Lake Panamint

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Coordinates: 36°18′N 117°18′W / 36.300°N 117.300°W / 36.300; -117.300[1]
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Lake Panamint
Lake Gale
Primary inflows
Owens River, local springs and drainages
Primary outflowsSometimes into Lake Manly

Lake Panamint (also known as Lake Gale[2]) is a former lake that occupied Panamint Valley in California during the Pleistocene. It was formed mainly by water overflowing through the Owens River and which passed through Lake Searles into the Panamint Valley. At times, Lake Panamint itself overflowed into Death Valley and Lake Manly.

Geography and geomorphology

The lake developed within Panamint Valley, California.[3] This valley is a north–south trending depression that is bound between the Panamint Range in the northeast and the Argus Range-Slate Range in the west-southwest. The town of Ballarat lies in the valley,[4] and California State Route 190 crosses the former lake basin in its northern sector.[5] The existence of a lake in this valley was first postulated in 1914.[6]

Lake Panamint was about 97 kilometres (60 mi) long and 8.0–9.7 kilometres (5–6 mi) wide, making it a long and narrow lake. Both the main inlet and the potential outlet were located in a narrower southern part.[7] The total water volume was about 105 cubic kilometres (85,000,000 acre⋅ft).[8] The lake consisted of two basins that were sometimes separated by the Wildrose and Ash Hill Horsts: The northern Lake Hill basin close to Panamint Springs and Big Four Mine Road and the southern Ballarat basin[9] The total surface area of the lake was about 710 square kilometres (270 sq mi).[10]

A number of shorelines have been identified in the valley, indicating variable water levels. There are two principal shorelines at 580–610 metres (1,900–2,000 ft) and 341–385 metres (1,119–1,263 ft), the c. 600 metres (2,000 ft) high shoreline is known as the Gale shoreline. There are a number of other shorelines[6] which span an elevation range of about 300 metres (980 ft).[11]

Geology

The Panamint Valley lies in the southern

strike-slip fault activity.[12] Volcanic activity between 7.7 and 4 million years ago preceded the opening of the valley, leaving basalts stranded on either side. Subsequently, the Panamint Valley Fault Zone triggered subsidence of the valley floor and the separation of the formerly connected Darwin Plateau and Panamint Ranges.[13]

Little tectonic activity occurred while the valley was flooded[14] although lake sediments have been deformed by a 1.4–0.8 metres (4 ft 7 in – 2 ft 7 in) high fault scarp[4] and fault offsets are observed in many places of the Panamint Valley,[15] and while there is evidence for fault movement only a few hundred years ago, historical earthquake activity in the region is low.[13]

Tufa deposits have been found in the Panamint Valley, some of which form fringing reefs[16] and algal mounds.[17] Lake Panamint has left clay,[18] marl and silt deposits in Panamint Valley.[19] Cobble beaches developed at the Nadeau Road and Lower Water Canyon localities,[17] while wave-cut terraces were identified close to Ballarat[15] and Big Four Mine Road and delta deposits close to Panamint Springs.[20]

Hydrology

The deserts of the Southwestern United States were not always as dry as today.

Laurentide Ice Sheet expanded and displaced the jet stream.[22]

Inflow

Pleistocene maps near Death Valley

Lake Panamint was part of a chain of lakes that started with

before present.[21]

During

oxygen isotope stage 4 Lake Panamint was filled by groundwater,[2] which comes in part from the Sierra Nevada[9] and in part from the Panamint Range. There are also some hot springs that show evidence of geothermal heating[6] and in general spring discharge sites close to faults are associated with peculiar coastal environments.[26] Desert drainages also added water to Lake Panamint,[7] some of these are still active today.[6]

Overflow

Lake Panamint itself overflowed at times into

sill.[15]

Overflow from Lake Panamint was a principal source of water for Lake Manly during the time the overflow was active.

oxygen isotope stage 6; during oxygen isotope stage 2 Lake Panamint was the terminal basin for the Owens River[2] and no overflow occurred after about 30,000 years before present.[31]

