Abstract
Lakes and other mappable bodies of standing water occur at the atmosphere-lithosphere interface. Over short time intervals, water body configurations (hydrography) are directly responsive to atmospheric (hydroclimatic) forcing. Over longer intervals, hydrography also reflects lithospheric (tectonic and volcanic) forcing. In turn, hydrographic patterns in lake basins strongly influence and even control many geomorphic and stratigraphic patterns (e.g. Mabbutt 1977, pp. 180–214). These linked patterns (hydro-climatic + tectonic → hydrographie → geomorphic + stratigraphie) make lakes and kindred water bodies superb instruments for gauging environmental change and recording palaeoenvironmental history.
‘The Great Basin [of western North America]: . . . contents almost unknown, but believed to be filled with rivers and lakes which have no communication with the sea . . .’
Brevet Capt. J.C. Frémont, Corps of Topographical Engineers (1845).
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© 1994 Athol D. Abrahams and Anthony J. Parsons
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Currey, D.R. (1994). Hemiarid Lake Basins: Hydrographic Patterns. In: Abrahams, A.D., Parsons, A.J. (eds) Geomorphology of Desert Environments. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8254-4_15
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8254-4_15
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