On Jan 8, 7:57*pm, Mark Jardini wrote:
I have been told that if lake Tahoe was emptied onto the entire state
of California it would cover the whole state 4 inches deep in water.

According to the Lake Tahoe Vacation Guide http://www.tahoevacationguide.com/laketahoe.html
it is 14 inches. 14 inches is geometrically/mathematically correct if
the entire state were at the same elevation. Calif is about 404,000
sq. km in projected area and Lake Tahoe contains about 39 trillion
gallons of water if one accepts the figures given. That would be
1.48e18 cubic cm / 4.04e16 square cm = 36.6 cm = about 14 inches. But
I would think that the peaks in elevation of California exceed the
valleys so in "reality" the lowland flooding would exceed 14" and
higher ground would be left dry - but that's a bit of a quibble.
Thinking of it as 14" is just fine for illustration.

Regards,

-Doug (It must be winter or why would I bother doing the math?) ;-)