Entry_ID: (required) Entry_Title: Extent of Pleistocene Lakes in the Western Great Basin Group: Data_Set_Citation Originator(s): U.S. Geological Survey; Marith Reheis Title: Extent of Pleistocene Lakes in the Western Great Basin Publication: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map Publication_Date: 1999 Publication_Place: Denver, CO Publisher: U.S. Geological Survey Edition: 1.0 Data_Presentation_Form: Map URL: End_Group Keyword: Pluvial lakes Keyword: paleoclimate Group: Temporal_Coverage Start_date: 1999 Stop_date: 1999 End_Group Data_Set_Progress: in work Group: Spatial_Coverage Southernmost_Latitude: 36.934 Northernmost_Latitude: 42.973 Westernmost_Longitude: -121.319 Easternmost_Longitude: -113.445 End_Group Location: Nevada Location: Great Basin Location: Lake Lahontan Group: Data_Resolution Latitude_Resolution: 130.0 Longitude_Resolution: 130.0 Altitude_Resolution: 30.0 End_Group Access_Constraints: none Use_Constraints: none Originating_Center: (required) Group: Data_Center Data_Center_Name: U.S.Geological Survey Dataset_ID: MF-2323 Group: Data_Center_Contact Last_name: U.S.Geological Survey First_name: N/A Phone: 1-888-ASK-USGS Group: Address USGS Information Services Denver, CO 80225-0046 United States End_Group End_Group End_Group Storage_Medium: Arc/Info version 7.1.1 Sun Solaris version 2.5.1 Group: Distribution Distribution_Media: online Distribution_Format : Arc/Info Export (.e00), ArcView shapefile (.shp) Fees: none End_Group Group: Multimedia_Sample URL: Format: Adobe Portable Document Format Group: Description PDF image of 'Extent of Pleistocene Lakes in the Western Great Basin', showing pluvial lake distribution within the Lahontan basin. End_Group End_Group Group: Reference End_Group Group: Summary The purpose of this map is to show the differences between the extents of late Pleistocene pluvial lakes and older, larger lakes caused by much higher effective moisture during past glacial-pluvial episodes. During the Pliocene to middle Pleistocene, pluvial lakes in the western Great Basin repeatedly rose to levels much higher than those of the well-documented late Pleistocene pluvial lakes, and some presently isolated basins were connected. Sedimentologic, geomorphic, and chronologic evidence at sites shown on the map indicates that Lakes Lahontan and Columbus-Rennie were as much as 70 m higher in the early-middle Pleistocene than during their late Pleistocene high stands. Lake Lahontan at its 1400-m shoreline level would submerge present-day Reno, Carson City, and Battle Mountain, and would flood other now-dry basins. To the east, Lakes Jonathan (new name), Diamond, Newark, and Hubbs also reached high stands during the early-middle(?) Pleistocene that were 25-40 m above their late Pleistocene shorelines; at these very high levels, the lakes became temporarily or permanently tributary to the Humboldt River and hence to Lake Lahontan. Such a temporary connection could have permitted fish to migrate from the Humboldt River southward into the presently isolated Newark Valley and from Lake Lahontan into Fairview Valley. The timing of drainage integration also provides suggested maximum ages for fish to populate the basins of Lake Diamond and Lake Jonathan. Reconstructing and dating these lake levels also has important implications for paleoclimate, tectonics, and drainage evolution in the western Great Basin. For example, shorelines in several basins form a stair-step sequence downward with time from the highest levels, thought to have formed at about 650 ka, to the lowest, formed during the late Pleistocene. This descending sequence indicates progressive drying of pluvial periods, possibly caused by uplift of the Sierra Nevada and other western ranges relative to the western Great Basin. However, these effects cannot account for the extremely high lake levels during the early middle Pleistocene; rather, these high levels were probably due to a combination of increased effective moisture and changes in the size of the Lahontan drainage basin. End_Group Group: DIF_Author Last_name: VanSistine First_name: Paco Email: dsistine@usgs.gov Phone: 303-236-4610 Group: Address Denver Federal Center Denver, CO 80225-0046 United States End_Group End_Group DIF_Revision_Date: 19990721 Science_Review_Date: