m, before rising to 1230 m at the 12,000 cal yr BP Younger Dryas high stand. Lake level then fell to 1155 m by ~10,500 cal yr BP followed by a rise to 1200 m around 8000 cal yr BP. During the mid-Holocene, levels were relatively low (~1155 m) before rising to moderate levels (1190–1195 m) during the Neopluvial period (~4800–3400 cal yr BP). Lake level again plunged to about 1155 m during the late Holocene dry period (~2800–1900 cal yr BP) before rising to about 1190 m by ~1200 cal yr BP. Levels have since fluctuated within the elevation range of about 1170–1182 m except for the last 100 yr of managed river discharge when they dropped to as low as 1153 m. Late Holocene lake-level changes correspond to volume changes between 25 and 55 km3 and surface area changes between 450 and 900 km2. These lake state changes probably encompass the hydrologic variability possible under current climate boundary conditions.

Keywords

Lake LahontanPyramid LakeWinnemucca LakePleistoceneHolocene
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 92 , Issue 1 , July 2019 , pp. 146 - 164
Copyright
Copyright © University of Washington. Published by Cambridge University Press, 2019 

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

REFERENCES

Adams, K.D., 2003. Age and paleoclimatic significance of late Holocene lakes in the Carson Sink, NV, USA. Quaternary Research 60, 294–306.10.1016/j.yqres.2003.07.006Google Scholar
Adams, K.D., 2007. Late Holocene sedimentary environments and lake-level fluctuations at Walker Lake, Nevada, USA. Geological Society of America Bulletin 119, 126–139.10.1130/B25847.1Google Scholar
Adams, K.D., 2008. Lake-level fluctuations in the western Great Basin during the Medieval Climate Anomaly: episodes of both drier and wetter periods than modern. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 40, 227.Google Scholar
Adams, K.D., 2010. Lake levels and sedimentary environments during deposition of the Trego Hot Springs and Wono tephras in the Lake Lahontan basin, Nevada, USA. Quaternary Research 73, 118–129.10.1016/j.yqres.2009.08.001Google Scholar
Adams, K.D., 2012a. Late Holocene paleohydrology of the western Great Basin. In: American Quaternary Association (AMQUA), 22nd Biennial Meeting, Program and Abstracts. AMQUA, Duluth, MN, p. 8.Google Scholar
Adams, K.D., 2012b. Response of the Truckee River to lowering base level at Pyramid Lake, Nevada, based on historical air photos and LiDAR data. Geosphere 8, 607–627.10.1130/GES00698.1Google Scholar
Adams, K.D., Bacon, S.N., Lancaster, N., Rhodes, E.J., Negrini, R.M., 2014. How wet can it get? Defining future climate extremes based on late Holocene lake-level records. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 46, 745.Google Scholar
Adams, K.D., Goebel, T., Graf, K., Smith, G.M., Camp, A.J., Briggs, R.W., Rhode, D., 2008. Late Pleistocene and early Holocene lake-level fluctuations in the Lahontan basin, Nevada: implications for the distribution of archaeological sites. Geoarchaeology: An International Journal 23, 608–643.Google Scholar
Adams, K.D., Wesnousky, S.G., 1998. Shoreline processes and the age of the Lake Lahontan highstand in the Jessup embayment, Nevada. Geological Society of America Bulletin 110, 1318–1332.Google Scholar
Allison, I.S., 1982. Geology of Pluvial Lake Chewaucan, Lake County, Oregon. Oregon State University Press, Corvallis.Google Scholar
Anderson, R.F., Faulds, J.E., Dering, G.M., 2014. Preliminary Geologic Map of the Central Lake Range, Southern Fox Range, and Northern Terraced Hills, Emerson Pass Geothermal Area, Washoe County, Nevada. Open-File Report 13-10, 1:24,000 scale. Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology, Reno, NV.Google Scholar
Atwood, G., 1994. Geomorphology applied to flooding problems of closed-basin lakes … specifically Great Salt Lake, Utah. Geomorphology 10, 197–219.10.1016/0169-555X(94)90017-5Google Scholar
