Age and Paleoclimatic Significance of the Stansbury Shoreline of Lake Bonneville, Northeastern Great Basin

1990 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 291-305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles G. Oviatt ◽  
Donald R. Currey ◽  
David M. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Great Basin ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Lake Level ◽  
Drainage Basin ◽  
Salt Lake ◽  
Great Salt Lake ◽  
Lake Bonneville ◽  
Paleoclimatic Significance ◽  
Continental Ice Sheets ◽  
Barrier Beaches

AbstractThe Stansbury shoreline, one of the conspicuous late Pleistocene shorelines of Lake Bonneville, consists of tufa-cemented gravel and barrier beaches within a vertical zone of about 45 m, the lower limit of which is 70 m above the modern average level of Great Salt Lake. Stratigraphic evidence at a number of localities, including new evidence from Crater Island on the west side of the Great Salt Lake Desert, shows that the Stansbury shoreline formed during the transgressive phase of late Pleistocene Lake bonneville (sometime between about 22,000 and 20,000 yr B.P.). Tufa-cemented gravel and barrier beaches were deposited in the Stansbury shorezone during one or more fluctuations in water level with a maximum total amplitude of 45 m. We refer to the fluctuations as the Stansbury oscillation. The Stansbury oscillation cannot have been caused by basin-hypsometric factors, such as stabilization of lake level at an external overflow threshold or by expansion into an interior subbasin, or by changes in drainage basin size. Therefore, changes in climate must have caused the lake level to reverse its general rise, to drop about 45 m in altitude (reducing its surface area by about 18%, 5000 km2), and later to resume its rise. If the sizes of Great Basin lakes are controlled by the mean position of storm tracks and the jetstream, which as recently postulated may be controlled by the size of the continental ice sheets, the Stansbury oscillation may have been caused by a shift in the jetstream during a major interstade of the Laurentide ice sheet.

Age and paleoclimatic significance of late Holocene lakes in the Carson Sink, NV, USA

2003 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 294-306 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth D. Adams
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Tree Ring ◽  
Great Basin ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Lake Level ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
Western United States ◽  
Long Period ◽  
Paleoclimatic Significance ◽  
Original Interpretation

AbstractNew dating in the Carson Sink at the termini of the Humboldt and Carson rivers in the Great Basin of the western United States indicates that lakes reached elevations of 1204 and 1198 m between 915 and 652 and between 1519 and 1308 cal yr B.P., respectively. These dates confirm Morrison's original interpretation (Lake Lahontan: Geology of the Southern Carson Desert, Professional Paper 40, U.S. Geol. Survey, 1964) that these shorelines are late Holocene features, rather than late Pleistocene as interpreted by later researchers. Paleohydrologic modeling suggests that discharge into the Carson Sink must have been increased by a factor of about four, and maintained for decades, to account for the 1204-m lake stand. The hydrologic effects of diversions of the Walker River to the Carson Sink were probably not sufficient, by themselves, to account for the late Holocene lake-level rises. The decadal-long period of increased runoff represented by the 1204-m lake is also reflected in other lake records and in tree ring records from the western United States.

Morphology and paleoclimatic significance of Pleistocene Lake Bonneville spits

2007 ◽  
Vol 68 (3) ◽  
pp. 421-430 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul W. Jewell
Keyword(s):  
Great Basin ◽  
Field Studies ◽  
Low Pressure ◽  
Coarse Grained ◽  
Lake Bonneville ◽  
Mountain Ranges ◽  
The North ◽  
Paleoclimatic Significance ◽  
Continental Ice Sheets ◽  
High Atmospheric Pressure

AbstractPleistocene Lake Bonneville of western Utah contains a variety of spits associated with shorelines and other features that formed between 21,000 and 12,000 14C yr BP. Field studies in the low-lying mountain ranges of the central portion of Lake Bonneville identified 17 spits of various types. The spits are connected to small mountain ranges and islands, vary in size from 0.02 to 0.5 km2, and are composed of coarse-grained, well-rounded, poorly-sorted sedimentary material. Sixteen of the 17 spits have a northeasterly to southwesterly orientation implying that winds were from the northwest to northeast, approximately 180° out of phase with modern winds in the eastern Great Basin. Lake Bonneville spit orientation is best explained as the result of persistent northerly winds caused by the high atmospheric pressure cell of the continental ice sheet and passage of low pressure extratropical storms south of the lake. Similar, strong persistent winds are a common feature of modern continental ice sheets and passing low pressure systems. If so, the North American jet stream tracked south of Lake Bonneville as recently as 12,000 14C yr BP, well past the height of the last glacial maximum.

