Pluvial lake

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A pluvial lake is a lake which experiences significant increase in depth and extent as a result of increased precipitation and reduced evaporation. The word pluvial comes from the Latin pluvia, which means "rain." Such lakes are likely endorheic.

They represent changes in the hydrological cycle - wet cycles generate large lakes, whereas dry cycles cause the lakes to dry up leaving large flat plains.

Several pluvial lakes formed in the western United States during the glaciation of the late Pleistocene epoch, including Lake Bonneville in Utah and Lake Lahontan in Nevada. Today, these lakes are much smaller (e.g., the Great Salt Lake) or have become dry playas.

[edit] Formation

Most of the pluvial lakes developed in arid locations where there was insufficient rain to establish an integrated, through-flowing drainage system to the sea, prior to the glacial epoch. Instead, stream runoff in those areas flowed into closed basins and formed playa lakes. With increased rainfall, the playa lakes enlarged.