Bacon, C.R., 1983. Eruptive history of Mount Mazama and Crater Lake Caldera, Cascade Range, U.S.A.. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 18, 57–115.10.1016/0377-0273(83)90004-5Google Scholar
Bacon, S.N., Lancaster, N., Stine, S., Rhodes, E.J., McCarley Holder, G.A., 2018. A continuous 4000-year lake-level record of Owens Lake, south-central Sierra Nevada, California, USA. Quaternary Research 90, 276–302.10.1017/qua.2018.50Google Scholar
Beck, W., Donahue, D.J., Jull, A.J.T., Burr, G., Broecker, W.S., Bonani, G., Hajdas, I., Malotki, E., 1998. Ambiguities in direct dating of rock surfaces using radiocarbon measurements. Science 280, 2132–2139.10.1126/science.280.5372.2132Google Scholar
Bell, J.W., Garside, L.J., House, P.K., 2005a. Geologic Map of the Wadsworth Quadrangle, Washoe County, Nevada. Map 153. Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology, Reno, NV.Google Scholar
Bell, J.W., House, P.K., Briggs, R.W., 2005b. Geologic Map of the Nixon Area, Washoe County, Nevada. Map 152. Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology, Reno, NV.Google Scholar
Benson, L., Kashgarian, M., Rubin, M., 1995. Carbonate deposition, Pyramid Lake subbasin, Nevada: 2. Lake levels and polar jet stream positions reconstructed from radiocarbon ages and elevations of carbonates (tufas) deposited in the Lahontan basin. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 117, 1–30.Google Scholar
Benson, L., Kashgarian, M., Rye, R., Lund, S., Paillet, F., Smoot, J., Kester, C., Mensing, S., Meko, D., Lindstrom, S., 2002. Holocene multidecadal and multicentennial droughts affecting northern California and Nevada. Quaternary Science Reviews 21, 659–682.10.1016/S0277-3791(01)00048-8Google Scholar
Benson, L., Liddicoat, J., Smoot, J., Sarna-Wojcicki, A., Negrini, R., Lund, S., 2003. Age of the Mono Lake excursion and associated tephra. Quaternary Science Reviews 22, 135–140.Google Scholar
Benson, L.V., 1978. Fluctuations in the level of pluvial Lake Lahontan during the last 40,000 years. Quaternary Research 9, 300–318.Google Scholar
Benson, L.V., Currey, D.R., Dorn, R.I., Lajoie, K.R., Oviatt, C.G., Robinson, S.W., Smith, G.I., Stine, S., 1990. Chronology of expansion and contraction of four Great Basin lake systems during the past 35,000 years. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 78, 241–286.Google Scholar
Benson, L.V., Currey, D.R., Lao, Y., Hostetler, S.W., 1992. Lake-size variations in the Lahontan and Bonneville basins between 13,000 and 9000 14C yr BP. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 95, 19–32.Google Scholar
Benson, L.V., Hattori, E.M., Southon, J., Aleck, B., 2013a. Dating North America's oldest petroglyphs, Winnemucca Lake subbasin, Nevada. Journal of Archaeological Science 40, 4466–4476.Google Scholar
Benson, L.V., Smoot, J.P., Lund, S.P., Mensing, S.A., Foit, F.F. Jr., Rye, R.O., 2013b. Insights from a synthesis of old and new climate-proxy data from the Pyramid and Winnemucca lake basins for the period 48 to 11.5 cal ka. Quaternary International 310, 62–82.Google Scholar
Benson, L.V., Thompson, R.S., 1987. The physical record of lakes in the Great Basin. In: Ruddiman, W.F., Wright, H.E. Jr. (Eds.), North America and Adjacent Oceans during the Last Deglaciation. U.S. Geological Society of America, Boulder, CO, pp. 241–260.Google Scholar
Bonham, H.F., Papke, K.G., 1969. Geology and Mineral Deposits of Washoe and Storey Counties, Nevada: With a Section on Industrial Rock and Mineral Deposits. Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology Bulletin 70. Mackay School of Mines, University of Nevada, Reno.Google Scholar
Born, S.M., 1972. Late Quaternary History, Deltaic Sedimentation, and Mudlump Formation at Pyramid Lake, Nevada. Center for Water Resources, Desert Research Institute, Reno, NV.Google Scholar
Briggs, R.W., Wesnousky, S.G., Adams, K.D., 2005. Late Pleistocene and late Holocene lake highstands in the Pyramid Lake subbasin of Lake Lahontan, Nevada, USA. Quaternary Research 64, 257–263.Google Scholar
Broecker, W.S., Kaufman, A., 1965. Radiocarbon chronology of Lake Lahontan and Lake Bonneville II, Great Basin. Geological Society of America Bulletin 76, 537–566.Google Scholar
Broecker, W.S., McGee, D., Adams, K.D., Cheng, H., Edwards, L., Oviatt, C.G., Quade, J., 2009. A Great Basin-wide dry episode during the first half of the Mystery Interval? Quaternary Science Reviews 28, 2557–2563.Google Scholar
Broecker, W.S., Orr, P.C., 1958. Radiocarbon chronology of Lake Lahontan and Lake Bonneville. Geological Society of America Bulletin 69, 1009–1032.Google Scholar
Broughton, J.M., Madsen, D.B., Quade, J., 2000. Fish remains from Homestead Cave and lake levels of the past 13,000 years in the Bonneville Basin. Quaternary Research 53, 392–401.Google Scholar
Broughton, J.M., Smith, G.R., 2016. The fishes of Lake Bonneville: implications for drainage history, biogeography, and lake levels. In: Oviatt, C.G., Shroder, J.F. (Eds.), Lake Bonneville: A Scientific Update. Developments in Earth Surface Processes 20. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 292–351.10.1016/B978-0-444-63590-7.00012-3Google Scholar
Cook, E.R., Seager, R., Heim, R.R.J., Vose, R.S., Herweijer, C., Woodhouse, C., 2010. Megadroughts in North America: placing IPCC projections of hydroclimatic change in a long-term palaeoclimate context. Journal of Quaternary Science 25, 48–61.Google Scholar
Daly, C., Halbleib, M., Smith, J., Gibson, W.P., Doggett, M.K., Taylor, G.H., 2008. Physiographically sensitive mapping of climatological temperature and precipitation across the conterminous United States. International Journal of Climatology 28, 2031–2064.Google Scholar
Dansie, A.J., Jerrems, W.J., 2005. More bits and pieces: a new look at Lahontan chronology and human occupation. In: Bonnichsen, R., Lepper, B.T., Stanford, D., Waters, M.R. (Eds.), Paleoamerican Origins: Beyond Clovis. Center for the Study of the First Americans, Texas A&M University, College Station, pp. 51–73.Google Scholar
Edgar, H.J.H., 1997. Paleopathology of the Wizards Beach Man (AHUR 2023) and the Spirit Cave mummy (AHUR 2064). Nevada Historical Society Quarterly 40, 57–61.Google Scholar
Eisses, A.K., Kell, A., Kent, G.M., Driscoll, N.W., Baskin, R.L., Smith, K.D., Karlin, R.E., Louie, J.N., Pullammanappallil, S.K., 2015. New constraints on fault architecture, slip rates, and strain partitioning beneath Pyramid Lake, Nevada. Geosphere 11, 683–704.Google Scholar
Enzel, Y., Wells, S.G., Lancaster, N., 2003. Late Pleistocene lakes along the Mojave River, southeast California. In: Enzel, Y., Wells, S.G., Lancaster, N. (Eds.), Paleoenvironments and Paleohydrology of the Mojave and Southern Great Basin Deserts. Geological Society of America, Special Papers 368, 61–77.Google Scholar
Harding, S.T., 1965. Recent Variations in the Water Supply of the Western Great Basin. Water Resources Center Archives, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Hardman, G., Venstrom, C., 1941. A 100-year record of Truckee River runoff estimated from changes in levels and volumes of Pyramid and Winnemucca lakes. Eos, Transactions of the American Geophysical Union 22, 71–90.10.1029/TR022i001p00071Google Scholar
Hatchett, B.J., Boyle, D.P., Putnam, A.E., Bassett, S.D., 2015. Placing the 2012–2015 California-Nevada drought into a paleoclimatic context: insights from Walker Lake, California-Nevada, USA. Geophysical Research Letters 42, 8632–8640.Google Scholar
Hattori, E.M., 1982. The Archaeology of Falcon Hill, Winnemucca Lake, Washoe County, Nevada. Nevada State Museum Anthropological Papers, No. 18. Nevada State Museum, Carson City, NV.Google Scholar
Hattori, E.M., Tuohy, D.R., 1993. Prehistoric human occupation and changing lake levels at Pyramid and Winnemucca lakes, Nevada. In: Proceedings of the Workshop “Ongoing Paleoclimatic Studies in the Northern Great Basin”: Reno, Nevada. U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1119. U.S. Geological Survey, Denver, CO, pp. 31–34.Google Scholar
Horton, G.A., 1997. Truckee River Chronology: A Chronological History of Lake Tahoe and the Truckee River and Related Water Issues. Nevada Water Basin Information and Chronology Series. Nevada Division of Water Planning, Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Carson City, NV.Google Scholar
Houghton, J.G., Sakamoto, C.M., Gifford, R.O., 1975. Nevada's Weather and Climate. Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology Special Publication 2. Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology, Reno, NV.Google Scholar
Lindström, S., 1990. Submerged tree stumps as indicators of mid-Holocene aridity in the Lake Tahoe region. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 12, 146–157.Google Scholar
Mensing, S.A., Sharpe, S.E., Tunno, I., Sada, D.W., Thomas, J.M., Starratt, S., Smith, J., 2013. The late Holocene Dry Period: multiproxy evidence for an extended drought between 2800 and 1850 cal yr BP across the central Great Basin, USA. Quaternary Science Reviews 78, 266–282.Google Scholar
Milne, W., 1987. A Comparison of Reconstructed Lake-Level Records since the Mid-1880s of some Great Basin Lakes. Master's thesis, Colorado School of Mines, Golden.Google Scholar
Morrison, R.B., 1991. Quaternary stratigraphic, hydrologic, and climatic history of the Great Basin, with emphasis on Lake Lahontan, Bonneville, and Tecopa. In: Morrison, R.B. (Ed.), Quaternary Nonglacial Geology: Conterminous U.S. U.S. Geological Society of America, Boulder, CO, pp. 283–320.Google Scholar
Murchison, S.B., 1989. Fluctuation History of Great Salt Lake, Utah, during the Last 13,000 Years. PhD dissertation, University of Utah, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Negrini, R.M., 2002. Pluvial lake sizes in the northwestern Great Basin throughout the Quaternary period. In: Hershler, R., Madsen, D.B., Currey, D. (Eds.), Great Basin Aquatic Systems History. Smithsonian Contributions to the Earth Sciences, Vol. 33. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C., pp. 11–52.Google Scholar
Negrini, R.M., Wigand, P.E., Draucker, S., Gobalet, K., Gardner, J.K., Sutton, M.Q., Yohe, R.M., 2006. The Rambla highstand shoreline and the Holocene lake-level history of Tulare Lake, California, USA. Quaternary Science Reviews 25, 1599–1618.10.1016/j.quascirev.2005.11.014Google Scholar
Noble, P.J., Ball, G.I., Zimmerman, S.H., Maloney, J., Smith, S.B., Kent, G., Adams, K.D., Karlin, R.E., Driscoll, N., 2016. Holocene paleoclimate history of Fallen Leaf Lake, CA, from geochemistry and sedimentology of well-dated sediment cores. Quaternary Science Reviews 131, 193–210.Google Scholar
Prokopovich, N.P., 1983. Alteration of alluvium by natural gas in the Pyramid Lake area, Nevada. Bulletin of the Association of Engineering Geologists 20, 185–196.Google Scholar
Reheis, M.C., Adams, K.D., Oviatt, C.G., Bacon, S.N., 2014. Pluvial lakes in the Great Basin of the western United States: a view from the outcrop. Quaternary Science Reviews 97, 33–57.Google Scholar
Reimer, P.J., Bard, E., Bayliss, A., Beck, J.W., Blackwell, P.G., Bronk Ramsey, C., Buck, C.E., et al. , 2013. IntCal13 and Marine13 radiocarbon age calibration curves 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 55, 1869–1887.Google Scholar
Rhodes, E.J., 2015. Dating sediments using potassium feldspar single grain IRSL: initial methodological considerations. Quaternary International 362, 14–22.Google Scholar
