North Lahontan

Gage Gap

Nature Conservancy | October 31st, 2018

Following a difficult five-year drought, California just had one of the wettest winters on record. The state is famous for its highly engineered water system, whi

Following a difficult five-year drought, California just had one of the wettest winters on record. The state is famous for its highly engineered water system, which moves millions of gallons of water from north to south and east to west. Thirty-nine million people and our $47 billion agricultural industry rely on that water, not to mention wildlife from the Sierra to the sea. And yet we have surprisingly little data about how much water is moving through our streams at any given time. There are over 3,600 locations in California where stream gages have been active at some point, but only 54% have been active recently. And even fewer of those provide the kind of rich, real-time reporting needed to manage what is arguably our state’s most precious and contentious resource.

Geohydrology and Simulated Response to Ground-Water Pumpage in Carson Valley, A River-Dominated Basin in Douglas County, Nevada, and Alpine County, California

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) | May 2nd, 1986

This investigation of the ground-water hydrology in Carson Valley was conducted from 1980 through 1985 by the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with Douglas County.

This investigation of the ground-water hydrology in Carson Valley was conducted from 1980 through 1985 by the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with Douglas County. The purpose of the study was to: (1) collect, compile, and analyze hydrologic data to quantify the hydrology of the valley and to enhance the understanding of the valley's geohydrologic system; and (2) develop a ground-water model that would simulate the response of the hydrologic system to applied stresses and that could be used to estimate the probable hydrologic effects of various development alternatives. This report presents the results of the investigation. Work began with a gravity survey in 1980 to determine the depth to bedrock in Carson Valley; the results are discussed in detail in a separate publication (Maurer, 1986). From 1981 to 1983, work included: (1) measurement of water-level fluctuations and surface-water runoff, (2) drilling of additional observation wells, (3) collection of ground-water pumpage data and measurement of pump efficiencies, and (4) compilation of existing data reports and drillers 1 logs to obtain estimates of geohydrologic characteristics of the ground-water reservoir. Development of a water budget and initial estimates of hydraulic conductivities and specific yield were accomplished in 1983. From 1983 to 1985, the ground-water model was developed and calibrated, and simulations of possible ground-water development were made. The model, which represents a compilation of all available data, was used to (1) test estimates of the geohydrologic characteristics of the ground-water reservoir, (2) evaluate the components of the water budget for the basin, (3) enhance the understanding of the hydrologic flow system in the basin, and (4) simulate the effect of various possible developmental alternatives on Carson River outflow, evapotranspiration, ground-water levels, and ground-water storage in the valley.

Geology of Northern California Bulletin 190

California Division of Mines and Geology | December 1st, 1966

Glaciers in California’s Sierra Nevada are likely disappearing for the first time in the Holocene

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) | October 1st, 2025

Mountain glaciers are sensitive climate indicators. Glaciers in the western United States are projected to disappear by 2100 CE, but whether they were previously absent i

Mountain glaciers are sensitive climate indicators. Glaciers in the western United States are projected to disappear by 2100 CE, but whether they were previously absent in the current interglacial (past 11,700 years) remains debated. Here, we present evidence that two of the largest glaciers in California’s Sierra Nevada near Yosemite National Park persisted throughout the Holocene. Cosmogenic in situ carbon-14 and beryllium-10 exposure dating in newly exposed proglacial bedrock indicates continuous Holocene cover, likely by ice. At a nearby smaller glacier, bedrock exposure-burial ages suggest glacier expansion at ~7 thousand years ago, earlier than previously recognized. Moraine exposure ages at these sites and the Sierra Nevada’s largest glacier are distributed across the past several thousand years, suggesting that glaciers were near their preindustrial extent for much of the late Holocene. These findings imply that a glacier-free Sierra Nevada is unprecedented since before the Holocene. Future alpine glacial environments in California are thereby likely a no-analog scenario within the current interglacial.

Global climate mode resonance due to rapidly intensifying El Niño-Southern Oscillation

Publisher not available | October 16th, 2025

Increasing ENSO amplitude and teleconnection patterns imply that remote extratropical precipitation responses, such as in Southern California and the Iberian Peninsula (F

Increasing ENSO amplitude and teleconnection patterns imply that remote extratropical precipitation responses, such as in Southern California and the Iberian Peninsula (Fig. 5), will also become stronger between alternating El Niño and La Niña events. Even though the recurrence of these events may become more predictable due to the increased regularity/periodicity and amplitude (Fig. 1)44, future ENSO teleconnections might generate enhanced whiplash effects on hydroclimate, which requires additional planning and management strategies to minimize the costs of climate damage. While similar increases in ENSO regularity and amplitude can be found in some CMIP6 model projections (Fig. 2), future work needs to assess the detailed dynamics across these models and assess the likelihood of the ENSO regime changes seen in AWI-CM3.

