Powdering Mount Pluto

for Lake Tahoe.

My son just discovered something cool while zooming into our hotel pool on Google Earth: the mountain we are skiing on, Mt. Pluto, is responsible for the formation of Lake Tahoe.

I always wondered why such a deep lake would exist high up in the Sierras. At 1,645 ft. deep, it holds a lot of water (the 26th-largest by volume in the world).

It is the result of a massive lava flow from Mount Pluto (2 million years ago) blocking the downstream river exit for the water.