USGS Home
Contact USGS
Search USGS

USGS Geoscience Data Catalog

Additional USGS Geoscience data can be found by geographic location or by publication series.

Extent of Pleistocene Lakes in the Western Great Basin

Metadata also available as - [Questions & Answers] - [Parseable text] - [DIF]

Metadata:

Identification_Information
Data_Quality_Information
Spatial_Data_Organization_Information
Spatial_Reference_Information
Entity_and_Attribute_Information
Distribution_Information
Metadata_Reference_Information

Identification_Information:

Citation:

Citation_Information:

Originator: U.S. Geological Survey

Originator: Marith Reheis

Publication_Date: 1999

Title: Extent of Pleistocene Lakes in the Western Great Basin

Edition: 1.0

Geospatial_Data_Presentation_Form: Map

Series_Information:

Series_Name: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map
Issue_Identification: MF-2323

Publication_Information:

Publication_Place: Denver, CO
Publisher: U.S. Geological Survey

Online_Linkage: <http://greenwood.cr.usgs.gov/pub/mf-maps/mf-2323/>

Description:

Abstract:: 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.
Purpose:: 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.

Time_Period_of_Content:

Time_Period_Information:

Single_Date/Time:

Calendar_Date: 1999

Currentness_Reference: publication date

Status:

Progress: in work
Maintenance_and_Update_Frequency: irregularly

Spatial_Domain:

Bounding_Coordinates:

West_Bounding_Coordinate: -121.319
East_Bounding_Coordinate: -113.445
North_Bounding_Coordinate: 42.973
South_Bounding_Coordinate: 36.934

Keywords:

Theme:

Theme_Keyword_Thesaurus: none
Theme_Keyword: Pluvial lakes
Theme_Keyword: paleoclimate

Place:

Place_Keyword_Thesaurus: None
Place_Keyword: Nevada
Place_Keyword: Great Basin
Place_Keyword: Lake Lahontan

Theme:

Theme_Keyword_Thesaurus: National Geologic Map Database Catalog themes, augmented
Theme_Keyword: 2500 - Political Boundaries
Theme_Keyword: 2501 - State Boundaries
Theme_Keyword: 2200 - Hydrography
Theme_Keyword: 2202 - Lakes
Theme_Keyword: 2600 - Topography

Place:

Place_Keyword_Thesaurus: Augmented FIPS 10-4 and FIPS 6-4, version 1.0
Place_Keyword: US32 = Nevada
Place_Keyword: 06049 = Modoc
Place_Keyword: 06035 = Lassen
Place_Keyword: 06063 = Plumas
Place_Keyword: 06091 = Sierra
Place_Keyword: 06057 = Nevada
Place_Keyword: 06061 = Placer
Place_Keyword: 06017 = El Dorado
Place_Keyword: 06003 = Alpine
Place_Keyword: 06051 = Mono
Place_Keyword: 41037 = Lake
Place_Keyword: 41025 = Harney
Place_Keyword: 41045 = Malheur

Theme:

Theme_Keyword_Thesaurus: Gateway to the Earth (USGS) draft 6
Theme_Keyword: lakes
Theme_Keyword: basins
Theme_Keyword: GIS data
Theme_Keyword: glacial geology

Theme:

Theme_Keyword_Thesaurus: ISO 19115 Topic Categories
Theme_Keyword: geoscientificInformation

Access_Constraints: none

Use_Constraints: none

Native_Data_Set_Environment:

Arc/Info version 7.1.1 Sun Solaris version 2.5.1

Point_of_Contact:

Contact_Information:

Contact_Person_Primary:

Contact_Person: Marith Reheis
Contact_Organization: U.S. Geological Survey

Contact_Address:

Address_Type: mailing address
Address: Denver Federal Center
Address: MS 980, Box 25046
City: Denver
State_or_Province: CO
Postal_Code: 80225-0046
Country: United States

Contact_Voice_Telephone: 303-236-1270

Contact_Electronic_Mail_Address: mreheis@usgs.gov

Contact_Facsimile_Telephone: 303-236-5349

Browse_Graphic:

Browse_Graphic_File_Name: <http://greenwood.cr.usgs.gov/pub/mf-maps/mf-2323/mf2323.pdf>
Browse_Graphic_File_Type: Adobe Portable Document Format
Browse_Graphic_File_Description:: PDF image of 'Extent of Pleistocene Lakes in the Western Great Basin', showing pluvial lake distribution within the Lahontan basin.

