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Lake Mead
Location	Nevada and Arizona
Coordinates	36°03′35″N, 114°46′35″WCoordinates: 36°03′35″N, 114°46′35″W
Lake type	reservoir
Primary sources	Colorado River
Primary outflows	Colorado River
Basin countries	United States
Max length	110 mi (180 km)
Surface area	247 mi² (640 km²)
Water volume	35.2 km³
Shore length1	550 mi (885 km)
1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure.

Lake Mead is the largest man-made lake and reservoir in the United States. It is located on the Colorado River about 30 miles (48 km) southeast of Las Vegas, Nevada, in the states of Nevada and Arizona. Formed by water impounded by Hoover Dam, it extends 110 mi (180 km) behind the dam, holding approximately 28.5 million acre feet (35 km³) of water. The water held in Lake Mead is released to communities in southern California,^{[citation needed]} via aqueducts, and Nevada. Image File history File links Emblem-important. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (6816x1499, 2001 KB) Summary Panoramic view of Lake Mead. ... This article is about the U.S. State of Nevada. ... Official language(s) English Spoken language(s) English 74. ... Map of Earth showing lines of latitude (horizontally) and longitude (vertically), Eckert VI projection; large version (pdf, 1. ... For other uses, see Lake (disambiguation). ... ... Colorado River in the Grand Canyon from Desert View The Colorado River is a river in the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, approximately 1,450 mi (2,333 km) long, draining a part of the arid regions on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. ... Colorado River in the Grand Canyon from Desert View The Colorado River is a river in the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, approximately 1,450 mi (2,333 km) long, draining a part of the arid regions on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. ... A drainage basin is the area within the drainage basin divide (blue outline), and drains the surface runoff and river discharge (green lines) of a contiguous area. ... To help compare different orders of magnitudes this page lists volumes between 10 and 100 cubic kilometres (1010 to 1011 m³). See also volumes or capacities of other orders of magnitude. ... For other uses, see Lake (disambiguation). ... ... Colorado River in the Grand Canyon from Desert View The Colorado River is a river in the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, approximately 1,450 mi (2,333 km) long, draining a part of the arid regions on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. ... “Miles” redirects here. ... A kilometer (Commonwealth spelling: kilometre), symbol: km is a unit of length in the metric system equal to 1,000 metres (from the Greek words χίλια (khilia) = thousand and μέτρο (metro) = count/measure). ... Vegas redirects here. ... This article is about the U.S. State of Nevada. ... Official language(s) English Spoken language(s) English 74. ... For the dam near Westerville, Ohio, see Hoover Dam (Ohio). ... An acre foot is a unit of volume commonly used in the United States in reference to large-scale water resources, such as reservoirs, aqueducts, canals, and river flows. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Largest metro area Greater Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 770 miles (1,240 km)  - % water 4. ... For other uses, see Aqueduct (disambiguation). ...

History

The lake was named after Elwood Mead, who was commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation from 1924 to 1936 during the planning and construction of the Boulder Canyon Project that created the dam and lake. The Lake Mead National Recreation Area was established in 1964 and offers year-round recreation options. The accumulated water from Hoover Dam forced the evacuation of several communities, most notably St. Thomas, Nevada, whose last resident left the town in 1938. The ruins of St. Thomas are sometimes visible when the water level in Lake Mead drops below normal. Bureau of Reclamation photo of Elwood Mead Elwood Mead (1858 in Patriot, Indiana – January 26, 1936) was a professor, politician and engineer who ended up heading the Bureau of Reclamation from 1924 until his death in 1936. ... The United States Bureau of Reclamation (Formerly the United States Reclamation Service) is a division of the U.S. Department of the Interior which oversees water development projects in the western United States. ... Hoover Dam by Ansel Adams Hoover Dam, also known as Boulder Dam, is a concrete gravity-arch dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the U.S. states of Arizona and Nevada. ... This article is about structures for water impoundment. ... Lake Mead National Recreation Area is located in southern Nevada and northern Arizona. ... Look up evacuation in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... St. ...

