The Alkali Lakes are a series of three large playas located in the Surprise Valley of northeastern

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. From north to south they are known as Upper, Middle and Lower Alkali Lake. Upper Alkali Lake is often known simply as Upper Lake, and Lower Alkali Lake as Lower Lake. Although mostly located in

Modoc County Modoc County () is a county in the far northeast corner of the U.S. state of California. Its population is 8,700 as of the 2020 census, down from 9,686 from the 2010 census. This makes it California's third-least populous county. The county seat ...

, California, the eastern edges of Middle and Lower Lakes touch Washoe County,

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

. The

Warner Mountains The Warner Mountains are an -long mountain range running north–south through northeastern California and extending into southern Oregon in the United States. The range lies within the northwestern corner of the Basin and Range Province, exte ...

are located to the west of the three lakes. The lake beds are typically flooded with shallow water in the winter but dry up during most summers.

Location and history

Prior to European settlement, the area was inhabited by the Kidütökadö, a band of the

Northern Paiute Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a r ...

. The town of

Fort Bidwell Fort Bidwell is a census-designated place in Modoc County, California. It is located northeast of Alturas, at an elevation of 4564 feet (1391 m). Its population is 180 as of the 2020 census, up from 173 from the 2010 census. Geography Fort Bi ...

is located at the north end of Upper Alkali Lake. Lake City and Cedarville are located between and west of Upper and Middle Alkali Lakes. Eagleville is situated south of Lower Alkali Lake.

California State Route 299 State Route 299 (SR 299) is an east–west state highway in the state of California that runs across the northern part of the state. At , it is the third longest California state highway (after Route 1 and Route 99). Route 299 begins at US 101 ...

crosses the basin in-between the Upper and Middle lakes.

As the crow flies __NOTOC__ The expression ''as the crow flies'' is an idiom for the most direct path between two points, rather similar to "in a beeline". This meaning is attested from the early 19th century, and appeared in Charles Dickens's 1838 novel '' Oliv ...

, the lakes are located about east of

Alturas Alturas (Spanish language, Spanish for "Heights"; Achumawi language, Achumawi: ''Kasalektawi'') is a city and the county seat of Modoc County, California. Located in the Shasta Cascade region of Northern California, the city had a population of ...

and northeast of Redding. The lakes lie at the bottom of a

graben In geology, a graben () is a depressed block of the crust of a planet or moon, bordered by parallel normal faults. Etymology ''Graben'' is a loan word from German, meaning 'ditch' or 'trench'. The word was first used in the geologic contex ...

created by the Surprise Valley Fault, which has experienced nearly a mile (1.6 km) of vertical displacement, resulting in the steep eastern scarp of the Warner Mountains.http://www.water.ca.gov/pubs/waterquality/surprise_valley_groundwater_basin_water_quality_study/surprise.pdf They are a remnant of Glacial

Lake Lahontan Lake Lahontan was a large endorheic Pleistocene lake of modern northwestern Nevada that extended into northeastern California and southern Oregon. The area of the former lake is a large portion of the Great Basin that borders the Sacramento Rive ...

, which existed up until about 12,000 years ago during the last ice age. Sediment deposits indicate Lake Lahontan was up to deep in this area, which would have filled the entire valley. The surrounding area has been used for agriculture since the first settlers arrived in the 1840s. The valley was named "Surprise" because of the relatively abundant greenery, supported by streams flowing from the Warner Mountains, in stark contrast to the surrounding high desert country. With growing water use and drought conditions in the 21st century, falling

groundwater Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidate ...

levels in the basin are an increasing concern. Salt was extracted from briny wells on the east side of Middle Alkali Lake until 1943.

Hydrology

The lakes form an

endorheic An endorheic basin (; also spelled endoreic basin or endorreic basin) is a drainage basin that normally retains water and allows no outflow to other external bodies of water, such as rivers or oceans, but drainage converges instead into lakes ...

(closed) drainage system in the western edge of the

Great Basin The Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic basin, endorheic watersheds, those with no outlets, in North America. It spans nearly all of Nevada, much of Utah, and portions of California, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and Baja California ...

. With a total combined surface area of , the lakes receive runoff from a

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, t ...

of and are considered part of California's North Lahontan watershed. Despite the nomenclature, the direction of water flow is not from north to south. Middle Alkali Lake is actually the highest at above sea level. Water will either flow south to Lower Alkali Lake at , or north to Upper Alkali Lake at . The lakes are seasonally flooded with alkaline water in most years, drying out in the summer. Annual precipitation in the basin ranges from . The average annual runoff is , which occurs mainly between March and June as snowmelt. This is enough to flood the lake beds deep; however, most of the water is either appropriated for irrigation, or evaporates in the desert heat. Formed by erosion during the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

, the

alluvial Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluv ...

deposits that make up the lake beds are up to deep at Middle Alkali Lake and hold significant amounts of

. The Surprise Valley Groundwater Basin has an estimated volume of .

Upper Alkali Lake

The northernmost lake, Upper Alkali Lake has a drainage area of . The lake is fed by Bidwell, Second, Goose, Wilkinson, Mill, Releford and Soldier Creeks, as well as overflow from Middle Alkali Lake if the level of that lake is high enough.

Middle Alkali Lake

Middle Alkali Lake is the largest by both surface area and drainage area. The total catchment of Middle Alkali Lake is . Creeks flowing into the lake include Sand, Fortymile, Cedar, Deep, Granger, Milk, Cottonwood, Owl and Raider Creeks. Between Middle and Lower Alkali Lakes there is a smaller lake called Cambron Lake, fed by Highrock and Eagle Creeks.

Lower Alkali Lake

Lower Alkali Lake is the southernmost and smallest lake, draining . Streams feeding the lake include Emerson, Barber, and Bare Creeks, as well as occasional overflow from Middle Alkali Lake.

References