Data_Set_Credit:

Production of this map was funded by a Gilbert Fellowship and by the Global Change and Climate History Program.

Data_Quality_Information:

Attribute_Accuracy:

Attribute_Accuracy_Report:: Attributes within this dataset consist of the names of the lakes only, or flags (0|1) for presence/absence of a lake within a particular polygon. The attribute tables were checked for completeness (i.e. no empty fields), consistency (each "flag" field contains a 0 or 1 only), and for spelling of geographic feature names.

Completeness_Report:

Late Pleistocene lake areas are shown for all pluvial lakes within the map area that extend into Nevada or are part of the Lahontan drainage basin. However, larger, pre-late Pleistocene areas are shown only for lake basins which have been visited in the field by the author. The extent of older pluvial lakes in unvisited lake basins is unknown.

Positional_Accuracy:

Horizontal_Positional_Accuracy:

Horizontal_Positional_Accuracy_Report:: The lake shoreline locations are delineated using contour lines derived from DEM source data with 3 arc-second (nominally 90 meters) grid cell resolution. Horizontal accuracy of DEM data is dependent upon the horizontal spacing of the elevation matrix. Within a standard DEM, most terrain features are generalized by being reduced to grid nodes spaced at regular intersections in the horizontal plane. This generalization reduces the ability to recover positions of specific features less than the internal spacing during testing and results in a de facto filtering or smoothing of the surface during gridding. The broad DMA production objective for a 1-degree DTED-1 is to satisfy an absolute horizontal accuracy (feature to datum) of 130 m, circular error at 90-percent probability. The relative horizontal accuracy (feature to feature on the surface of the elevation model), although not specified, will in many cases conform to the actual hypsographic features with higher integrity than indicated by the absolute accuracy.

Vertical_Positional_Accuracy:

Vertical_Positional_Accuracy_Report:: The lake elevations were derived from DEM source data with 3 arc-second (nominally 90 meters) grid cell resolution. Vertical accuracy of DEM data is dependent upon the spatial resolution (horizontal grid spacing), quality of the source data, collection and processing procedures, and digitizing systems. Within a standard DEM, most terrain features are generalized by being reduced to grid nodes spaced at regular intersections in the horizontal plane. This generalization reduces the ability to recover positions of specific features less than the internal spacing during testing and results in a de facto filtering or smoothing of the surface during gridding. The broad DMA production objective for a 1-degree DTED-1 is to satisfy an absolute vertical accuracy (feature to mean sea level) of + or - 30 m linear error at 90-percent probability. The relative vertical accuracy (feature to feature on the surface of the elevation model), although not specified, will in many cases conform to the actual hypsographic features with higher integrity than indicated by the absolute accuracy.

Lineage:

Source_Information:

Source_Citation:

Citation_Information:

Originator: U.S. Geological Survey
Publication_Date: unknown
Title: 1:250,000-scale Digital Elevation Model(DEM)

Source_Scale_Denominator: 250,000

Type_of_Source_Media: online

Source_Time_Period_of_Content:

Time_Period_Information:

Single_Date/Time:

Calendar_Date: unknown

Source_Currentness_Reference: ground condition

Source_Citation_Abbreviation: DEM

Source_Contribution: lake elevations were derived from the DEM data.

