An interesting perspective - I would add that we can also potentially look to basins that had large lakes in warm intervals like the Pliocene
Opinion | California Could Capture Its Destructive Floodwaters to Fight Drought - The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/07/opinion/california-flood-atmospheric-river-drought.html
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@triptychphrases Isn't the only arable land in California comprised of basins?
@triptychphrases @hasmis @xo One of the coolest things about taking a GEOL 101 type class at Montana State was learning about Lake Missoula and Lake Bonneville. And now, RIP Great Salt Lake.
@hasmis @xo I should have spoken more precisely.
There are actually former lakes in arid regions of the western US that were likely much larger during past warm climate intervals, and indeed even cool intervals. Paleoclimate scientists, including my group, are working on understanding what drove greater water storage in these lakes during intervals like the Pliocene or last Glacial Maximum, and what lessons we could learn for the present. If you're curious, here's a couple recent papers from our group that address this topic:
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1029/2022PA004471
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2022AV000757
For those of us that work with geochemistry or models to understand past change, the editorial proposes an interesting potential application of our work! But lots of details remain to be worked out...