slgwv's photos with the keyword: flooded

Ephemeral lake filling a normally dry basin right on Oregon SR 31. The lake is due to the extraordinary water year! Looking south; the road visible here and there in the trees goes to Fremont Point.

A normally dry basin in eastern Oregon, actually crossed by Oregon SR 31. The basin was a lake in 2017 because of the extraordinary water year. Looking south.

A normally dry basin in eastern Oregon, actually crossed by Oregon SR 31 (left inset). Fremont Point is the high point on the skyline, just left of center. The basin was a lake in 2017 because of the extraordinary water year. The inset on the right shows a view a bit more to the right. Looking south.

Last spring I posted pictures of the temporary lake in this basin (inset), a result of the extraordinary water season last winter. Well, here we are into fall, and there's still water remaining! It's dropped about 4 ft (1.2 m) over the summer, but it's not dry. To be sure, this photo point is somewhere out among the flooded bushes in the spring photo, so I'd've been in water up to my waist then. But even so-- And the reflection is a bonus--it's "still" in both senses! ;)

Looking back north. Note the submerged grass!

Not living up to its name this season! This is a shallow natural basin improbably situated on a ridge between the Thomas Creek and White's Creek drainages. Looking southwest. The left inset shows what the basin looked like in October 2014. The right inset shows a view of the pond looking back to the north (the photo position is marked with another note).

Well, that's what we're calling it, anyway, because some mustangs were hanging around. Apparently, however, it's officially unnamed. Anyway, this is another small closed basin in the Virginia Range, Nevada, that is holding an extraordinary amount of water this year due to the heavy rain and snow last season. It was completely dry in June 2009 (left inset) and May 2012 (middle inset), but contained a little water in February 2011 (right inset).

A small basin improbably perched about 400 ft (120 m) above the main basin. It's relict topography from when the whole Black Rock basin was filled with a huge lake, Pleistocene Lake Lahontan, several hundred feet deep. The barrier walling off this little basin is a spit, a peninsula (highlighted) deposited by longshore drift when Lake Lahontan was full. In fact, there are lots of small perched playas and similar features around Lake Lahontan, formed by shoreline processes in a deep lake. In some places, the Lake Lahontan features are so large-scale they're a good model of marine shoreline processes, showing what the coastline would look like if you could drop sealevel a few hundred feet. (As it happens, I have a whole album on such a place, where we would take Geology 100 students on field trips: www.ipernity.com/doc/289859/album/501179) Normally the perched playa is dry (hence a "playa"), but this year it's filled from the heavy rains last winter.

Looking SE across (temporary) Black Rock Lake!

And (temporary) Black Rock Lake!

Black Rock Playa (dry lake bed), except with last winter's season it's an actual lake. I would guess it's only a foot or so deep out in the middle, however. The site of the annual Burning Man counterculture festival is out in the flat off the peninsula to the right; it's held around Labor Day (1st Monday in September), so maybe the playa will have dried out by then! Looking more or less north; the eponymous Black Rock is roughly in the center of the picture (highlighted). The distant mountain range on the skyline right of center is the Jackson Mountains, with the high point (King Lear Peak) having a thin snow cap. Upper left inset shows the view to the east, centered on Trego Mountain. The upper right inset shows the view southeast toward the north end of the Selenite Range.