A field trip to observe features of Lake Bonneville, mountain glaciation, and Great Salt Lake near Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

2021 ◽  
pp. 71-94
Author(s):  
Charles G. (Jack) Oviatt ◽  
Genevieve Atwood ◽  
Benjamin J.C. Laabs ◽  
Paul W. Jewell ◽  
Harry M. Jol
Keyword(s):  
Great Basin ◽  
Salt Lake ◽  
Great Salt Lake ◽  
Salt Lake City ◽  
Field Trip ◽  
Lake Bonneville ◽  
Salt Lake Valley ◽  
Mountain Glaciers ◽  
History Of ◽  
Lake City

ABSTRACT On this field trip we visit three sites in the Salt Lake Valley, Utah, USA, where we examine the geomorphology of the Bonneville shoreline, the history of glaciation in the Wasatch Range, and shorezone geomorphology of Great Salt Lake. Stop 1 is at Steep Mountain bench, adjacent to Point of the Mountain in the Traverse Mountains, where the Bonneville shoreline is well developed and we can examine geomorphic evidence for the behavior of Lake Bonneville at its highest levels. At Stop 2 at the mouths of Little Cottonwood and Bells Canyons in the Wasatch Range, we examine geochronologic and geomorphic evidence for the interaction of mountain glaciers with Lake Bonneville. At the Great Salt Lake at Stop 3, we can examine modern processes and evidence of the Holocene history of the lake, and appreciate how Lake Bonneville and Great Salt Lake are two end members of a long-lived lacustrine system in one of the tectonically generated basins of the Great Basin.

Shorelines and vertebrate fauna of Pleistocene Lake Bonneville, Utah, Idaho, and Nevada

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 181-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Milligan ◽  
H. Gregory McDonald
Keyword(s):  
Salt Lake ◽  
Great Salt Lake ◽  
Lake Levels ◽  
Lake Bonneville ◽  
Vertebrate Fauna ◽  
World Class

Pleistocene Lake Bonneville created many classic examples of lacustrine shoreline landforms, which preserve a wide variety of vertebrate fossils. _is _eld guide provides a review of the published literature for a sampling of the lake’s world-class localities. _is guide also provides a brief overview of modern Great Salt Lake and its microbialites recently exposed by near-record low lake levels. Stops include G.K. Gilbert Geologic View Park, Draper spit, Steep Mountain beach, Point of the Mountain spit, American Fork delta, Stockton Bar, and Great Salt Lake State Park.

GSA in the Field in 2020

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian L. Cousens ◽  
Nancy Riggs
Keyword(s):  
Annual Meeting ◽  
Salt Lake ◽  
Great Salt Lake ◽  
Rocky Mountain ◽  
Lake Bonneville ◽  
Section Meeting ◽  
Virtual Spaces

COVID-19 made for a highly unusual year as it affected almost every facet of life. The pandemic made gathering and visiting the field nearly impossible as we quarantined and moved into virtual spaces. Three groups submitted guides for publication during the height of the pandemic: two for trips that would have taken place during the GSA Annual Meeting in Montréal, Canada, and one from the Rocky Mountain Section Meeting in Provo, Utah, USA. Readers will enjoy these journeys to the Ottawa aulacogen/graben on the Northeast U.S.–Canadian border; the southern Québec Appalachians; and Lake Bonneville, the Wasatch Range, and Great Salt Lake in Utah.

Late Pleistocene and early Holocene rivers and wetlands in the Bonneville basin of western North America

2003 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 200-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles G. Oviatt ◽  
David B. Madsen ◽  
Dave N. Schmitt
Keyword(s):  
Great Basin ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Coarse Sand ◽  
Early Holocene ◽  
River Channels ◽  
Human Occupation ◽  
Lake Bonneville ◽  
River Bed ◽  
Bonneville Basin

