
Drainage map showing the Great Basin
in orange
The Great Basin is a large,
arid region of the western United States
. Its boundaries vary depending on how it is
defined, but it is most commonly defined as the contiguous
endorheic basin roughly between the
Wasatch Mountains and the
Sierra Nevada mountains. Culturally,
the Great Basin is home to several
Shoshonean Great
Basin tribes. Geologically, the Great Basin is part of the
Basin and Range
Province.
The
Great Basin Desert is a
desert defined by the extent of characteristic plant
species, and covers a somewhat different (and smaller) area than
the Great Basin as a whole.
Description
The
200,000 square mile (520,000 km2) intermontane plateau covers most of Nevada
and over
half of Utah
, as well as
parts of California
, Idaho
, Oregon
and Wyoming
.
The Great
Basin is not a single basin, but
rather a series of contiguous watersheds, bounded on the west by
watersheds of the Sacramento-San
Joaquin and Klamath rivers, on the
north by the watershed of the Columbia-Snake,
and on the south and east by the watershed of the Colorado
-Green.
Watersheds within the Great Basin include:
- Great Salt Lake
- Utah, Idaho, Wyoming (fed by several rivers
including the Bear River, Jordan River, and Weber River)
- Great Salt Lake Desert
- Utah, Nevada
- Hamlin Valley - Nevada, Utah
- Snake Valley - Utah,
Nevada
- Pine Valley - Utah
- Wah Wah Valley - Utah
- Tule Valley - Utah
- Rush
Valley
- Utah
- Tooele Valley - Utah
- Skull Valley
- Utah
- Pilot Creek - Nevada, Utah
- Thousand Springs Creek -
Nevada, Utah
- Curlew Valley - Utah, Idaho
- Sevier
Lake
- Utah
- Escalante Desert
- Utah, Nevada
- Beaver River - Utah
- Humboldt Sink
- Nevada (drainage of the Humboldt River, the longest river in the
Great Basin)
- Black Rock Desert
- Nevada, Oregon
- Smoke Creek Desert
- Nevada, California
- Massacre Lake - Nevada,
California
- Continental Lake - Nevada,
Oregon
- Pyramid Lake
- Nevada, California (drainage of Lake Tahoe
via the Truckee
River)
- Winnemucca Lake
- Nevada (former overflow of Pyramid
Lake)
- Granite Springs Valley -
Nevada
- Carson Sink - Nevada,
California
- Walker Lake
- Nevada, California
- Dixie Valley
- Nevada
- Gabbs Valley - Nevada
- Big Smoky Valley - Nevada
- Diamond Valley
- Nevada
- Monitor Valley - Nevada
- Little Smoky Valley -
Nevada
- Newark Valley -
Nevada
- Long Valley - Nevada
- Ruby Valley
- Nevada
- Spring Valley -
Nevada
- Steptoe Valley
- Nevada
- Dry Lake Valley - Nevada
- Fish Lake Valley
- Nevada, California
- Soda Spring Valley -
Nevada
- Ralston Valley - Nevada
- Stone Cabin Valley -
Nevada
- Hot Creek Valley - Nevada
- Railroad Valley - Nevada
- Cactus Flat - Nevada
- Sarcobatus Flat - Nevada
- Sand Spring Valley -
Nevada
- Tikaboo Valley - Nevada
- Ivanpah Valley - Nevada,
California
- Pahrump Valley - Nevada,
California
- Harney Basin
- Oregon
- Summer Lake
- Oregon
- Silver Lake
- Oregon
- Lake Abert - Oregon
- Warner Lakes
- Oregon, California, Nevada
- Guano Lake - Oregon, Nevada
- Alvord Lake - Oregon, Nevada
- Lost River - California, Oregon
- Butte
Creek - California, Oregon
- Goose Lake
- California, Oregon
- Tulare Lake
- California (drainage of the Kings River)
- Buena Vista Lake -
California
- Lake Elsinore
- California
- Surprise
Valley - California, Nevada
- Madeline Plains - California,
Nevada
- Honey
Lake
- California, Nevada
- Eagle Lake
- California
- Mono
Lake
- California, Nevada
- Crowley Lake
- California, Nevada
- Owens
Lake
- California
- Eureka Valley
- California, Nevada
- Saline Valley
- California
- Death Valley
- California, Nevada
Much of the Great Basin, especially across northern Nevada,
consists of a series of isolated mountain ranges and intervening
valleys, a geographical configuration known as the
Basin and Range Province.