Biology

widgeonweeds grew in Lake Panamint.[2]

gastropod fossils have been found in lake deposits such as tufa;[16] genera found at Lake Panamint include Amnicola, Helisoma, Lymnaea, Valvata and Vorticifex.[32] Fecal pellets from brine shrimps have been found in lake deposits.[2]

Various fish such as suckers (Catostomus) and Western chubs (Gila and Siphateles) inhabited the lake when it was overflowing. Today they still occur in the Owens River system.[2] When Lake Panamint existed, California voles used the rivers reaching to and from the lake to propagate across the desert.[33]

Ostracods also lived in the lake waters,[2] including Candona, Cyprideis[32] and Limnocythere species. During shallow water periods, foraminifera also populated the lake,[2] and the presence of diatoms and other planktonic fossils was reported already in the 1950s.[6]

During the most recent highstand of Lake Panamint, humans occupied its shorelines and left

archeological artifact in California, have been found on the former shores of Lake Panamint[34] and geoglyphs have been observed in the northern sector of Lake Panamint.[5]

Lake history

Panamint Valley was flooded about five times over the last 100,000 years,

glacial periods.[2] These lake stages have been assigned letter codes from oldest to youngest, "E", "F", "G", "H" and "I"; their chronology is often uncertain.[28] Lake stages at Lake Panamint coincided with the Tahoe and Tioga glacier advances in the Sierra Nevada.[35]

While the height of water levels during the

radiocarbon years ago Lake Panamint was definitively receding.[37]

Presently, the Panamint Valley is considered to be part of physiographical region of the Sonoran Desert[3] and contains two playas, South Panamint Playa and North Panamint Playa.[38] Panamint Spring and Warm Sulphurs Spring are active in the northwestern and east-central sectors of the valley.[4]

References

  1. ^ Petrie, G. M. (1984). "Consideration of future climatic changes in three geologic settings". International Nuclear Information System.
  2. ^
    Bibcode:2014AGUFMPP23C1407J
    .
  3. ^ a b c Post 1984, p. 147.
  4. ^ a b c Zhang et al. 1990, p. 4859.
  5. ^
    JSTOR 985774
    .
  6. ^ a b c d e Jayko et al. 2008, p. 154.
  7. ^ a b Phalen 1919, p. 174.
  8. ^ Phalen 1919, p. 175.
  9. ^ a b Jayko et al. 2008, p. 153.
  10. ^ Smith, George I. (2000). "AAPG Studies in Geology #46, Chapter 56: Late Pliocene and Pleistocene Searles Lake, California, U.S.A.": 591–595. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  11. ^ Jayko et al. 2008, p. 155.
  12. ^ Zhang et al. 1990, p. 4857.
  13. ^ a b Zhang et al. 1990, p. 4858.
  14. ^ Post 1984, p. 148.
  15. ^
    ISSN 0016-7606
    .
  16. ^
    Bibcode:2001AGUFMPP42B0530J
    .
  17. ^ a b Jayko et al. 2008, p. 164.
  18. ^ Molineux, Bliamptis & Neal 1971, p. 5.
  19. ^ a b c Hubbs, Bien & Suess 1965, p. 93.
  20. ^ Jayko et al. 2008, p. 171.
  21. ^ a b Conroy et al. 2016, p. 93.
  22. S2CID 140174207
    .
  23. ^
    ISSN 0091-7613
    .
  24. Bibcode:2001AGUFMPP22A0493S
    .
  25. S2CID 128533773
    .
  26. ^ Jayko et al. 2008, p. 173.
  27. ISSN 0016-7606
    .
  28. ^ a b Zhang et al. 1990, p. 4864.
  29. ^ Rosenthal et al. 2017, p. 114.
  30. Bibcode:2006AGUFMPP23B1760C
    .
  31. ^ Conroy et al. 2016, p. 95.
  32. ^ a b Jayko et al. 2008, p. 159.
  33. ^ Conroy et al. 2016, p. 94.
  34. S2CID 161949450
    .
  35. ^ Hubbs, Bien & Suess 1965, p. 94.
  36. ^ Jayko et al. 2008, p. 152.
  37. ^ Rosenthal et al. 2017, p. 134.
  38. ^ Molineux, Bliamptis & Neal 1971, p. 2.

Sources

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