Gold Extraction Processes

Scientific American | October 31st, 1896

FROM very early times the ancients were attracted the beautiful color, the brilliant luster and the indestructibility of gold, and spared no pains in the endeavor to acqu

FROM very early times the ancients were attracted the beautiful color, the brilliant luster and the indestructibility of gold, and spared no pains in the endeavor to acquire it. In the code of Menes, who reigned in Egypt some 2,000 years before the time of Moses, the ratio of value between gold and silver is mentioned, one part of gold being declared equal in value to two and a half parts of silver, and it is, therefore, clear that the extraction of both metals from the deposits containing them must have been carried on before that time. It is indeed probable that gold was the first metal observed and collected, since it occurs in fragments of all sizes in loose sand, and the operations of collecting the larger pieces and melting them together are so simple. Among the rock carvings of Upper Egypt there are several illustrative of the art of washing auriferous sands by stirring and working them up by the hand in hollowed-out stone basins, and subsequently melting the gold in simple furnaces with the aid of mouth blowpipes. The earliest of these carvings is supposed to date back to about 2,500 B.C. However, in ancient times, gold appears to have been mainly derived from India, and that country continued to supply most of the gold used in Europe until the discovery of America by Columbus.

Governing Nature: Bambi Law in a Wall-E World

Social Science Research Network (SSRN) | January 28th, 2021

Humanity has disrupted many of the fundamental processes that shape nature worldwide. Virtually no places remain unchanged. Many ecosystems have moved far from their hist

Humanity has disrupted many of the fundamental processes that shape nature worldwide. Virtually no places remain unchanged. Many ecosystems have moved far from their historic conditions and no longer support native species or traditional human uses. In the Anthropocene, a new geologic era dominated by the human impact on Earth, these problems will continue to get worse. In response, humans are intervening in ecosystems at a massive scale. This Article argues that, even as humanity engages in an unprecedented level of ecosystem management, existing environmental governance structures are ill suited to manage this new nature. Ecologists who focus on restoring ecosystems have begun to abandon efforts to recreate idealized historical ecosystems, recognizing that such efforts will fail. Instead, they embrace new approaches that acknowledge continuing human impacts and seek to shape impacted habitats in a way that benefits both human and other life. This Article examines the new ecological approaches, using their migration of purpose and approach to illuminate ecosystem management in the Anthropocene and the new obligations it places on environmental law. To sharpen this focus, the Article considers three case studies of managed ecosystems, detailing the extent to which humans are controlling nature. The case studies suggest that the existing literature seriously underestimates the magnitude of the questions society will soon face. The Article concludes that although we face the daunting prospect of reshaping the very fabric of nature, we lack the governance structures to decide what shape it should take. Society will need environmental law governance that can answer fundamental questions about humanity’s role in managing nature at all scales. This Article proposes several starting principles to encourage legal scholars to address this need.

Governor's Commission to Review California Water Rights Law Summary Final Report

State of California | December 1st, 1978

Ground-Water Resources Inventory of the Lake Tahoe Basin, 2007

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) | November 30th, 2007

Ground-Water Resources of Honey Lake Valley, Lassen County, California, and Washoe County, Nevada

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) | January 8th, 1990

Honey Lake Valley is a 2,200-square-mile, northwest-trending, topographically closed basin about 35 miles northwest of Reno, Nevada. Unconsolidated basin-fill deposits o

Honey Lake Valley is a 2,200-square-mile, northwest-trending, topographically closed basin about 35 miles northwest of Reno, Nevada. Unconsolidated basin-fill deposits on the valley floor and fractured volcanic rocks in the northern and eastern uplands are the principal aquifers. Ground water in the Nevada part of the basin is being considered as a potential source of public supply to the Reno area. This report describes the ground-water resources of the basin and the potential hydrologic effects of ground-water development in its eastern part. During an average year, about 1.1 million acre-feet of precipitation falls on the 1,700-square-mile study area within the valley, and an estimated 86,000 acre-feet enters the study area as streamflow in the Susan River and Long Valley Creek. Almost 90 percent of this water runs off, evaporates, or is transpired by plants before it can infiltrate and become ground-water recharge; this includes about 130,000 acre-feet per year that reaches Honey Lake as surface-water inflow. About 130,000 acre-feet recharges the aquifer system annually, about 40 percent by direct infiltration of precipitation over the study area and about 60 percent by infiltration of streamflow and irrigation water. Balancing this is an equal amount of ground-water discharge, of which about 65 percent evaporates from the water table or is transpired by phreatophytes, about 30 percent is withdrawn from wells, and about 5 percent leaves the basin as subsurface outflow to the east. A ground-water flow model of the eastern part of the study area, where withdrawals for public supply have been proposed, was used to evaluate components of the water budget and to estimate the long-term hydrologic effects of hypothetical increased development. Results of the evaluation indicate conditions under which a new equilibrium would be established if 15,000 acre-feet of water were withdrawn from the Fish Springs Ranch area annually. The model indicates that, as a result of such an increase in pumpage, water levels would decline more than 100 feet from present (1988) levels in the vicinity of the pumping, and as much as 40 feet at the California-Nevada State line. Evapotranspiration and subsurface outflow to the east would each be reduced by about 60 percent, but hydrologic effects would be minimal at the western boundary of the flow-model area (just east of Honey Lake). Within the modeled area, the simulation indicates that the increased withdrawals would cause the net flow of ground water eastward across the State line to increase from about 700 acre-feet per year to about 2,300 acre-feet per year.