Additionally the Great Basin contains two large expansive
dry lakes that are the lakebed remnants of
prehistoric lakes that existed in the basin during the last
ice age but have since largely dried up.
Lake
Bonneville
extended
over most of Western Utah and into Idaho and Nevada, leaving behind
the Great Salt Lake, the Bonneville Salt Flats
, Utah
Lake
, and Sevier
Lake
. Likewise Lake
Lahontan extended across much of northwestern Nevada and
neighboring states, leaving behind such remnants as the Black Rock
Desert
, Carson Sink, Humboldt Sink, Walker Lake, Pyramid
Lake, Winnemucca Lake, and Honey Lake, each of which now forms a
separate watershed within the basin.
The Basin and Range province's dynamic fault history has profoundly
affected the region's water drainage system. Most precipitation in
the Great Basin falls in the form of
snow that
melts in the spring.
Rain that reaches the
ground, or snow that melts, quickly evaporates in the dry desert
environment. Some of the water that does not evaporate sinks into
the ground to become
ground water. The
remaining water flows into
streams and
collects in short-lived lakes called dry lakes on the valley floor
and eventually evaporates. Any water that falls as rain or snow
into this region does not escape out of it; not one of the streams
that originate within this basin ever finds an outlet to the
ocean. The extent of internal drainage, the
area in which surface water cannot reach the ocean, defines the
geographic region called the Great Basin.
The Great Basin's internal drainage results from blockage of water
movement by high fault-created mountains and by lack of sufficient
water flow to merge with larger drainages outside of the Great
Basin. Much of the present-day Great Basin would drain to the sea -
just as it did in the recent Ice Ages - if there were more rain and
snowfall.
Geology
Winter in Great Basin, Utah County, Utah
The Great Basin is part of the greater geologic unit, the
Basin and Range Province.

Basin and Range type valleys and
mountain ranges are typical of the great basin.
On
February 21, 2008, a 6.0 magnitude earthquake occurred near the
town of Wells,
Nevada
, centered on the Independence Valley fault
system.
Flora and fauna
The Great Basin is predominantly high altitude desert, with the
lowest basins just below and several peaks over . Most areas are
dominated by
shrubs, mostly of the
Atriplex genus at the lowest elevations and
sagebrush at higher elevations. Open
woodlands consisting of
Utah Juniper,
Single-leaf Pinyon (mostly southern
areas) or Curl-leaf
Mountain
Mahogany (mostly northern areas) form
Pinyon-juniper woodland on the
slopes of most ranges. Stands of
Limber
Pine and
Great Basin
Bristlecone Pine can be found in some of the higher ranges.
cottonwood and Quaking
Aspen groves exist in areas with dependable
water.

Juniper tree forests are found
throughout the Great Basin.
Lagomorphs
such as
Black-tailed
Jackrabbit and
Desert
Cottontail and the
coyotes that prey on
them are the
mammals most often encountered
by humans.
Ground squirrels are
common, but they generally venture above ground in only the spring
and early summer.
Packrats,
Kangaroo rats and other small rodents are also
common, but these are predominantly nocturnal.
Pronghorn,
Mule Deer, and
Mountain Lion are also present
throughout the area.
Elk and
Bighorn Sheep are present but uncommon.
Small
lizards such as the
Western fence lizard,
Longnose Leopard Lizard and
Horned Lizard are common, especially in lower
elevations.
Rattlesnakes and
Gopher snakes are also present.
Shorebirds such as
Phalaropes and
Curlews can be found in wet areas.
American White Pelicans are common at
Pyramid Lake.
Golden Eagles are perhaps
more common in the Great Basin than anywhere else in the US.
Mourning Dove,
Western Meadowlark,
Black-billed Magpie and
Common Raven are other common bird
species.
