Top Facts about Lake Tahoe
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- Опубликовано: 7 сен 2024
- #LakeTahoe #LakeTahoeFacts
What Makes Lake Tahoe Special? Fun Facts Lake Tahoe.
Lake Tahoe, also known as “the Jewel of the Sierras”, “The Lake of the Sky” and “Big Blue”, is a natural wonder of the American West. What makes it special? Here are some fun facts about this amazing lake.
Lake Tahoe is one of the prettiest lakes in the US. It is located 200 miles northeast of San Francisco, CA. and 58 miles southwest of Reno, Nevada. Two-thirds of it is located in California and one-third in the state of Nevada and it’s surrounded by the snow-capped peaks of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. It’s the largest alpine lake in North America. It's 22 miles long, 12 miles wide, and covers a surface area of 191.6 square miles, and has 72 miles of shoreline. It is the second deepest in the US, third deepest lake in North America and the tenth deepest in the world. It’s depth is 1645 feet, whereas the deepest lake in the world is Lake Baikal in Russia with over 4600 feet depth.
The water in the lake is almost as pure as drinking water.The water is 99.994% pure and considered one of the purest and cleanest bodies of water in the world. Commercially distilled water is 99.998% pure. In fact, several Nevada communities pump drinking water right out of the lake, because the water is so good.
Estimated that the Lake is over 2 million years old, it’s considered an ancient lake and is counted among the 20 oldest lakes in the world.
The main body of Lake Tahoe does not freeze, this is due to the constant 39 degrees Fahrenheit maintained at depths below 600 feet, largely because of the constant movement and volume of water. Some parts of the lake like Emerald Bay on the south end of the lake, routinely freezes over, although not to a great depth.
The summer’s heat can warm the upper 12 feet of the lake to a comfortable 68 degrees Fahrenheit.
The average depth of the lake is 1000 feet.
The lake is known for its phenomenal clarity. Scientists started measuring Lake Tahoe’s water clarity in 1968 and have been doing so for decades. Clarity is measured as the depth to which a 10-inch white disk remains visible when lowered into the water. In 1968 one could see it submerged to a depth of 100 feet.Since then the clarity has dropped to around 70 feet and the lowest value was recorded in 2017, when clarity was around 60 feet.
When we visited lake Tahoe we were impressed by its blue color. Not surprising that one of its nicknames is “Big Blue”. For decades people believed that the lake's blueness is tied to clarity of the lake or the color from the sky. Recently scientists discovered that blueness is controlled by algal concentration, which in turn is driven by the level of nutrients available to the algae. The less nutrients available in the water, the less algae, and the bluer the lake looks.
The average daily evaporation from the lake would meet the daily water needs of over 3 million of Americans.
The Lake holds about 39 trillion gallons of water, enough to cover the state of California to a depth of 14 and a half inches.
I grew up at Lake Tahoe, and believe me when I say that emerald Bay has never frozen over! There have been times where near the mouth of it where it's very shallow, part of that inlet has frozen over but never completely! The one that freezes over every year is right next to it on the south just over the ridge, and that is Cascade Lake. I know, because once I took my Volkswagen beetle out onto the lake, which was private at the time with only two cabins on the shore. My friend and I proceeded to do some donuts out on the lake until we cracked the ice, so we jumped out onto the still frozen part. I knew that Volkswagens could float for a long time. We hitchhiked back towards South shore where I knew of a motel owner who had an Old Plymouth four-door sedan, but it had no doors on it. He was in the process of restoring it, so they were in his workshed. I drove it back to the entrance to Cascade Lake, but it wouldn't fit through that small opening that I had carefully concealed not too far from the chain that closed off the gate to entry by anyone except for the owner of those cabins. By the time we walked in to the lake itself, my Volkswagen was nowhere to be seen. But then I remembered, that the heater boxes on the exhaust we're not connected to the body, because I had neglected to replace them! Somewhere on the bottom of that fairly deep little lake is my Volkswagen!
Would like to go one day maybe in mid August I thunk or I know defiantly in Dec I'd like ti go
Me and my family have gone to South Lake Tahoe for years and it’s so good to learn more about it
Thank you!
Awesome video. Didn't know many facts. Thanks!
Thank you!
The biggest problem in the loss of clarity of the water of Lake Tahoe, is not particulate matter or the amount of nutrients as the video claims. The fact is that the mysis shrimp, an invasive species that was introduced in the '60s in hopes of feeding the native fish. It backfired, leading to even more loss of clarity in Lake Tahoe for a number of years. UC Davis conducted a study for a couple years on how to remove all the invasive species, after which the clarity of Tahoe began to increase again.