Something not seen everyday....a lake in Death Valley!

Rare 10-mile-long lake forms in Death Valley after heavy rains and flooding

Man, I don't know about you, but standing water in Death Valley is something I cannot imagine....although it would be something to see. Hard to imagine how much rain you'd need to have fallen to create.
Enjoy the pictures, it won't be a long for very long....

In a typical March, the Furnace Creek rain gauge in Death Valley records 0.3 inches of rainfall. In a 24-hour span running from last Tuesday to Wednesday, the same gauge measured 0.84 inches. In the surrounding mountains, the National Weather Service estimates 1 to 1.5 inches fell.

This might not sound like a lot of rain, but NWS meteorologist Todd Lericos explains the desert landscape doesn't easily absorb water. Rain in the mountains rushes down to the valley floor.

Doing a search, it seems to does flood from time to time, or create a beautiful sea of wildflowers.
But a 10 mile long lake!!!!

Wow, kind of impressive. I wonder how long it will last there?

What will be impressive is the wildflower bloom this will cause, happens roughly every ten years or so.

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe

The surface is rock hard salts so that doesn’t surprise me.

What really does is that it does not drain off to some underground cavern with some blind salamander (“I think I am going to be sick” -Ren and Stimpy!!)

Also gives hope to ocean rise if we can do something spectacular and:

1 - Generate electricity from ocean water entering DV through a series of dam networks.

2 - Filter the micro plastics out.

3 - Filter deuterium and tritium out. Then we truly have unlimited power for fusion reactors.

4 - Use excess electricity to suck CO2 out of the atmosphere and turn it to stone undergroun.

5 - Use any excess energy to create hydrogen.

Might be an ecological disaster to the wildlife in the area. Might kill the vanadium mining in some areas. Might even change the weather due to a new man-made inland sea. But we would keep ocean levels from rising, generate power, clean some of the ocean (if we can even sieve microplastics from water), and keep the planet from getting hotter.

Do ther people think about doing this crazy stuff??

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe

It's certainly a sight to behold but if you ever have to outrun or think you can outrun it at last minute then you are already dead. Only needs to rain less than 0.25" to create a flash flood. DV floor is like concrete and gravity takes over flowing very rapidly for miles till the water hits a low basin.
I've been all around DV no less than 100 times. Salt Creek (~8 miles NW of Furnace Creek) is one of the very few areas where a trickle stream of water flows even in the summer. Some extremely rare protected Pupfish can be seen here. The area is similar to a marsh but has dry areas as well. There is a man-made boardwalk to take a self-gyuided tour around the marsh. Winter & early spring the water will flow to cover all areas and the 10 or so miles is not as rare or unusual as that article makes it out. Hell, I been out to Salt Creek in July, 125F and seen water flowing.

I guess you never heard of the massive Death Valley flash flood that literally wiped Scotty's Castle off the map. Now that was a very rare occurence (belief is a 1000 yr rainfall event) that hppened in Oct 2015. This section of the Park is still closed while undergoing a $48Million renovation.
Historical October 18 Storm

During grand solar minimums dry desert areas form lakes not all of them but a bunch do

Then in other areas the opposite affect happens

Something to do with weakening magnotosphere and jet streams but I'm hosting typing words here

Its called lake Manly and under the surface is one of the largest underground reservoirs (aquifers) in the world.

At one time lake Manly reached (154–295 ft) above sea level and 800 ft deep.

Its fed by the Amargosa River.

en.wikipedia.org...

There are a small group of us that have kayaked lake Manly and call ourselves the lake Manly Yacht club

Wow..gorgeous photos.
Thanks for sharing!

originally posted by: Knapperdude
What will be impressive is the wildflower bloom this will cause, happens roughly every ten years or so.

rather interesting this ten year or so timeline. death valley an area that generally does not get much rainfall, gets an over abundance of rain. while where i am, which normally gets a lot of rain, has not been getting much rain at all this last couple or so months of this rain season. in fact summer isn't even really here yet (April and May are summer, the hot and dry season), and yet we are already in drought conditions, with water supply problems due to a low water reservoir. and this too seems to fall within an approximate ten year time period, having had a similar bad and early hitting drought in the country back in 2010. we are even seeing the same large cracks in the earth out in the Provinces from the soil being so dry that we were seeing in 2010.

a reply to: generik

Grand solar minimum

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe

Visited Death Valley with my family and US relatives on a holiday in the early 1980's. The guide told us that certain areas were prone to flash flooding and, if that happened, it wasn't a good place to be!

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe

its all very well citing " 10 miles long " - but whats the depth ????

lots of areas flood - to a large surface area - but depth is often only inches

originally posted by: ignorant_ape
a reply to: DontTreadOnMe

its all very well citing " 10 miles long " - but whats the depth ????

lots of areas flood - to a large surface area - but depth is often only inches

That would essentially be the world's largest puddle.

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe

That's crazy that an inch and a half can do that. Rainfall has been over the top this year around here, too. We haven't gone 3 full days without heavy rain since Thanksgiving.

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

Why yes, yes it has been thought of.

The Simpsons did it.

Just kidding, but here are some real articles.

NBC Y Combinator pitches flooding the desert with ocean water to combat global warming and rising oceans.

a reply to: LSU2018

I know.
Seems like the ground is not porous at all.

Around us, a huge downpour would flood the yard, but it would go down in a time.....less than a few hours.
Unless the ground was frozen or already saturated.

Technically, I'm sire it is not a lake....

Sorry you're getting so much rain!
Strange weather patterns.....not in any hurry for those patterns to drench us.

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe

I'm going to have to drive out this weekend that would be a cool photo op, The rains are crazy here yesterday when I left work there was Thousands of butterflies migrating , They say that hasn't happened in years . I left LAX via 105 and they didn't thin out till after the 110 .

a reply to: Gargoyle91

Could you tell that they were Monarchs?
That would have been an AMAZING sight!!!

a reply to: CriticalStinker

LOL!

But the whole desert doesn’t have to be flooded (a canal maze?! Heck, recreate Socrates description of Atlantis!!) And if we can live with destroying one ecosystem to save another then these ideas could work.

Of course, the best of both worlds is the better choice but when it is you against the world something has to give!

I love blind salamanders and all but if we are talking re-geoengineering our own habitat... well, something has to give.

-Qapla! (ME??? I thought it was “Kaplah” with an “h” at the end and starting with “K”. Huh.)

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

Sometimes it's new thoughts that save us.

Sometimes it's old thoughts.

I'm 29... I've lived all around the country. Texas, New York, back to Texas, Virginia, Michigan, back to Virginia.

I like new, I like my phone, I like my Xbox and 4k TV and hopping online to talk about crazy ideas on ATS.

I also love going up on the mountains a few times a month where there is not cell phone reception or internet. Where the cabin is warmed by wood stove and a rag tag group of family and friends cook food, often by smoke or old methods.... Where there is only us, food, and drink.

I miss the orchards and fall of New York and Michigan. Then endless starry nights of Texas where you can see for miles. I still smell all of those smells. I still see all the colors, I dream of them so I don't forget.

Holding onto the old preserves it and allows balance with the new.

We have to find the balance. Something will always give and sometimes we can't.

We sure as hell aren't going to be able to do it by acting like it's taboo to hold on to some of it.

New things to save the old I say. Whatever it takes.