Late Quaternary fluctuations of pluvial Lake Mojave are recorded in subsurface, cored lake deposits and shoreline features in the terminal depositional basins (Silver Lake and Soda Lake) of the Mojave River.Lake Mojave was one of two large late Quaternary lakes sustained by the Mojave River with the other being the upstream Lake Manix.Silver Lake Depositional Basin (SiLDB) contains a high resolution stratigraphic sequence due to its shallowness and minimal relief across the pre-lake basin floor.Lake building in SiLDB began at ~22 ka with two major high and persistent lake stands occurring between ~18.4 ka and ~16.6 ka (LMⅠ) and ~13.7 ka and ~11.4 ka (LMⅡ).Overflow from Lake Manix sustained LMⅠ which stabilized at the A-shoreline (elevation 287~288 m).LMⅡ coincided with breaching and draining of Lake Manix, reducing the storage capacity of Lake Mojave, increasing its evaporative surface area, and enhancing overflow from Lake Mojave into Death Valley.This overflow downcut the Lake Mojave oudet spillway between 12 ka and 11 ka, ultimately stabilizing at an elevation of 285.5 m (B-shoreline).The majority of shoreline features currendy found around the margins of Silver Lake and Soda Lake date to LMⅡ/B-shoreline, as the shallow lake conditions resulted in erosion of older LMⅠ landforms.SiLDB also experienced alternating periods of intermittent lake conditions and periods of desiccation some during higher stands and more continuous Lake Mojave phases with a significant drying event occurring ~15.5 ka.Total drying of Lake Mojave occurred by ~8.7 ka, with playa conditions dominating the Holocene.Using the history of lake level elevations and a simplified, precipitationdischarge/evaporation model, we infer that the late Pleistocene hydrologic conditions resulting in Lake Mojave overflow at Spillway bay in Silver Lake lie between two sets of conditions: (1) a 50% increase in precipitation in the headwater catchment resulting in annual flood events reaching SiLDB with discharges three times that of the modern extreme flood; or (2) a 100% increase in catchment precipitation with a 50% decrease from modern evaporation combined with annual flood events reaching Afton Canyon with discharges two times that of the modern extreme floods.