While the deposits were once attributed to a single lake stand, later evidence was found of various lake cycles going back to the Pliocene. The history of Lake Manly is not as well understood as that of Lake Lahontan and Lake Bonneville, the two largest pluvial lakes recorded in the Great Basin. More recently, renewed scientific interest has stemmed from the fact that Lake Manly formerly drained the area of Yucca Mountain, a proposed nuclear waste repository.