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Late Quaternary Geomorphology Of The Great Salt Lake Region, Utah, And Other Hydrographically Closed Basins In The Western United States: A Summary Of Observations, United States, National Aeronautics And Space Administration

Water

This report reviews attributes of Quaternary lakes and lake basins which are often important in the environmental prehistory of semideserts. Basin-floor and basin-closure morphometry have set limits on paleolake sizes; lake morphometry and basin drainage patterns have influenced lacustrine processes; and water and sediment loads have influenced basin neotectonics. Information regarding inundated, runoff-producing, and extra-basin spatial domains is acquired directly from the paleolake record, including the littoral morphostratigraphic record, and indirectly by reconstruction.

Fluctuation History Of Great Salt Lake, Utah, During The Last 13,000 Years, United States, National Aeronautics And Space Administration

Water

Great Salt Lake level fluctuations from 13,000 yr B.P. to the present were interpreted by examination of shoreline geomorphic features, shoreline deposits, archeologic sites, isotopic data, and palynologic data.

After the conclusion of the Bonneville paleolake cycle, between 13,000 and 12,000 yr B.P. the lake regressed to levels low enough to deposit a littoral oxidized red bed stratum and a pelagic Glauber's salt layer. A late Pleistocene lake cycle occurred between 12,000 and 10,000 yr B.P. depositing several beaches, the highest reaching an altitude of about 4250 ft (1295.3 m). The lake regressed after 10,000 yr B.P., only to rise …