Lake Cahuilla

Lake Cahuilla (also known as Lake LeConte and Blake Sea) is a prehistoric lake in California and northern Mexico. Located in the Coachella and Imperial Valleys, it covered surface areas of 5,700 square kilometres (2,200 sq mi) to a height of 12 metres (39 ft) above sea level during the Holocene. During earlier stages of the , the lake reached even higher levels, up to 31–52 metres (102–171 ft) above sea level. During the Holocene most of the water came from the Colorado River with little contribution from local runoff; in the Pleistocene local runoff was higher and it is possible that Lake Cahuilla was supported solely from local water sources during the Wisconsin glaciation. The lake overflowed close to Cerro Prieto into the Rio Hardy, eventually draining into the Gulf of California.

The lake formed several times over during the Holocene when water from the Colorado River was diverted into the Salton Trough. This tectonic depression forms the northern basin of the Gulf of California, but it was separated from the sea proper by the growth of the Colorado River Delta. Such changes in river courses may have been caused by earthquakes among the numerous faults that cross the region, such as the San Andreas Fault. Conversely, it is possible that the weight of the water itself triggered earthquakes. During its existence, Lake Cahuilla formed strandlines and various beach deposits such as gravel bars and travertine deposits.

The lake existed in several stages over the last 2,000 years, periodically drying and refilling and eventually disappearing sometime after 1580. Between 1905-1907, due to an engineering accident, the Salton Sea formed in parts of the lower basin of Lake Cahuilla. Were it not for human intervention, the sea may have grown to the size of prehistoric Lake Cahuilla. Today the former lake bed forms the fertile regions of the Imperial and Coachella Valleys.

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