 EPOD - a service of USRA

The Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) highlights the diverse processes
and phenomena which shape our planet and our lives. EPOD will collect and
archive photos, imagery, graphics, and artwork with short explanatory
captions and links exemplifying features within the Earth system. The
community is invited to contribute digital imagery, short captions and
relevant links.


 Lake Tahoe: Blue Gem of the Sierras

   June 28, 2021

    6a0105371bb32c970b026bded8df1a200c

    Tahoe120c_7june21

   Photographer:  Ray Boren

   Summary Author:  Ray Boren

   Straddling a state line shared by Nevada and California in the western
   United States, beautiful  Lake Tahoe is set like a gargantuan blue
   gem in a high  basin between the  Sierra Nevada crest on the west
   and the Sierras’  Carson Range spur on the east. In the first
   photograph here, taken on June 7, 2021, the panoramic perspective to
   the south and southwest is from a high viewpoint above the north
   shore’s  Incline Village, along Nevada’s Mount Rose Highway (State
   Route 431). A second photo, taken the same day, presents a shoreline
   view from Lake Tahoe’s north-shore resort town of  Kings Beach,
   California.

   Tahoe’s name is an anglicization of a Native American  Washoe tribal
   term describing “The Lake,” “Big Water,” or “Water in a High Place” —
   all quite apt. Tahoe is the  largest fresh-water alpine lake in
   North America, covering 122,616 acres (49,621 hectares). With a depth
   of 1,645 feet (501 m), it is also the second-deepest in the United
   States (behind Oregon’s lovely Crater Lake). It is 22 miles (35 km)
   long, north to south, and 12 miles (19 km) at its widest, with 72 miles
   (116 km) of shoreline.

   Basin-and-range  faulting is credited with forming a series of
   west-tilted blocks and east-dipping faults that produced the
   north/south trending basin about 2 million years ago. Elevations at
   Tahoe range from 6,225 feet (1897 m) at lake level to 10,891 feet (3320
   m) atop  Freel Peak. The spectacular and pleasing natural beauty of
   today’s Lake Tahoe basin is the result of manifold geological processes
   over millions of years, the  Geologic Survey notes, including marine
   deposition, granitic intrusion, tectonic uplift, volcanic eruptions,
   and ice-age glacial scouring and other forms of erosion.
     * Lake Tahoe Coordinates: 39.092, -120.033

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Geography Links

     *  Atlapedia Online
     *  CountryReports
     *  GPS Visualizer
     *  Holt Rinehart Winston World Atlas
     *  Mapping Our World
     *  Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection
     *  Types of Land
     *  World Mapper

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   Earth Science Picture of the Day is a service of the  Universities
   Space Research Association.

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