Hydrology around Lake Tahoe

 

 Apart of the water table displays the level of surface water. Surface water consisits of water that flows into lakes. Little amount of ground water is found at the bottom of streams. Rocks, trees, and plant life show where ther water tables exists during the changing seasons.

Photo By: Parker Alexander

 



 Photo By: Parker Alexander

Physical Weathering

 

Pressure Roots are examples of how rocks and minerals break apart. Inside the rocks fissures, sand or clay particles gather. Seeds travel from birds or the wind into the fissures. With the sun and water, seeds grow roots into the cracks that expand the rock further. Pressure roots can have an impact to break a rock in half.

 

Lake Tahoe's Mass Waisting

 

 

Landslide in California, Lake Tahoe across Route 50.

 

 

 

 

              

 

In Emerald Bay, Lake Tahoe, during an intense rain the permeable soil passed it's retention point allowing the soil to transport rocks and mud down the slope in a landslide.

Angular slope material that are not smooth or round are colluviums. Looking around the steep mountain sides colluviums are apparent.

Mass waisting can occur in falls. Rocks Falls form Talus, groups of fallen rock, that create the jagged look across the landscape.

 

Sources:

http://clasfaculty.ucdenver.edu/callen/1202/Battle/Destroy/MassWasting/MassWasting.htm

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=emerald+bay+landslide+tahoe&view=detail&id=A2A17BD64664B8C8BEF7D44ECCA2E6EC668CEDE8

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=lake+tahoe+steep+slopes&qs=n&form=QBIR&pq=lake+tahoe+steep+slopes&sc=0-17&sp=-1&sk

       Lake Tahoe is the 10th Deepest Lake in the World!       
               The Highest Lake in the United States!

 

 

 

 

 Lake Tahoe Basin is between the Carson's Range and the Sierra Nevada Mountains. These mountains show where the normal fault occurred arguably 2-4 million years ago.        

 

 

 

 

The lake was formed by the downward movement of the ground along the fault known as grabens. The upward shift of the ground formed the ridges or mountains around the lake that are called horsts. One can find fault lines across the northern and western parts of the lake floor.  

 

 

There is mostly shale, fine grained sediment, like mud and clay found in the area of the lake but in the north end there is siltstone from silt and sand.

 This intrusive rock in the picture to the left of felsic material or the lighter patches is seen next to the lizards. 

 
 The surrounding mountains provide runoffs from the snow melting into the lake during the seasons. Over the years, the runoffs have brought down sediment rocks that add to the basin. Runoffs can be apart of something larger called triangular facets. Triangular facets are true indicators of a normal fault along a mountain range.The large lake has many  running into it but Lake Tahoe is only drained by the Truckee river.

 

 

             On the Sierra Nevada's there are batholiths from an andesitic volcano. Batholiths are created by an abundance of large chamber's called plutons formed in this case by erosion. Exposed granite, the lighter felsic igneous rock can indicate batholiths. Also, on the mountain sides there has been discoveries of prebatholth or metamorphic rocks.

 

 

Across the Lake and basin is the view of the ridged mountain line or horsts and the graben was filled with water.

                        Sources

http://tahoe.usgs.gov/files/papers_morphology.pdf

http://clasfaculty.ucdenver.edu/callen/1202/Battle/Build/Faulting/Faulting.html

http://tahoe.usgs.gov/facts.html

http://tahoe.usgs.gov/geography.html

 

Photographs by Parker Alexander

 

 



                                                                 

            KEEP TAHOE BLUE!

                     My name is Farrah Chapman. I used to live in South Lake Tahoe, CA. Everyday of the year I am taken back by Lake Tahoe's beauty.

             When living there I found that preserving the large beauty was a priority by the locals. Keep Tahoe blue was everywhere and that blue bumper sticker is there stand. From the Sierra Mountain range to the second deepest lake in the US, Tahoe is a true fascination on it's own. I am even more interested in Tahoe because the bottom of the lake is still somewhat of a mystery. Made out of the glacier water run off from the Sierra's, the water has many elements of danger with the cold water temperatures.
              This has brought me to my blog. How was the land and lake formed? How does Tahoe continue to change? This natural beauty is filled with the wonders of physical geography and this blog will break down some of those wonders.


Photo's provided by Parker Alexander.