Lake Tahoe is full of bodies

[snopes]

Comment: There is an urban legend that Lake Tahoe is rampant with
preserved dead bodies from various points in time in it's frigid depths.
The story goes that there are hundreds, if not thousands at the bottom(for
various reasons, like mafia crime, drownings, funeral rituals, etc.), that
never decay due to the extreme cold at it's base. Lake Tahoe is over 1600
feet deep at it's deepest points, so the urban legend is spawned. I also
heard that it's a bunch of you know what and that bodies do decay, though
maybe slower than normal rates. Can you confirm or deny this urban legend?

[Mycroft]

The maximum density of water is at 4C - that is why ice floats (the scientific explanation is hydrogen bonding) which is the same temp as a refrigerator. Although decay is slower at this temperature, it still happens.

[Troberg]

The maximum density of water is at 4C - that is why ice floats (the scientific explanation is hydrogen bonding) which is the same temp as a refrigerator. Although decay is slower at this temperature, it still happens.

Not only that, there are also a lot of critters that happily eat dead bodies.

[Floater]

Originally Posted by Mycroft

The maximum density of water is at 4C - that is why ice floats (the scientific explanation is hydrogen bonding) which is the same temp as a refrigerator. Although decay is slower at this temperature, it still happens.

And any large body of water, if deep enough, will have a temperature of 4C at the bottom.

[jimmy101_again]

Originally Posted by Floater

And any large body of water, if deep enough, will have a temperature of 4C at the bottom.

Learn something new every day!

Actually, it appears that Lake Tahoe doesn't fit this rule. Lake Tahoe appears to be a "monomictic" lake, during parts of the year the water is mixed and the temperature at the bottom isn't 4C. (From here.)

At 500m (1650 ft) deep, Lake Tahoe is the second deepest lake in the US, Crater Lake in Oregon is deepest at ~600m, and the third deepest in N. America.

[Cervus]

Using that logic, Tahoe should also be full of dead fish and other critters that have never decayed. Human bodies don't decompose much differently than any other animal.

For comparison, the Titanic lies 12,000 feet below the ocean's surface. There are no preserved bodies - nor have any body parts been found - in the wreckage. Organic matter will decay and be consumed regardless of the depth or temperature of the water. Otherwise, our oceans would be filled with millions of years' worth of dead organisms.

This legend probably comes from people observing wooden wrecks on the bottom of cold lakes. They stay entact very well. But as was pointed out there are lots of critters big and small all to happy to devour any flesh that comes there way.

Now having said that there is another consideration, many lakes have a layer of silt on the bottom. Anything negative enough will end up down in the silt. In some lakes this layer is quite thick (greater than 3' which is how far I am willing to reach). I don't think this will stop decay but it could if the body end up deep enough in the silt to remove the oxygen. Plausable???

[Nick Theodorakis]

Originally Posted by Troberg

Not only that, there are also a lot of critters that happily eat dead bodies.

Give a man a fish, and he'll eat for a day. Give a fish a man, and he'll eat for weeks!

From: Takayuki Ikkaku, Arisa Hosaka and Toshihiro Kawabata, Animal Crossing: Wild World, 2005

Nick

[RLS]

I believe there are some bacteria that can survive without oxygen, thus even in the muck things will decay.

[Natalie]

Originally Posted by RLS

I believe there are some bacteria that can survive without oxygen, thus even in the muck things will decay.

Yep, anaerobic bacteria don't require oxygen to live.

[SerenaSong]

I've heard the legend that the spot called the Grave is where the Mafia dumped bodies because Tahoe "doesn't give up its dead". I think that is more because the lake is so deep and cold, preventing the gases that cause bodies to bloat and surface (creepy!) more so than not decomposing. There's another legend that there is a hole deep somewhere on the bottom of the lake!

Katie, Lake Tahoe

[Eddylizard]

According to Gordon Lightfoot I thought it was Lake Superior that "never gives up her dead."

http://home.pacbell.net/chabpyne/lyrics.html

[Towknie]

Originally Posted by Mycroft

The maximum density of water is at 4C

I believe you, but what happens at 1-3C?

[ButterscotchCat]

Originally Posted by Eddylizard

According to Gordon Lightfoot I thought it was Lake Superior that "never gives up her dead."

http://home.pacbell.net/chabpyne/lyrics.html

Oh jeez, thanks for the earworm

[Eddylizard]

Originally Posted by ButterscotchCat

Oh jeez, thanks for the earworm

Hey no problem. This is the season of giving after all.

[Nick Theodorakis]

Originally Posted by Towknie

I believe you, but what happens at 1-3C?

It begins to start to structure itself, at least over short ranges, like ice, which has a lower density than liquid water.

Nick

[Winged Monkey]

Originally Posted by SerenaSong

I've heard the legend that the spot called the Grave is where the Mafia dumped bodies because Tahoe "doesn't give up its dead". I think that is more because the lake is so deep and cold, preventing the gases that cause bodies to bloat and surface (creepy!) more so than not decomposing. There's another legend that there is a hole deep somewhere on the bottom of the lake!

Katie, Lake Tahoe

An Oceanographer once told me about a spot off the California coast that was perfect for dumping bodies (and supposedly used for this by 'the mafia') because of the currents there and an deep trench cut in the continental shelf. I believed her about the trench and currents, though I question the idea that the mob has many members with the ocean sciences background to know about it.

Also, there's the Black Sea, whose anoxic layer preserves shipwrecks and the bodies aboard them remarkably well because it lacks oxygen - they find vessels from antiquity in great states of repair. I don't understand hydrology, but I guess anoxic water conditions result when a fresh water basin doesn't experience and interchange between its upper and lower layers, there's also something about bacteria. Anyway lake Tahoe isn't on the wikipedia list of meromictic lakes where such conditions occur. Great Salt Lake is though -- I guess the Mormon mafia may have to drive a ways to dispose of bodies.

-Winged Monkey