Chronology of Lake Bonneville, 30,000 to 10,000 yr B.P.

Transgressive stratigraphic record and possible oscillations of late Pleistocene Lake Bonneville, Northern Hogup Mountains, Utah, U.S.A.

“…The general hydrologic chronology of the major shorelines of the lake (Fig. 2) has been related to the broad climatic history of the region (Oviatt, 1997;Kaufman, 2003;Balch et al, 2005;Godsey et al, 2005Godsey et al, , 2011Oviatt et al, 2005;Miller et al, 2013;Oviatt, 2015). These major shorelines are best represented as a set of coastal deposits within a distinct zone of altitude or shorezone instead of one distinct location or landform identifiable as the shoreline (Oviatt, 1991;Godsey et al, 2005;Nelson, 2012;Miller et al, 2013).…”

“…The Stansbury shorezone are a set of distinct shorelines that developed~26-23 cal ka during this transgressive phase of the lake (Oviatt et al, 1990). The Bonneville shorezone developed at the end of this transgressive phase (~18 cal ka - Oviatt, 2015) and marks the transition from the transgressive to open phase of the lake. The Bonneville Shorezone is the highest altitude that the lake reached due to the limiting nature of a hydrographic threshold composed of the weakly consolidated Salt Lake Formation and other unconsolidated alluvial deposits (Janecke and Oaks, 2011) near Red Rock Pass, Idaho (Fig.…”

“…The Intermediate shorelines are important because they record smaller-scale lake level changes or oscillations superimposed on the broader transgressive phase (rise) of the lake and are related to the lake's response to regional climatic drivers during the Last Glacial Maximum. Oviatt (2015) suggests as many as five large oscillations (quick drop and then rise) of lake level during the 30-15 cal ka transgressive phase. The Stansbury Oscillations (26-24 cal ka) are the most prominent and well-studied events that occurred during the transgressive phase and may have consisted of two distinct oscillations (Oviatt, 1987;Oviatt et al, 1990;Patrickson et al, 2010;Benson et al, 2011).…”

Reconstruction of North American drainage basins and river discharge since the Last Glacial Maximum

“…Within this time span, large floods associated with glacial Lake Missoula occurred 22.9-16.5 ka (Bretz, 1923(Bretz, , 1969Waitt, 1980;Atwater, 1984;Benito and O'Connor, 2003;Lopes and Mix, 2009). Lake Bonneville routed a portion of flow from the Great Basin to the Columbia River from 18.2 ± 0.3 to 16.4 ± 0.2 ka (Gilbert, 1890;Godsey et al, 2005Godsey et al, , 2011McGee et al, 2012), including a massive < 1-year flood at ∼ 17.5 or ∼ 18 ka that resulted from rapid ∼ 100 m incision of a natural dam of alluvium (Jarrett and Malde, 1987;Godsey et al, 2005Godsey et al, , 2011Oviatt, 2015). The terrestrial record contains evidence for later, smaller outflows from glacial Lake Missoula 15.1-12.6 ka (Hanson et al, 2012), and intermittent overflow inputs from Lake Bonneville from 16.4 ± 0.2 to 14.9 +0.3 −0.6 ka (synthesis of Godsey et al, 2011;McGee et al, 2012).…”

“…These cool, wet periods are marked by high pluvial lake levels (e.g., Currey et al, 1990;Matsubara and Howard, 2009;McGee et al, 2012;Oviatt, 2015), mountain glacier advances prior to the onset of the Bølling-Allerød (e.g., Owen et al, 2003;Guido et al, 2007;Orme, 2008;Refsnider et al, 2008Refsnider et al, , 2009Brugger, 2010), increased landsliding in the Rio Grande basin between ∼ 21.2 and ∼ 14.5 ka (Reneau and Dethier, 1996), deposition of valley fills in the Colorado River (Pederson et al, 2013), and speleothem growth (e.g., Polyak et al, 2004;Oster and Kelley, 2016). The warmer Bølling-Allerød and Holocene correspond to records of mountain glacier retreat (Guido et al, 2007;Laabs et al, 2013;Munroe and Laabs, 2013) and strath terrace formation due to river incision (Anders et al, 2005;Cook et al, 2009).…”