Pyramid Lake is an alkaline lake in a closed basin at the terminus of the Truckee River in NW Nevada. Like Walker Lake it is a remanant of Pleistocene Lake Lahontan.

An ongoing research question involving carbonate mineralization reactions in surface waters concerns the appearance of massive amounts of suspended calcium carbonate (whiting events). These events are significant in the study of global carbon budgets and local paleoclimate. Pyramid Lake is an excellent location to investigate the conditions leading to, and mechanisms of, whiting events.