NV-447 Lake Winnemucca (0803)

Don't mind the added notes at all, they're good for explanation and thank you for the detail.

From my reading of what you've written, the fault line would then be the east side of the lake running almost directly north / south at this point and the triangle shape slopes is from the shearing of those mountains. Looking at the satellite view gives a good indicator of the horizontal lines as former shorelines. Re the rhyolite, the extent of the flow is evident in the satellite photo, and it looks like there are some interesting (but probably difficult to navigate) roads into it. Given the coloring, would there be a likelihood of obsidian?

FYI, the Wikipedia page on Lake Lahontan seems good, indicating that Winnemucca was a remnant that dried up in the 1930's. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Lahontan

Just another follow-up: about 20 years ago (gasp!) we took a graded road that turns off 447 to the right (north) outside Nixon. You end up dropping into the drainage of the old distributary channel from the Truckee that used to feed Winnemucca Lake. It's kinda poignant--you can see the stumps of the cottonwood trees that must've lined the river. It's all barren now--a bleak contrast! Since the diversion at Derby Dam, the Truckee has incised its main channel going to Pyramid Lake, so it would now require deliberate diversion to put water back in this channel. Haven't been back there, and of course got no pictures then. The area is on the Rez, so you're probably supposed to get a permit.

Btw, "Nixon" is not named after Tricky Dick but a Nevada senator from around the time of WW I. Dunno if he's a distant cousin!

My Eastern heritage doesn't give me a lot of experience looking at faults and their subsequent effects, as everything within 500 miles of me is old and buried. I'm so trained to look for the effects of water that I don't always think of anything seismic. But I can see what you're saying with those triangular faces, and now that I read that, I can think of a few other places where I might have seen similar features. Next time I go out there, I'll try to calibrate my eyes.

Thanks for the info!

I figured it wasn't tricky dick, but still a good play on words...