Environmental Protection in Lake Tahoe

Environmental Protection in Lake Tahoe: Until recently, construction on the banks of the Lake had been largely under the control of wealthy real estate developers. Construction activities have resulted in a clouding of the lake's blue waters. Currently, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency is regulating construction along the shoreline. (and has won two Federal Supreme Court battles over recent decisions). These regulations are unpopular with many residents, especially those in the Tahoe Lakefront Homeowners Association. The League to Save Lake Tahoe (Keep Tahoe Blue) has been an environmental watchdog in the Lake Tahoe Basin for 50 years....

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Water Quality in Lake Tahoe

Water Quality in Lake Tahoe: In spite of land-use planning and export of treated sewage effluent from the basin, the lake is becoming increasingly eutrophic (having an excessive richness of nutrients), with primary productivity increasing by more than 5% annually, and clarity decreasing at an average rate of 0.25 meters per year. Until the early 1980s, nutrient-limitation studies showed that primary productivity in the lake was nitrogen-limited....

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Lake Tahoe Human History

Native people The area around Lake Tahoe was originally inhabited by the Washoe tribe of Native Americans. Lake Tahoe was the center and heart of Washoe Indian territory, including the upper valleys of the Walker, Carson and Truckee Rivers. The English name for Lake Tahoe derives from the Washo dá’o' a ga, "edge of the lake". Exploration Lt. John C. Frémont was the first person of European descent to see Lake Tahoe, during Fremont's second exploratory expedition on February 14, 1844. John Calhoun Johnson, Sierra explorer and founder of "Johnson's Cutoff" (now U.S. Route 50), was the first white man to see Meeks Bay and from a peak above the...

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Lake Tahoe Ecology

Lake Tahoe Ecology: Vegetation in the basin is dominated by a mixed conifer forest of Jeffrey pine (Pinus jeffreyi), lodgepole pine (P. contorta), white fir (Abies concolor), and red fir (A. magnifica). The basin also contains significant areas of wet meadows and riparian areas, dry meadows, brush fields (with Arctostaphylos and Ceanothus) and rock outcrop areas, especially at higher elevations. Ceanothus is capable of fixing nitrogen, but mountain alder (Alnus tenuifolia), which grows along many of the basin’s streams, springs and seeps, fixes far greater quantities, and contributes measurably to nitrate-N concentrations in some small streams....

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Lake Tahoe Climate

Lake Tahoe Climate: Mean annual precipitation ranges from over 55 in (1,400 mm) in watersheds on the west side of the basin to about 26 inches (660 mm) near the lake on the east side of the basin. Most of the precipitation falls as snow between November and April, although rainstorms combined with rapid snow melt 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 monsoon storms from the Great Basin bring intense rainfall, especially to high elevations on the east side of the basin. August is normally the...

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Geology of Lake Tahoe

Geology of Lake Tahoe: The Lake Tahoe Basin was formed by a geologic block (normal) faulting. A geologic block fault is a fracture in the Earth's crust causing blocks of land to move up or down. Uplifted blocks created the Carson Range on the east and the Sierra Nevada on the west. Down-dropped blocks (a graben) created the Lake Tahoe Basin in between. More technically, Lake Tahoe is the youngest of several extensional basins of the Walker Lane...

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Geography of Lake Tahoe

Geography of Lake Tahoe: Lake Tahoe is the second deepest lake in the U.S., with a maximum depth of 1,645 feet (501 m), trailing only Oregon's Crater Lake at 1,949 ft (594 m).[7] Tahoe is also the 16th deepest lake in the world, and the fifth deepest in average depth. It 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 (490 km2). Washoe Indians used the lake. Approximately two-thirds of the shoreline is in California. The south shore is dominated by the lake's largest city, South Lake Tahoe, California, which adjoins the town of Stateline, Nevada, while Tahoe City,...

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Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe is a large freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada range of the United States. At a surface elevation of 6,225 ft (1,897 m), Lake Tahoe is located along the border between California and Nevada, west of Carson City, Nevada. Lake Tahoe is the largest alpine lake in North America. Its depth is 1,645 feet (501 m) making it the USA's second-deepest (the deepest is Crater Lake in Oregon, being 300 ft (91 m) deeper, at 1,945 feet (594 m) deep)....

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List of Largest Lakes In The World

This is a list of largest lakes in the world with a surface area of more than 3,000 square kilometers (1,200 sq mi), ordered by area. This list does not include reservoirs and lagoons; if include reservoirs and lagoons, Garabogazköl in Turkmenistan, Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela, and Lake Volta in Ghana would come in at numbers 15, 17, and 19. The area of some lakes can vary considerably over time, either seasonally or from year to year. This is...

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