Soda Lakes

Soda Lakes
West half of Soda Lake T.H. O'Sullivan
Soda Lakes
Location in Nevada
Location Churchill County, Nevada, US
Coordinates 39°31′48″N 118°52′12″W / 39.53000°N 118.87000°W / 39.53000; -118.87000Coordinates: 39°31′48″N 118°52′12″W / 39.53000°N 118.87000°W / 39.53000; -118.87000[1]
Type

Maars, volcanic explosion craters

Age Holocene
Last eruption A.D. 512
Surface elevation 1,251 m (4,104 ft)[1]

The Soda Lakes are two lakes located northwest of Fallon, Nevada. They occupy two basaltic maar volcanoes which may have erupted in the last 1500 years from 2012. The larger lake (called Soda Lake or Big Soda Lake[2]) is somewhat elongated, stretching 2 kilometers (1.2 mi) in length, while the smaller one (Little Soda Lake[3]) is 200 meters (660 ft) across. According to an early study of Soda Lakes, Russell (1885) describes the Soda Lake basin as follows:

The rim of the larger lake in its highest part rises 80 feet above the surrounding desert, and is 165 feet higher than the surface of the lake which it incloses. The outer slope of the cone is gentle and merges almost imperceptibly with the desert surface; but the inner slope is abrupt and at times approaches the perpendicular. A series of careful soundings gives 147 feet as the greatest depth of the lake. The total depth of the depression is therefore 312 feet, and its bottom is 232 feet lower than the general surface of the desert near at hand.[4]

The lakes are classified as soda lakes, hence the name.[5]

See Also

References

  1. 1 2 "Soda Lakes". Global Volcanism Program. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 2018-09-11.
  2. ↑ "Soda Lake". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey.
  3. ↑ "Little Soda Lake". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey.
  4. ↑ Russell, I.C. 1885. Soda Lakes, near Ragtown, Nevada. In: Geological History of Lake Lahontan, a Quaternary lake of northwestern Nevada. United States Geological Survey, Monograph 11, pp. 73-80.
  5. ↑ Federal Writers' Project (1941). Origin of Place Names: Nevada (PDF). W.P.A. p. 13.
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