Two
endangered species of fish
are found in
Pyramid Lake that lies in
the Great Basin: the
Cui-ui sucker fish and the
Lahontan cutthroat trout.
Large
invertebrates include
tarantulas (
Aphonopelma
genus) and
Mormon crickets.
Chukar,
Grey
Partridge and
Himalayan
Snowcock have been successfully introduced to the Great Basin,
although the latter has only thrived in the
Ruby Mountains.
Cheatgrass, which was unintentionally
introduced, forms a critical portion of their diets.
Feral horses (
Mustangs) and wild
burros are other highly successful, though
controversial, alien species. Most of the Great Basin is
open range and domestic
cattle and
sheep are
widespread.
History
The history of
human habitation in the Great
Basin goes back at least 12,000 years.
Archaeological evidence of primitive habitation
sites along the shore of prehistoric Lake Lahontan date from the
end of the ice age when its shoreline was approximately 500 ft (150
m) higher along the sides of the surrounding mountains.
At the time of the arrival of
Europeans, the
region was inhabited by a broad group of
Uto-Aztecan-speaking
Native American tribes
known collectively as the
Great Basin tribes, including
the
Shoshone,
Ute,
and
Paiute.
The first Europeans to encounter the area
were the early Spanish
explorers in the southwest in the late 18th
century. By the early 19th century,
fur
trappers from the
Hudson's Bay
Company had explored the upper Basin in the
Oregon Country. The first comprehensive and
accurate map of the region was made by
John C. Frémont during several expeditions
across the region in the 1840s.
The United States acquired complete control of the area through the
1846
Oregon Treaty (giving it the
small portion north of the
42nd
parallel) and the 1848
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
The first
large-scale white settlement in the region was by early Mormon pioneers in the late 1840s in the arable
areas around Salt Lake
City
and the Cache Valley
. The Mormons quickly established a
provisional government and drafted a proposal for a new state,
called the
State of Deseret, that
encompassed the entire Great Basin, as well as the coast of
southern California.
The region became successively organized by
the creation of the Oregon Territory
in 1848, the admission of California to the Union
in 1850, and the creation of the Utah
Territory in 1850. The discovery of
gold in California, in 1848, brought waves of migrants
across the Great Basin along the
California Trail, which followed the
Humboldt River across Nevada. In 1860-61, the
Pony Express came through the area,
transporting mail from the eastern United States to
California.
The part of the first North American transcontinental railroad that
was built by the Central Pacific railroad crossed the Great Basin
between Reno, Nevada, and Ogden, Utah.
Another major
railroad southwest from Salt Lake City into Nevada led to the
founding of Las Vegas,
Nevada
.
In 1986,
the Great Basin
National Park
was established by the Federal Government,
encompassing of land in Nevada, near the Utah border. The
new National Park subsumed the much smaller Lehman Caves
Present habitation
The Basin has remained among the most sparsely inhabited areas of
the United States.
The two largest cities in the basin are
Salt Lake
City, Utah
on its eastern edge and Reno, Nevada
on its western edge. Suburbs of Los Angeles
, including Lancaster
and Palmdale
, and Victorville
and Hesperia, California
combine for about 600,000 residents on the area's
southwestern edge. Smaller cities in the basin include Carson City,
Nevada
; Winnemucca, Nevada
; Elko,
Nevada
; Ogden,
Utah
; Provo,
Utah
; and Logan,
Utah
.
The Great
Basin is traversed by major long-distance railroads and
expressways, such as the parts of Interstate 80 between Reno and Salt Lake City,
Interstate 15 between southwest
Utah
and Idaho
, and
Interstate 70 from its junction with
Interstate 15 in central Utah from the Great Basin, across the
Colorado Plateau to westernmost
Colorado
. Railroads, such as the
Union Pacific, which through merger now owns
the routes of the former Southern Pacific and Western Pacific
lines, extend from the major metropolitan areas of Denver,
Colorado, through Salt Lake City, Utah, and Reno, Nevada, to the
San Francisco, California, Bay Area; and from Salt Lake City to Los
Angeles, California.
See also
Line notes
- U.S. Geological survey, 2004
- C.M Hogan, 1987
References
External links