Paleoclimatic Drilling at Washoe Lake, November 1991 to March 1993. Final report

A lacustrine sediment sequence in Washoe Lake in western Nevada was drilled in 1992 for paleoclimatic and paleohydrologic studies. In late June, 1991, the lake completely dried up for the first time since 1933-34 and only the second time in recorded history, offering a rare opportunity to obtain long continuous sections from a quasi-permanent lake in a climatically sensitive region. The lake is nominally 31 km{sup 2} in size and averages 3-4 m in depth. During the Pleistocene, the water depth was on the order of 13-17 m, and the lake occupied a much more extensive area. Geologic studies of the basin sides suggest that lacustrine sediments have been deposited for at least the last 2.5 my