Source_Information:

Source_Citation:

Citation_Information:

Originator: U.S. Geological Survey
Publication_Date: unknown
Title: 1:2,000,000-scale boundary and hydrology Digital Line Graphs

Source_Scale_Denominator: 2,000,000

Type_of_Source_Media: online

Source_Time_Period_of_Content:

Time_Period_Information:

Single_Date/Time:

Calendar_Date: unknown

Source_Currentness_Reference: ground condition

Source_Citation_Abbreviation: DLG

Source_Contribution: state boundaries and major drainages

Process_Step:

Process_Description:: Merged the appropriate 3-arc-second 1:250,000-scale DEMs to cover the study area, and ran a simple smoothing algorithm on the grid to remove striping and other unwanted artifacts inherent in the data.
Process_Date: 1998

Process_Step:

Process_Description:: Created contour lines by running the ARC/INFO command 'LATTICECONTOUR' on the elevation grid for specific elevation contours.
Process_Date: 1999

Process_Step:

Process_Description:: Used the ARC/INFO command 'GENERALIZE' to smooth the newly created contour lines.
Process_Date: 1999

Process_Step:

Process_Description:: Created lake polygons by selecting contour lines corresponding to observed or inferred lake shoreline elevations and built them as polygons. Attributed each lake polygon with the lake's name (item 'LAKENAME') and set item 'FLAG' to 1 for each polygon that corresponds to a late Pleistocene lake area. Set the value of item 'ELEVATION' to the value of the elevation contour.
Process_Date: 1999

Logical_Consistency_Report:

Lake areas (late Pleistocene and maximum) are based on shoreline altitudes measured at the field localities shown on map and described in detail in Reheis and Morrison (1997) and Reheis and others (in press). Lake areas were plotted using contour lines of lake-surface altitudes generated from DEMs. Inferred additional area of lakes is approximately delineated based on the author's judgement and is least accurate. Map elements were visually checked for overshoots, undershoots, duplicate features, and other errors.

Spatial_Data_Organization_Information:

Direct_Spatial_Reference_Method: vector

Point_and_Vector_Object_Information:

SDTS_Terms_Description:

SDTS_Point_and_Vector_Object_Type: GT-polygon composed of chains
Point_and_Vector_Object_Count: 519

Spatial_Reference_Information:

Horizontal_Coordinate_System_Definition:

Planar:

Map_Projection:

Map_Projection_Name: Lambert Conformal Conic

Lambert_Conformal_Conic:

Standard_Parallel: 33.0
Standard_Parallel: 45.0
Longitude_of_Central_Meridian: -118.0
Latitude_of_Projection_Origin: 23.0
False_Easting: 0
False_Northing: 0

Planar_Coordinate_Information:

Planar_Coordinate_Encoding_Method: Coordinate pair

Coordinate_Representation:

Abscissa_Resolution: 130.0
Ordinate_Resolution: 130.0

Planar_Distance_Units: meters

Geodetic_Model:

Horizontal_Datum_Name: North American Datum of 1927
Ellipsoid_Name: Clarke 1866
Semi-major_Axis: 6378206.4
Denominator_of_Flattening_Ratio: 294.98

Vertical_Coordinate_System_Definition:

Altitude_System_Definition:

Altitude_Datum_Name: National Geodetic Vertical Datum of 1929
Altitude_Resolution: 30.0
Altitude_Distance_Units: meters
Altitude_Encoding_Method: Attribute values

Entity_and_Attribute_Information:

Overview_Description:

