Alkali Lake is a geographic sink in

Lake County, Oregon Lake County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 8,160. Its county seat is Lakeview. The county is named after the many lakes found within its boundaries, including Lake Abert, Summ ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. It is in the Alkali Subbasin of the Summer Lake Basin

watershed Watershed is a hydrological term, which has been adopted in other fields in a more or less figurative sense. It may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, called a "watershe ...

in southeastern Oregon,US Fish & Wildlife Service website located 26 miles east of

Christmas Valley, Oregon Christmas Valley is an unincorporated community in Lake County, Oregon, United States. The community was named after nearby Christmas Lake, usually dry, east of the present town and the site of the former Lake post office, which ran from 1906 un ...

, northeast of

Lake Abert Lake Abert (also known as Abert Lake) is a large, shallow, alkali lake in Lake County, Oregon, United States. It is approximately long and wide at its widest point. It is located northeast of the small, unincorporated community of Valley Fal ...

,McArthur, p. 10 to the immediate west of Abert Rim and

Highway 395 Route 395 or Highway 395 may refer to: Canada * British Columbia Highway 395 * Manitoba Provincial Road 395 * New Brunswick Route 395 * Nova Scotia Route 395 * Quebec Route 395 Great Britain * A395 road List of A roads in zone 3 in G ...

. Alkali Lake is thought to have reached a prehistoric maximum depth of 270.7 feet (82.5 meters) and covered about 1448.4 square miles (2,331 square kilometers). Since then, its water level has varied, with a drying trend. Notable features include dissolved

alkaline In chemistry, an alkali (; from ar, القلوي, al-qaly, lit=ashes of the saltwort) is a basic, ionic salt of an alkali metal or an alkaline earth metal. An alkali can also be defined as a base that dissolves in water. A solution of a ...

salts averaging 10% of total brine weight in its seasonal waters and a nearby chemical disaster, Alkali Lake Chemical Waste Dump.

Plants

Plants known to occur in the dunes immediately north of the lake include: *

Buckwheat Family The Polygonaceae are a family of flowering plants known informally as the knotweed family or smartweed—buckwheat family in the United States. The name is based on the genus ''Polygonum'', and was first used by Antoine Laurent de Jussieu in 178 ...

** Broom Buckwheat * Goosefoot Family ** Spiny Hopsage *

Mustard Family Brassicaceae () or (the older) Cruciferae () is a medium-sized and economically important family of flowering plants commonly known as the mustards, the crucifers, or the cabbage family. Most are herbaceous plants, while some are shrubs. The ...

** Stanleya or Guillenia sp. * Evening-primrose family ** Desert Evening-primrose *

Parsley Family Apiaceae or Umbelliferae is a family of mostly aromatic flowering plants named after the type genus '' Apium'' and commonly known as the celery, carrot or parsley family, or simply as umbellifers. It is the 16th-largest family of flowering plant ...

** Rhysopterus plurijugus * Phlox Family ** Great Basin Gilia *

Borage Family Boraginaceae, the borage or forget-me-not family, includes about 2,000 species of shrubs, trees and herbs in 146, to 156 genera with a worldwide distribution. The APG IV system from 2016 classifies the Boraginaceae as single family of the orde ...

** Matted Cryptantha * Sunflower Family ** Desert Pincushion ** Gray Rabbitbrush ** Showy Townsend Daisy

Climate

According to the

Köppen Climate Classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...

system, Alkali Lake has a

steppe climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi ...

, abbreviated "BSk" on climate maps.

References

Works cited

* McArthur, Lewis A. Oregon Geographic Names, Fourth ed. 1974. Edwards Brothers. Ann Arbor, MI
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Oregon Field Office
Lakes of Oregon Lakes of Lake County, Oregon Endorheic lakes of Oregon {{LakeCountyOR-geo-stub

Plants

Climate

See also

References

Works cited