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Amazing Lake Tahoe
- Lake Tahoe is the highest lake of its size in the United States and the largest alpine
lake in North America.
- Lake Tahoe is as long as the English Channel is wide with the width of Tahoe being half
again as wide as San Francisco Bay.
- With one dispersion of Lake Tahoe's water, the State of California would be completely
covered to a depth of 14.5 inches.
- The Panama Canal (700 feet in width and 50 feet in depth) could be filled by Lake Tahoe's
water and extend completely around the earth at the equator, with enough remaining in the lake
to fill another channel of the same width and depth running from San Francisco to New York.
- An average 1,400,000 tons of water evaporates from the surface of Lake Tahoe every 24 hours,
yet this drops the lake level only one-tenth of an inch.
- If the water that evaporates from the lake every 24 hours could be recovered, it would
supply the daily requirements of a population of 3,500,000 people.
- Lake Tahoe's water is 99.9% pure. The water is so clear that a 10 inch white dinner plate
would be visible at 75 feet below the surface.
- There are 63 tributaries draining into Lake Tahoe with only one outlet at the Truckee
River.
- Lake Tahoe never freezes due to the constant mass movement of water from the bottom
to the surface. In February 1989, Emerald Bay froze over for the first time since 1952.
Lake Facts & Statistics
Maximum Elevation: |
6,229 feet |
Length: |
22 miles |
Width: |
12 miles |
Maximum Depth: |
1,645 feet |
Average Depth: |
989 feet |
Shoreline: |
72 miles |
Surface Area: |
193 sq. mi. or 122,200 acres |
Volume: |
39 trillion gallons or 122 million acre feet of water |
Surface Water Temp: |
Maximum - 68 degrees F, Minimum - 41 degrees F |
Temperatures at 200 feet: |
Maximum - 47 degrees F, Minimum - 41 degrees F |
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