Entity_and_Attribute_Overview:: This data set consists of 10 coverages:
late_pl (polygon): Late Pleistocene lake boundaries. FLAG attribute indicates 1=lake present or 0=lake not present. LAKENAME attribute lists lake names. ELEVATION attribute lists lake elevation in meters.
max_pl (polygon): Maximum extent of pre-late Pleistocene lakes. Attribute descriptions are the same as those of late_pl dataset.
add_pl (polygon): Possible additional area of pre-late Pleistocene lakes. FLAG attribute indicates 1=lake present and 0=lake not present.
basin_bnd (line): Boundary of Lahontan basin. No user-defined attributes.
add_basin_bnd (line): Inferred increase of drainage basin area. No user-defined attributes.
flows (line): Lake overflows. FLAG attribute indicates 1=late Plestocene overflow and 2=possible pre-late Pleistocene overflow and modern sill height.
study_sites (point): Field sample sites. DEPOSIT attribute lists types as "pre-late Pleistocene" or "Pliocene."
state_bnd (line): State boundaries. No user-defined attributes.
majdrain (line): Major drainages in basin. No user-defined attributes.
shadebase.tif (TIFF): Georeferenced TIFF file of shaded-relief grid for map base. Produced from DEM grid using the ARC/INFO 'HILLSHADE' command. Georeferencing information is contained in the file shadebase.tfw.
Entity_and_Attribute_Detail_Citation:: Most late Pleistocene shoreline altitudes and lake names are from Mifflin and Wheat (1979). Lake Warner shoreline from Weide (1975), Lake Alvord shoreline and overflow from Hemphill-Haley (1987), and Lake Coyote shoreline and overflow from Lindberg and Hemphill-Haley (1988). Pre-late Pleistocene shorelines from Reheis and others (1993), Reheis and Morrison (1997), and Reheis and others (in press), except for Lake Wellington (Stewart and Dohrenwend, 1984). See Reheis and others (1993; in press) for information on lake-deposit localities.
Hemphill-Haley, M. A., 1987, Quaternary stratigraphy and late Holocene faulting along the base of the eastern escarpment of Steens Mountain, southeastern Oregon: M.S. thesis, Arcata, Humboldt State University, 84 p.
Lindberg, D.N., and Hemphill-Haley, M.A., 1988, Late-Pleistocene pluvial history of the Alvord basin, Harney Co., Oregon [abstract]: Northwest Science, v. 62, no. 2, p. 81.
Mifflin, M. D., and Wheat, M. M., 1979, Pluvial lakes and estimated pluvial climates of Nevada: Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology Bulletin 94, 57 p.
Reheis, M. C., and Morrison, R. B., 1997, High, old pluvial lakes of western Nevada, in Link, P. K., and Kowallis, B. J., eds., Proterozoic to recent stratigraphy, tectonics, and volcanology, Utah, Nevada, southern Idaho and central Mexico: Provo, Brigham Young University Geology Studies, v. 1, p.459-492.
Reheis, M. C., Sarna-Wojcicki, A. M., Reynolds, R. L., Repenning, C. A., and Mifflin, M.D., in press, Pliocene to middle Pleistocene lakes in the western Great Basin: Ages and connections, in Hershler, R., Currey, D., and Madsen, D., eds., Great Basin Aquatic Systems History: Washington D.C., Smithsonian Institution.
Reheis, M.C., Slate, J.L., Sarna-Wojcicki, A.M., and Meyer, C.E., 1993, A late Pliocene to middle Pleistocene pluvial lake in Fish Lake Valley, Nevada and California: Geological Society of American Bulletin, v. 105, p. 959-967.
Stewart, J. H., and Dohrenwend, J. C., 1984, Geologic map of the Wellington quadrangle, Nevada: U.S. Geological Survey Open file Report 84-211, scale 1:62,500.
Weide, D. L., 1975, Postglacial geomorphology and environments of the Warner Valley Hart Mountain area, Oregon: Ph.D. dissertation, Los Angeles, University of California, 293 p.

Distribution_Information:

Distributor:

Contact_Information:

Contact_Organization_Primary:

Contact_Organization: U.S.Geological Survey

Contact_Address:

Address_Type: mailing address
Address: USGS Information Services
Address: Box 25286
City: Denver
State_or_Province: CO
Postal_Code: 80225-0046
Country: United States

Contact_Voice_Telephone: 1-888-ASK-USGS

Resource_Description: MF-2323

Distribution_Liability: none

Standard_Order_Process:

Non-digital_Form:: Available as one printed sheet - order from USGS at the address listed above or see <http://mapping.usgs.gov/esic/order_forms/map_order.html> for more ordering information.
Fees: See <http://mapping.usgs.gov/esic/prices/index.html>

Standard_Order_Process:

Digital_Form:

Digital_Transfer_Information:

Format_Name: Arc/Info Export (.e00), ArcView shapefile (.shp)
File_Decompression_Technique:: Files are available as gzipped tar archives. On UNIX systems, use the command gzip -cd (filename).tar.gz | tar xvf - See <http://greenwood.cr.usgs.gov/maps/software.html> for information on programs to extract gzip and tar formats on Macintosh and Windows platforms.

Digital_Transfer_Option:

Online_Option:

Computer_Contact_Information:

Network_Address: