| Lake
Tahoe not only one of the most stunning lakes is one of the deepest (1645 feet/501 m),
largest (192 sq. mi./497 km²)¹, and highest (6229 feet/1898 m) lakes in the United States.
Oregon's Crater Lake is the only lake deeper at 1930 feet (588 m). Although for much of
Tahoe's perimeter, highways run within sight of the lake shore, some
important parts of the California and Nevada shoreline now lie within state parks or
are protected by the United States Forest Service. Lake Tahoe is about 22
mi (35 km) long and 12 mi (19 km) wide and has 72 mi (116 km) of shoreline
and a surface area of 191 square miles or 495 square kilometers.The Lake
Tahoe Basin was formed by geologic block (normal) faulting about 2 to 3
million years ago. These uplifted blocks created he Carson Range on the
east and the Sierra Nevada on the west. Down-dropped blocks created the
Lake Tahoe Basin in-between. Some of the highest peaks of the Lake Tahoe Basin
that formed during this process were Freel Peak at 10,891 ft (3320 m), Monument Peak
at 10,067 ft (3068 m) (the present Heavenly Valley Ski Area), Pyramid Peak at 9,983 ft (3043 m) (in
the Desolation Wilderness), and Mount Tallac at 9,735 ft (2967 m).
Snowmelt filled the southern and lowest part of the basin, forming the
ancestral Lake Tahoe, with rain and runoff adding water. Modern
Lake Tahoe was shaped and landscaped by the scouring glaciers during the
Ice Age (the Great Ice Age began a million or more years ago). Many
streams flow into Lake Tahoe, but the lake is drained only by the Truckee
River, which flows northeast through Reno, Nevada and into Pyramid Lake in
Nevada. Annual precipitation ranges from over 140 cm/yr or 55 inches
in watersheds on the west side of the basin to about 67 cm/yr or 26 inches
near the lake on the east side of the basin. Most of the precipitation
falls as snow between November and April. Rainstorms combined
with rapid snowmelt account for the largest floods. There is a pronounced
annual runoff of snowmelt in late spring and early summer, the timing of
which varies from year to year. In some years, summertime monsoonal storms
from the Great Basin bring intense rainfall, especially to high elevations
on the east side of the basin. As the climate in the northern Sierra
warms, hydrologists anticipate that an increasing fraction of the
precipitation in basin will fall as rain rather than snow. |
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