Lake Tahoe is located on the boundary between the two states and the state line runs through the middle of the lake. The Lake Tahoe region includes the cities and towns of Tahoe City, Incline Village, Truckee, Kings Beach, Squaw (Olympic) Valley, Alpine Meadows, South Lake Tahoe, Tahoe Vista, Carnelian Bay, Crystal Bay, Brockway, Homewood, Tahoma, Meeks Bay, Meyers, Stateline, Northstar, and Zephyr Cove. South Lake Tahoe has a population of 34,000 where as the North Lake Tahoe has a population of 56000.
Lake Tahoe is a large freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. It is located along the border between California and Nevada, west of Carson City, Nevada. The lake is surrounded by mountains; the lake sits in a valley 6,229 feet high. It is the highest lake of its size in the United States. It is the third deepest lake in North America and the tenth deepest lake in the world.
Lake Tahoe is 22 miles in length and 12 miles in width and covers a surface area of 191 square miles. The shoreline is 71 miles, with the California shoreline being 42 miles and the Nevada shoreline being 29 miles. Sixty-three streams flow into Lake Tahoe, but the Truckee River is the only one that flows out, past Reno and into Pyramid Lake. The maximum depth is 1,645 feet, near Crystal Bay, and the average depth is 989 feet.
Approximately two-thirds of the entire lake is in the Californian side, but the Nevadan side has a large population. The south shore is dominated by the lake's largest city South Lake Tahoe which is in California. The population of the city is 24000 and the majority of the city is set up for tourism, with T-shirt shops, restaurants, hotels, and the Heavenly Ski Resort with the Nevada casinos just across the state line in Nevada.
The surrounding areas of Lake Tahoe are generally mountains, with Carson Range on the eastern side of the lake and Sierra Nevada Mountain Ranges on the west. The area found at the south of Lake Tahoe is where most of the few square kilometers of flatlands near Lake Tahoe can be found.
The Tahoe Basin was formed about five to ten million years ago by the rising and falling of the land due to the shifting of geologic faults. These earthly forces began the western tilt of the Sierra Nevada mountain range; this forced two huge ranges of rock upwards forming two parallel rock faults. The eastern margin created the Carson Range and the western margin created the Sierra Nevada. The up-thrown rock created the highest peaks in the region. The down-thrown rock sank to create a deep v-shaped valley, now called the Lake Tahoe Basin.
Then several million years’ later volcanic activity reshaped the landscape of the region. Lava flowing from Mt. Pluto formed a barrier across the Basin's northeastern outlet, creating a natural dam across Lake Tahoe's original outlet, the Truckee River. Water from the snowfall and streams gradually filled the Lake Tahoe Basin. As the water levels rose they eroded an outlet through the rock and created the Lower Truckee River, the only outlet of the lake.
This is a Map of North America
California (CA) and Nevada (NE) are both on the West Coast of America. They are about halfway up the western Coast of America but California runs all the way down the coast to Arizona (AZ).
Map of California and Nevada
This map shows the states of California and Nevada more clearly. From this map it is easy to see that California is on the western coast of America and borders The Pacific Ocean. Also from the map we can see that California is located below Oregon and above Arizona, whereas Nevada borders Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Arizona and California. From this map we can clearly see that Lake Tahoe is positioned over the state line but its majority is in California.
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