The Only Way Through · Episode 1 of 14 · 23 min
The River That Goes Nowhere
The Humboldt River crosses northern Nevada running west across the grain of the Great Basin's north-south ranges, and that single accident explains why the trail, wagon road, railroad, highway, and fiber all share one corridor. How it crossed the ranges has never been diagnosed. The river ends at a closed playa, where it evaporates, in a country once partly under Lake Lahontan.
Who's who
- Joseph ColganUSGS geologist who dated extension in the corridor
- Nicholas Di FioriGeologist who measured eastward tilt in the Cortez Mountains
- Andrew ZuzaGeologist on the Ruby-East Humboldt core complex mechanism
- Alan WallaceNevada Bureau of Mines and Geology author of the river integration report
- John DouglassLead author of the four-mechanism framework for rivers crossing ranges
Where it happens
- Humboldt River, Nevada+2 more episodesOnly major river system wholly within Nevada; about 300-330 miles
- Humboldt Sink, Nevada+2 more episodesClosed playa on the Pershing-Churchill county line
- Carlin Canyon, Nevada+1 more episodeGorge carrying the interstate; never tested for how it formed
- Palisade Canyon, NevadaGorge carrying the transcontinental railroad
- Battle Mountain, Nevada+5 more episodesUnder nearly seventy feet of water at an older Lahontan stand
Timeline
- c. 16 million years agoExtension begins, stretching the crust about 110 percent across the Caetano caldera.
- after c. 9.8 million years agoStreams draining the Elko and Carlin basins begin joining as the early Humboldt.
- c. 15,500 years agoLake Lahontan's last great highstand reaches Red House, near Comus.
- 1984Wettest year on record at the three gages; 2,004 cfs near Imlay.
- 2022Driest year; the Imlay gage averages 3.52 cfs.
Still debated
How the Humboldt crossed the mountain ranges is undiagnosed: no peer-reviewed test has been applied to Carlin or Palisade Canyon. The reading of top-down integration followed by superimposition is a hypothesis awaiting a geologist's sign-off.