Ancient mega-droughts in the Lake Tahoe Basin and beyond

Dr. John Kleppe, Professor Emeritus, University of Nevada-Reno, will be the speaker for the Lake Tahoe Historical Society's Spring General Membership Meeting, Tuesday, April 25 at 7:00 p.m. in the historic Camp Richardson Lodge. The topic is Ancient Mega-Droughts in the Lake Tahoe Basin & Beyond.

Interestingly, science today is still sometimes an accident. Dr. Kleppe fished Fallen Leaf Lake for fifteen years before discovering it contained a preserved medieval forest in its depths. Intrigued by his fishing hooks getting caught on a mysterious underwater object, Kleppe sent down a diver. Kleppe discovered a 200-year-old medieval tree, still standing upright at over 100 feet tall,rooted on the bottom of the lake. Using Carbon Dating Professor Kleppe determined it had drowned in 1215AD. He has since found over 100 more trees.

Join LTHS for an amazing history lesson about the ancient droughts that have occurred here and the underwater forests that have just recently been revealed. Learn about Fallen Leaf Lake's role as an important microcosm of Lake Tahoe and how it is a "real world" working model that can be effectively used to develop concepts, methods, instrumentation, monitoring approaches, and complex models essential to the understanding and solving of problems throughout the Lake Tahoe Basin.

Cost is $3 for nonmembers and free for members.

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