Lake Mead as seen from the Hoover Dam clearly showing the bathtub ring

The 1983 high-water mark or "bathtub ring" is visible in many photos that show the shoreline of Lake Mead. Much of the vegetation, which was killed, has not recovered from the unusually high precipitation that the Western United States received in that 1982-1983 season as a result of an El Niño event. The bathtub ring is white because of the deposition of minerals on previously submerged surfaces. Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 505 pixelsFull resolution (2048 × 1292 pixel, file size: 849 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Lake Mead as taken from Hoover Dam. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 505 pixelsFull resolution (2048 × 1292 pixel, file size: 849 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Lake Mead as taken from Hoover Dam. ... For the dam near Westerville, Ohio, see Hoover Dam (Ohio). ... As defined by the Census Bureau, the western United States includes 13 states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington lincoln, and Wyoming. ... This article is about the global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon. ...

Drought

In September 2007, the lake was at 49 percent of its capacity, threatening to make the Las Vegas valley's primary raw water intake inoperable.^[1] Arrangements are underway to pipe water from elsewhere in Nevada by 2011, but since the primary raw water intake at Lake Mead could become inoperable as soon as 2010 based on current drought and user projections, this would not be soon enough, and could spell potential disaster for Las Vegas.^[1]

Geography

Access from the northwest from Interstate 15 is through Valley of Fire State Park and the Moapa River Indian Reservation. Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Interstate 15 “I-15” redirects here. ... The Valley Valley of Fire State Park is Nevadas oldest State Park. ... Moapa River Indian Reservation (or as Moapa Indian Reservation) is an Indian reservation located northeast of Las Vegas, near Moapa. ...

The lake is divided into several bodies. The large body closest to Hoover Dam is Boulder Basin. The narrow channel, known as The Narrows, connects Boulder Basin to Virgin Basin to the west. The Virgin River and Muddy River empty into Overton Arm, which is connected to the northern part of the Virgin Basin. The next basin to the west is Temple Basin, and following that is Gregg Basin. For the dam near Westerville, Ohio, see Hoover Dam (Ohio). ... The Virgin River, a tributary of the Colorado, is shown highlighted on a map of the southwestern United States The Virgin River is a tributary of the Colorado River, 200 mi (322 km) long, in the southwestern United States. ... Muddy River is a river located in the southern part of the state of Nevada, in the United States. ...

Recreation

Lake Mead from space, November 1985. This view is rotated, with north facing downward and to the right. The Colorado River can be seen leading southward away from the lake in the top left, and the Hoover Dam is located at the point where the river meets the lake.

Lake Mead offers many types of recreation to locals and visitors. Boating is the most popular. Additional activities include fishing, water skiing, swimming, and relaxing in the sun. The area also has many coves with rocky cliffs and sandy beaches to explore. There are several small to medium-sized islands in the lake area depending on the water level. In addition, the Alan Bible Botanical Garden is a small botanical garden. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (634x639, 159 KB)Lake Mead, Arizona, United States - November 1985 image description here File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (634x639, 159 KB)Lake Mead, Arizona, United States - November 1985 image description here File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... For the dam near Westerville, Ohio, see Hoover Dam (Ohio). ... “Fun” redirects here. ... // Water skiing began in 1922 when Ralph Samuelson strapped two boards to his feet and rigged a clothesline up to his boat on Lake Pepin in Lake City, Minnesota. ... Swimmer redirects here. ... Sunlight is also the trade name of the worlds first packaged, branded laundry soap producted by Lever Brothers. ... The Alan Bible Botanical Garden is a desert botanical garden located at the Alan Bible Visitor Center, Lake Mead National Recreation Area, 601 Nevada Highway, Boulder City, Nevada. ... Inside the United States Botanic Garden Inside the Rio de Janeiro Botanic Garden (Brazil), 1890 Botanical gardens (in Latin, hortus botanicus) grow a wide variety of plants primarily categorized and documented for scientific purposes, but also for the enjoyment and education of visitors, a consideration that has become essential to...

At the bottom of the lake is a B-29 Superfortress that crashed while performing secret experiments. It has been acknowledged that one of the then classified instruments on board used to take atmosphere measurements was called "Suntracker".^{[citation needed]} The Boeing B-29 Superfortress was a four-engine heavy bomber propeller aircraft flown by the United States Army Air Forces in World War II and other military organizations afterwards. ...

Statistics

• Water volume: approximately 46 billion yd³ (35.2 km³), or 28.5 million acre feet (35 km³); nearly two years of average Colorado River flow; largest man-made reservoir in the U.S.
  • This is enough water to cover the entire state of Pennsylvania in one foot depth of water.
• Visitors: 8 – 10 million per year (Lake Mead National Recreation Area)
  • Fifth most visited park in the National Park Service system.

