A TALE OF TWENTY-NINE TERRACES: PLUVIAL LAKE FERDINAND, ANTHROPOGENIC LAKE ISABELLA, AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE KERN RIVER, SOUTHERN SIERRA NEVADA, CALIFORNIA

The evolution Kern River of Kern County California involved the development, diversion and eventual drainage of Lake Ferdinand. This lake occupied 68 square miles in the same general area as anthropogenic Lake Isabella which covered 17 square miles when at maximum capacity when it was built in 1953 . The dam was raised 16 feet in 2024. Evolution of Lake Ferdinand and history of the Kern River are closely associated with erosional zones of weakness along long-lived fault structures.

Phase 01 of the Kern River followed the present course of the Kern River Fault suture zone and Breckenridge Fault from Sequoia National Park to the present site of Walker Basin where it then went west-southwest along a paleo fault that controlled the location of Caliente (Walker Basin) CreekGranitic clasts in the Bealville Fanglomerate indicate exhumation of some parts of the Sierra Nevada Batholith in late Oligocene time and early Miocene time

Phase 02 of the Kern River began as a south-southeast flowing stream from Sequoia National Park. Faults s influenced the flow of the Kern River. A series faults guided the Kern River to discharge into what is now Red Rock Canyon State Park. This occurred in late Miocene time 12 to 6 million years ago. Granitic clasts and sands in the Dove Spring formation suggest this date for renewed exhumation of the Sierra Nevada batholith.

In Pliocene and early Pleistocene time, the Piute Mountains rose and diverted the Kern River back to the west to create Phase 03 of its evolution. In Phase 03 the Kern River followed the Kern River Fault through Bodfish and the Havilah to Walker Basin. West side upward displacement on the Kern Fault and Breckenridge faults created natural dams to form both Lake Ferdinand and Walker Lake.

Headward erosion from the mouth of Caliente Creek broke through this barrier at Walker Lake and led to the incision of Caliente Creek by the Kern River and drainage of Walker Lake. Later headward erosion from the mouth of the present Kern Canyon breeched Lake Ferdinand at what is now the decommissioned Bodfish Hydroelectric.

Evidence for Lake Ferdinand consists of high-level lake terraces of fine grained silt, deltaic deposits and remnant shore line features above the high stand of anthropogenic Lake Isabella (2,640 feet).