AbstractField investigations at Dugway Proving Ground in western Utah have produced new data on the chronology and human occupation of late Pleistocene and early Holocene lakes, rivers, and wetlands in the Lake Bonneville basin. We have classified paleo-river channels of these ages as “gravel channels” and “sand channels.” Gravel channels are straight to curved, digitate, and have abrupt bulbous ends. They are composed of fine gravel and coarse sand, and are topographically inverted (i.e., they stand higher than the surrounding mudflats). Sand channels are younger and sand filled, with well-developed meander-scroll morphology that is truncated by deflated mudflat surfaces. Gravel channels were formed by a river that originated as overflow from the Sevier basin along the Old River Bed during the late regressive phases of Lake Bonneville (after 12,500 and prior to 11,000 14C yr B.P.). Dated samples from sand channels and associated fluvial overbank and wetland deposits range in age from 11,000 to 8800 14C yr B.P., and are probably related to continued Sevier-basin overflow and to groundwater discharge. Paleoarchaic foragers occupied numerous sites on gravel-channel landforms and adjacent to sand channels in the extensive early Holocene wetland habitats. Reworking of tools and limited toolstone diversity is consistent with theoretical models suggesting Paleoarchaic foragers in the Old River Bed delta were less mobile than elsewhere in the Great Basin.

scholarly journals Coherence between the Great Salt Lake Level and the Pacific Quasi-Decadal Oscillation

2010 ◽  
Vol 23 (8) ◽  
pp. 2161-2177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shih-Yu Wang ◽  
Robert R. Gillies ◽  
Jiming Jin ◽  
Lawrence E. Hipps
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Great Basin ◽  
Lake Level ◽  
Salt Lake ◽  
Western United States ◽  
Water Vapor Flux ◽  
Vapor Flux ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Circulation Patterns ◽  
Precipitation Variation

Abstract The lake level elevation of the Great Salt Lake (GSL), a large closed basin lake in the arid western United States, is characterized by a pronounced quasi-decadal oscillation (QDO). The variation of the GSL elevation is very coherent with the QDO of sea surface temperature anomalies in the tropical central Pacific (also known as the Pacific QDO). However, such coherence denies any direct association between the precipitation in the GSL watershed and the Pacific QDO because, in a given frequency, the precipitation variation always leads the GSL elevation variation. Therefore, the precipitation variation is phase shifted from the Pacific QDO. This study investigates the physical mechanism forming the coherence between the GSL elevation and the Pacific QDO. Pronounced and coherent quasi-decadal signals in precipitation, streamflow, water vapor flux, and drought conditions are found throughout the Great Basin. Recurrent atmospheric circulation patterns develop over the Gulf of Alaska during the warm-to-cool and cool-to-warm transition phases of the Pacific QDO. These circulation patterns modulate the water vapor flux associated with synoptic transient activities over the western United States and, in turn, lead to the QDO in the hydrological cycle of the Great Basin. As the GSL integrates the hydrological responses in the Great Basin, the hydrological QDO is then transferred to the GSL elevation. Because the GSL elevation consistently lags the precipitation by a quarter-phase (about 3 yr in the quasi-decadal time scale), these processes take an average of 6 yr for the GSL elevation to eventually respond to the Pacific QDO. This creates a half-phase delay of the GSL elevation from the Pacific QDO, thereby forming the inverse, yet coherent, relationship between them. Tree-ring reconstructed precipitation records confirm that the quasi-decadal signal in precipitation is a prominent feature in this region.

scholarly journals Highest Pluvial-Lake Shorelines and Pleistocene Climate of the Western Great Basin

1999 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 196-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marith Reheis
Keyword(s):  
Great Basin ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Drainage Basin ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Middle Pleistocene ◽  
Lake Area ◽  
Effective Moisture ◽  
Pleistocene Climate ◽  
Pluvial Lakes ◽  
Hydrologic Index

Shoreline altitudes of several pluvial lakes in the western Great Basin of North America record successively smaller lakes from the early to the late Pleistocene. This decrease in lake size indicates a long-term drying trend in the regional climate that is not seen in global marine oxygen-isotope records. At +70 m above its late Pleistocene shoreline, Lake Lahontan in the early middle Pleistocene submerged some basins previously thought to have been isolated. Other basins known to contain records of older pluvial lakes that exceeded late Pleistocene levels include Columbus-Fish Lake (Lake Columbus-Rennie), Kobeh-Diamond (Lakes Jonathan and Diamond), Newark, Long (Lake Hubbs), and Clover. Very high stands of some of these lakes probably triggered overflows of previously internally drained basins, adding to the size of Lake Lahontan. Simple calculations based on differences in lake area suggest that the highest levels of these pluvial lakes required a regional increase in effective moisture by a factor of 1.2 to 3 relative to late Pleistocene pluvial amounts (assuming that effective moisture is directly proportional to the hydrologic index, or lake area/tributary basin area). These previously unknown lake levels reflect significant changes in climate, tectonics, and (or) drainage-basin configurations, and could have facilitated migration of aquatic species in the Great Basin.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document