To help compare different orders of magnitudes this page lists volumes between 10 and 100 cubic kilometres (1010 to 1011 m³). See also volumes or capacities of other orders of magnitude. ...

References

Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 280th day of the year (281st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Lake Mead National Recreation Area

• Lake Mead National Recreation Area - National Park Service
• Arizona lakes water level report
• Lake Mead water levels graph Historical and current water levels in Lake Mead

v • d • e Colorado River system
Dams and aqueducts (see US Bureau of Reclamation)	Shadow Mountain Dam • Granby Dam • Glen Canyon Dam • Hoover Dam • Davis Dam • Parker Dam • Palo Verde Diversion Dam • Imperial Dam • Laguna Dam • Morelos Dam • Colorado River Aqueduct • San Diego Aqueduct • Central Arizona Project Aqueduct • All-American Canal • Coachella Canal • Redwall Dam Image File history File links Commons-logo. ... The Colorado River from the bottom of Marble Canyon, in the Upper Grand Canyon Colorado River in the Grand Canyon from Desert View The Colorado River from Laughlin Horseshoe Bend is a horseshoe-shaped meander of the Colorado River located near the town of Page, Arizona The Colorado River is... This article is about structures for water impoundment. ... For other uses, see Aqueduct (disambiguation). ... The United States Bureau of Reclamation (Formerly the United States Reclamation Service) is a division of the U.S. Department of the Interior which oversees water development projects in the western United States. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (768x1024, 146 KB) Summary My picture from the Hoover Dam down the Colorado River taken on August 31, 2001. ... The Shadow Mountain Dam is a Zoned Earthfill Dam on the Colorado River in Grand County, Colorado. ... The Granby Dam is an earthfill dam that dams the Colorado River 5. ... Glen Canyon Dam on 19 June 2005. ... For the dam near Westerville, Ohio, see Hoover Dam (Ohio). ... The Davis Dam is a dam on the Colorado River downstream from Hoover Dam (ca. ... Parker Dam is a concrete gravity-arch dam which spans the Colorado river, at a point 155 miles downstream of Hoover Dam. ... A picture of Imperial Dam The Imperial Dam is a dam near Yuma, Arizona (USA), built in the 1930s. ... The Laguna Diversion Dam is an earthfill dam 13 miles Northeast of Yuma, Arizona creating the Laguna Reservior along the Colorado River. ... The Morelos Dam is the final dam on the Colorado River. ... Colorado River Aqueduct The Colorado River Aqueduct is a 242-mi (392 km) water conveyance in southern California in the United States. ... The Central Arizona Project Aqueduct (CAP) is a 336 mi (541 km) diversion canal in Arizona in the United States. ... The All-American Canal brings Colorado River water to the Imperial Valley in California. ...
Natural features	Colorado River • Rocky Mountains • Colorado River Basin • Grand Lake • Sonoran desert • Mojave desert • Imperial Valley • Colorado Plateau • Grand Canyon • Black Canyon • Glen Canyon • Marble Canyon • New River • Paria Canyon • Gulf of California/Sea of Cortez • Salton Sea Colorado River in the Grand Canyon from Desert View The Colorado River is a river in the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, approximately 1,450 mi (2,333 km) long, draining a part of the arid regions on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. ... For individual mountains named Rocky Mountain, see Rocky Mountain (disambiguation). ... Grand Lake is a natural lake, one of the headwaters of the Colorado River in Grand County, Colorado. ... Map of the Mojave and Sonoran deserts. ... For the indigenous American tribe, see Mohave. ... The Imperial Valley and the Salton Sea, as seen from the Space shuttle. ... The Colorado Plateau, also called the Colorado Plateaus Province, is a physiographic region of the Intermontane Plateaus, roughly centered on the Four Corners region of the southwestern United States. ... This article is about the canyon in the southwestern United States. ... Black Canyon, photographed in 1871. ... Glen Canyon, in southeastern and south central Utah and northwestern Arizona within the Vermilion Cliffs area, was carved by two rivers, the Colorado River and the San Juan River. ... Marble Canyon is the section of the Colorado River canyon from Glen Canyon Dam to the confluence with the Little Colorado River, which marks the beginning of the Grand Canyon. ... The New River is a river that runs from Mexicali, Baja California, in Mexico into the United States through Calexico, California. ... A backpacker at the confluence of Buckskin Gulch and the Paria River. ... The Gulf of California (also known as the Sea of Cortez or Sea of Cortés; locally known in the Spanish language as Mar de Cortés or, much less frequently, Golfo de California) is a body of water that separates the Baja California Peninsula from the Mexican mainland. ... For the film, see The Salton Sea. ...