Russell, I.C., 1885. Geological History of Lake Lahontan: A Quaternary Lake in Northwestern Nevada. U.S. Geological Survey Monograph 11. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Sigl, M., Fudge, T.J., Winstrup, M., Cole-Dai, J., Ferris, D., McConnell, J.R., Taylor, K.C., et al. 2016. The WAIS Divide deep ice core WD2014 chronology - Part 2: Annual-layer counting (0-31 ka BP). Climate of the Past 12, 769–786.Google Scholar
Smith, G.I., Street-Perrott, F.A., 1983. Pluvial lakes of the Western United States. In: Porter, S.C. (Ed.), The Late Pleistocene. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN, pp. 190–212.Google Scholar
Stewart, J.H., 1978. Basin and range structure in western North America: a review. In: Smith, R.B., Eaton, G.P. (Eds.), Cenozoic Tectonics and Regional Geophysics of the Western Cordillera. Geological Society of America Memoir 152. Geological Society of America, Boulder, CO, pp. 1–32.Google Scholar
Stewart, J.H., 1988. Tectonics of the Walker Lane belt, western Great Basin: Mesozoic and Cenozoic deformation in a zone of shear. In: Ernst, W.G. (Ed.), Metamorphism and Crustal Evolution of the Western United States. Rubey Vol. 7. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, pp. 683–713.Google Scholar
Stine, S., 1990. Late Holocene fluctuations of Mono Lake, California. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 78, 333–381.Google Scholar
Stine, S., 1994. Extreme and persistent drought in California and Patagonia during mediaeval time. Nature 369, 546–549.Google Scholar
Thompson, R.S., 1992. Late Quaternary environments in Ruby Valley, Nevada. Quaternary Research 37, 1–15.10.1016/0033-5894(92)90002-ZGoogle Scholar
Thompson, R.S., Benson, L., Hattori, E.M., 1986. A revised chronology for the last Pleistocene lake cycle in the central Lahontan basin. Quaternary Research 25, 1–9.10.1016/0033-5894(86)90039-6Google Scholar
Tuohy, D.R., 1988. Artifacts from the northwestern Pyramid Lake shoreline. In: Willig, J.A., Aikens, C.M., Fagan, J.L. (Eds.), Early Human Occupation in Far Western North America: The Clovis-Archaic Interface. Nevada State Museum Anthropological Papers, No. 21. Nevada State Museum, Carson City, NV, pp. 201–216.Google Scholar
Tuohy, D.R., Dansie, A.J., 1997. New information regarding early Holocene manifestations in the western Great Basin. Nevada Historical Society Quarterly 40, 24–53.Google Scholar
Unruh, J., Humphrey, J., Barron, A., 2003. Transtensional model for the Sierra Nevada frontal fault system, eastern California. Geology 31, 327–330.10.1130/0091-7613(2003)031<0327:TMFTSN>2.0.CO;22.0.CO;2>Google Scholar
Van Buer, N., 2012. Preliminary Geologic Map of the Sahwave and Nightingale Ranges, Churchill, Pershing, and Washoe Counties, Nevada. Open File Report 12-2, 1:62,500 scale. Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology, Reno, NV.Google Scholar
Walker, M.J.C., Berkelhammer, M., Bjorck, S., Cwynar, L.C., Fisher, D.A., Long, A.J., Lowe, J.J., Newnham, R.M., Rasmussen, S.O., Weiss, H., 2012. Formal subdivision of the Holocene Series/Epoch: a discussion paper by a working group of INTIMATE (Integration of ice-core, marine and terrestrial records) and the Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy (International Commission on Stratigraphy). Journal of Quaternary Science 27, 649–659.Google Scholar
Wanner, H., Beer, J., Butikofer, J., Crowley, T.J., Cubasch, U., Fluckiger, J., Goosse, H., et al. , 2008. Mid- to late Holocene climate change: an overview. Quaternary Science Reviews 27, 1791–1828.Google Scholar
Wesnousky, S.G., 2005. Active faulting in the Walker Lane. Tectonics 24, TC3009.10.1029/2004TC001645Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Adams and Rhodes supplementary material

Adams and Rhodes supplementary material 1

Download Adams and Rhodes supplementary material(File)
File 18.3 KB