Why is Lake Tahoe called a bottomless lake?

Question

Can that really be possible, and if so how?

Answer 1

It is not bottomless. It is just very deep.

It is the second deepest lake in the United States,[1] the eleventh deepest on Earth, and the fourth deepest in average depth.[2]

It is impossible for a lake to be bottomless

Answer 2

Tahoe isn't really bottomless. It is very deep however. The term bottomless comes from the old surveys.

In the 1900s and early twentieth Century teams of surveyors (Lewis & Clark were the first of these surveyor teams.), went out to find out what the the United States had actually bought in the Louisiana Purchase.

Some teams measured and mapped geography and terrain. Some teams mapped the geology. Some teams divided the land into parcels. Other teams measured lakes.

Back then they didn't have sonar sounders, when they went to "sound" a lake they only had basically about a five pound weight and a rope with sequential numbered tags every six feet, and a magnetic compass or two other surveyors cross referencing their position. To Sound a body of water is simply establishing the depth of that water.

Well as you can easily guess these early expeditions went on horseback and as back country expeditions could only carry so much weight. Hemp rope no matter the size is a heavy material compared to today's rope material. 600` of 1/4 inch hemp rope can weigh a couple of hundred pounds when wet and trying to lift up from a bouncing row boat.

So they only carried enough rope to measure the average lake in the initial surveys. Naturally they would only be carrying 600` of rope no more than a 1000` of hemp rope or twine.

The surveyors would find a spot drop the sounding line down and mark the measure from the surface to the bottom. They would also mark the height of the high water mark on the lake to establish what is called mean depth.

In the case of a very deep lake like Tahoe if the surveyors sounded a location and the sounding did not hit bottom and they had run out their sounding line completely, they would mark the location on the map simply as "Bottomless"

Hence the term "bottomless."

Answer 3

It is not bottomless. It is just very deep.

It is the second deepest lake in the United States,[1] the eleventh deepest on Earth, and the fourth deepest in average depth.[2]

It is impossible for a lake to be bottomless

Answer 4

Since there no ending and no bottom in the lake. Due to very deep

Answer 5

2 deep maybe