Tributaries	Dirty Devil River • Dolores River • Escalante River • Gila River • Green River • Gunnison River • Kanab Creek • Little Colorado River • Paria River • San Juan River • Virgin River Look up tributary in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The Dirty Devil River near Twin Corral Box Canyon The Dirty Devil River is a tributary of the Colorado River, approximately 80 mi (129 km) long, in south central Utah in the United States. ... The Dolores River, a tributary of the Colorado, is shown highlighted on a map of the western United States The Dolores River is a tributary of the Colorado River, approximately 250 mi (402 km) long, in the U.S. states of Colorado and Utah. ... The Escalante River is a tributary of the Colorado River, approximately 90 mi (145 km) long, in southern Utah. ... The Gila River, a tributary of the Colorado, is shown highlighted on a map of the United States The Gila River (Oodham [Pima]: Hila Akimel) is a tributary of the Colorado River, 630 mile (1,014 km) long, in the southwestern United States. ... The Green River, a tributary of the Colorado, is shown highlighted on a map of the western United States. ... The Gunnison River, a tributary of the Colorado River, is shown highlighted on a map of the western United States The Gunnison River is a tributary of the Colorado River, approximately 180 mi (290 km) long, in the U.S. state of Colorado. ... The Kanab River is one of the many tributaries of the Grand Canyon. ... The Little Colorado River is shown highlighted on a map of the United States The Little Colorado River is a tributary of the Colorado River, approximately 315 mi (507 km) long, in the U.S. state of Arizona. ... A backpacker at the confluence of Buckskin Gulch and the Paria River. ... Categories: Stub | Colorado rivers | Utah rivers ... The Virgin River, a tributary of the Colorado, is shown highlighted on a map of the southwestern United States The Virgin River is a tributary of the Colorado River, 200 mi (322 km) long, in the southwestern United States. ...
Major reservoirs	Fontenelle Reservoir • Flaming Gorge Reservoir • Taylor Park Reservoir • Navajo Reservoir • Lake Powell • Lake Mead • Lake Mohave • Lake Havasu Fontenelle Reservoir is a reservoir located in southwest Wyoming. ... Flaming Gorge Reservoir lies 43 miles (69 km) East of Vernal, Utah on the Green River (Utah). ... The Taylor Park Reservoir is a body of water created by the Taylor Park Dam, which dams the Taylor River of Colorado. ... The Navajo Reservoir is a reservoir located in the northwest area of New Mexico and the southwest area of Colorado, in the United States. ... Lake Powell is a man-made reservoir on the Colorado River, straddling the border between Utah and Arizona. ... Lake Mohave Lake Mohave is a lake formed by Davis Dam on the Colorado River, which defines the border between Nevada and Arizona in the United States. ... Lake Havasu is a large reservoir behind Parker Dam on the Colorado River, on the border between California and Arizona. ...
Dependent states	Arizona • California • Colorado • Nevada • New Mexico • Utah (See: Colorado River Compact) Official language(s) English Spoken language(s) English 74. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Largest metro area Greater Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 770 miles (1,240 km)  - % water 4. ... Official language(s) English Capital Denver Largest city Denver Largest metro area Denver-Aurora Metro Area Area  Ranked 8th  - Total 104,185 sq mi (269,837 km²)  - Width 280 miles (451 km)  - Length 380 miles (612 km)  - % water 0. ... This article is about the U.S. State of Nevada. ... Capital Santa Fe Largest city Albuquerque Largest metro area Albuquerque metropolitan area Area  Ranked 5th  - Total 121,665 sq mi (315,194 km²)  - Width 342 miles (550 km)  - Length 370 miles (595 km)  - % water 0. ... This article is about the U.S. state. ... The Colorado River Compact is a 1922 agreement among seven U.S. states in the basin of the Colorado River in the American Southwest governing the allocation of the rivers water among the parties of the interstate compact. ...
Designated areas	Glen Canyon National Recreation Area • Lake Mead National Recreation Area Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (Glen Canyon NRA) is a recreation and conservation unit of the National Park Service that encompasses the area around Lake Powell in Utah and Arizona, covering 1,254,429 acres (5,076 km²) of mostly desert. ... Lake Mead National Recreation Area is located in southern Nevada and northern Arizona. ...