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[email protected]. GSA provides this and other forums for the presentation of diverse opinions and positions by scientists worldwide, regardless of their race, citizenship, gender, religion, or political viewpoint. Opinions presented in this publication do not reflect official positions of the Society. Geological Society of America Special Paper 370 2003 Lessons from large lake systems— Thresholds, nonlinearity, and strange attractors Kevin M. Bohacs* ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company, 3120 Buffalo Speedway, Houston, Texas 77098, USA Alan R. Carroll Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Wisconsin, 1215 W. Dayton Avenue, Madison, Wisconsin 53706 USA Jack E. Neal ExxonMobil Exploration Company, 233 Benmar Street, Houston, Texas 77060-2598, USA ABSTRACT Lake systems are the largest integrated depositional complexes in the continental realm: modern lakes have areas up to 374,000 km2, and ancient lake strata extend up to 300,000 km2 in the Cretaceous systems of the south Atlantic and eastern China and the Permian system of western China.