Lake Escara is a former lake in the southern

Altiplano The Altiplano (Spanish for "high plain"), Collao (Quechua and Aymara: Qullaw, meaning "place of the Qulla") or Andean Plateau, in west-central South America, is the most extensive high plateau on Earth outside Tibet. The plateau is located at the ...

. The Lake Escara lake episode was first defined in 1978, along with

Lake Minchin Lake Minchin is a name of an ancient lake in the Altiplano of South America. It existed where today the Salar de Uyuni, Salar de Coipasa and Lake Poopó lie. It was formerly considered the highest lake in the Altiplano but research indicated that ...

and Lake Tauca. Today the Altiplano hosts

Lake Titicaca Lake Titicaca (; es, Lago Titicaca ; qu, Titiqaqa Qucha) is a large freshwater lake in the Andes mountains on the border of Bolivia and Peru. It is often called the highest navigable lake in the world. By volume of water and by surface area, ...

in the north and

Lake Poopo A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much larger ...

Salar de Coipasa __NOTOC__ Lago Coipasa or Salar de Coipasa is a lake in Sabaya Province, Oruro Department, Bolivia. At an elevation of 3657 m, its surface area is 806 km². It is on the western part of Altiplano, 20 km north of Salar de Uyuni and south ...

and

Salar de Uyuni Salar de Uyuni (or "Salar de Tunupa") is the world's largest salt flat, or playa, at over in area. It is in the Daniel Campos Province in Potosí in southwest Bolivia, near the crest of the Andes at an elevation of above sea level. The Sal ...

in the south. Escara was identified in the central Altiplano, it may be the oldest Altiplano lake cycle. The lake was probably sizable, perhaps reaching the size of Lake Tauca and Ouki. Lake levels reached an altitude of . At the town of Escara, thick deposits have been left by the lake. It is dated to 191,000 years BP. This date is of a

tuff Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock cont ...

associated with lake deposits, the deposits themselves have not been dated. This tuff was found in the L5 sediment unit of Salar de Uyuni which has been linked to Escara. The S10 layer in Salar de Uyuni is another layer linked to Lake Escara. Some tuffs found in Escara lake deposits have been dated to about 1.87 million years ago. During the episode of Lake Escara, Lake Ballivian may have existed in the northern Altiplano; Lake Escara would be thus identical to "lake pre-Minchin" which has left terraces above the present-day elevation.

References

Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Escara, Lake Geology of Bolivia Former lakes of South America Lakes of Bolivia Pleistocene