How a dinner plate-like disk tracks Lake Tahoe’s quintessential blue water
Each year for the last 50, researchers from UC Davis have boarded the Research Vessel John LeConte around midday and slowly motored out into Lake Tahoe’s vast expanse. Somewhere in the middle, they come to a stop, bobbing on the turquoise surface. The researchers look over the side, down into one of the deepest lakes in the world and drop a 10-inch white disk, not much different than a dinner plate, into the water. … Measurements taken for this year’s State of the Lake report show a water clarity of just under 70 feet, roughly 30 feet less than in 1960. Though researchers are cautiously optimistic about that reading because it indicates clarity levels are stabilizing after decades of decline, [Tahoe Environmental Research Center Director Stephanie] Hampton said plateauing is not the goal.
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