Late Holocene paleohydrology of Walker Lake and the Carson Sink in the western Great Basin, Nevada, USA

The late Holocene histories of Walker Lake and the Carson Sink were reconstructed by synthesizing existing data in both basins along with new age constraints from key sites, supplemented with paleohydrologic modeling. The repeated diversions of the Walker River to the Carson Sink and then back to Walker Lake caused Walker Lake–level fluctuations spanning ± 50 m. Low lake levels at about 1000, 750, and 300 cal yr BP are time correlative to the ages of fluvial deposits along the Walker River paleochannel, when flow was directed toward the Carson Sink. The timing and duration of large lakes in the Carson Sink were further refined using moisture-sensitive tree-ring chronologies. The largest lakes required a fourfold to fivefold increase in discharge spanning decades. Addition of Walker River flow to the Carson Sink by itself is inadequate to account for the required discharge. Instead, increases in the runoff coefficient and larger areas of the drainage basin contributing surface runoff may explain the enhanced discharge required to create these large lakes.