Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-767nl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-12T23:25:10.788Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Morphology and paleoclimatic significance of Pleistocene Lake Bonneville spits

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Paul W. Jewell
Paul W. Jewell*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA
*
*E-mail address:jewell@earth.utah.edu.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Pleistocene 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.

Keywords

SpitsLake BonnevillePleistocene climateJet stream
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 68 , Issue 3 , November 2007 , pp. 421 - 430
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bartlein, P.J., Anderson, K.H., Anderson, P.M., Edwards, M.E., Mock, C.J., Thompson, R.S., Webb, R.S., Webb, T. III, Whitl, C.(1998). Paleoclimate simulations for North America over the past 21,000 years: features of the simulated climate and comparisons with paleoenvironmental data.. Quaternary Science Reviews 17, 549–585.Google Scholar
Bills, B.G., Wambeam, T.J., Currey, D.R.(2002). Geodynamics of Lake Bonneville.. Gwynn, J.W. Great Salt Lake: An Overview of Change. Utah Geological Survey Special Publication 8–32.Google Scholar
Burr, T.N., Currey, T.N.(1988). The Stockton bar.. Utah Geological Survey Miscellaneous Publication 88-1, 66–73.Google Scholar
Bush, A.B.G., Philander, S.G.H.(1999). The climate of the last glacial maximum: results from a coupled-atmosphere general circulation model.. Journal of Geophysical Research 104, 24,509–24,5245.Google Scholar
Currey, D.R., Oviatt, C.G.(1985). Durations, average rates, and probable causes of Lake Bonneville expansions, stillstands, and contractions during the last deep-lake cycle, 32,000 to 10,000 years ago.. Geological Journal of Korea 10, 1085–1099.Google Scholar
(1984). CERC, Shore Protection Manual.. Coastal Engineering Research Center, Waterway Experiment Station, US Army Corps of Engineers.Google Scholar
Enzel, Y., Wells, S.G., Lancaster, N.(2003). Late Pleistocene lakes along the Mojave River, southeast California.. Enzel, Y., Wells, S.G., Lancaster, N. Paleoenvironments and Paleohydrology of the Mojave and Southern Great Basin Deserts Geological Society of America Special Paper vol. 368, 61–77.Google Scholar
Evans, O.F. (1942). The origin of spits, bars, and related structures.. Journal of Geology 50, 846–965.Google Scholar
Gilbert, G.K. (1890). Lake Bonneville.. U.S. Geological Survey Monograph vol. 1, 438 pp.Google Scholar
Godsey, H.S., Currey, D.R., Chan, M.A.(2005). New evidence for an extended occupation of the Provo shoreline and implications for regional climate change, Pleistocene Lake Bonneville, Utah, USA.. Quaternary Research 63, 212–223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gregory, M., Chan, M., Currey, D., Schofield, I.(2006). Transgressive landforms and lithofacies models of Pleistocene Lake Bonneville, Utah in Geology of northwest Utah.. Harty, K.M., Tabet, D.E. Utah Geological Association Publication 34.Google Scholar
Horikawa, K. (1988). Nearshore dynamics and coastal processes: theory, measurement, and predictive models.. University of Tokyo Press, Tokyo(522 pp.).Google Scholar
Kutzbach, J.E., Guetter, P.J.(1986). The influence of changing orbital parameters and surface boundary conditions on climate simulations for the past 18,000 years.. Journal of Atmospheric Sciences 43, 1726–1759.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lemons, D.R., Milligan, M.R., Chan, M.A.(1996). Paleoclimatic implications of late Pleistocene sediment yield rates for the Bonneville Basin, northern, Utah.. Paleogeography, Paleoclimatology, and Paleoecology 123, 147–159.Google Scholar
Manabe, S., Broccoli, A.J.(1985). The influence of continental ice sheets on the climate of an ice age.. Journal of Geophysical Research 90, 2167–2190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milligan, M.R., Chan, M.A.(1998). Coarse-grained Gilbert deltas: facies, sequence stratigraphy, and relationships to Pleistocene climate at the eastern margin of Lake Bonneville, northern Utah.. Relative Role of Eustacy, Climate, and Tectonism in Continental Rocks. SEPM Special Publication vol. 58, 177–189.Google Scholar
Morrison, R.B. (1965). Lake Bonneville Quaternary stratigraphy of eastern Jordan Valley, south of Salt Lake City, Utah, US.. Geological Survey Professional Paper 477, (80 pp.).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Conner, , Bromwich, D.H., Carrasco, J.F.(1994). Cyclonically forced barrier winds along the Transantarctic Mountains near Ross Island.. Monthly Weather Review 122, 137–150.Google Scholar
Oviatt, C.G. (1991). Quaternary geology of the Black Rock Desert, Millard County, Utah.. Utah Geological and Mineralogical Survey Special 73.Google Scholar
Oviatt, C.G. (1997). Lake Bonneville fluctuations and global climate change.. Geology 25, 155–158.Google Scholar
Oviatt, C.G., Currey, D.R., Miller, D.M.(1990). Age and paleoclimatic significance of the Stansbury shoreline of Lake Bonneville, northeastern Great Basin.. Quaternary Research 33, 291–305.Google Scholar
Oviatt, C.G., Currey, D.R., Sack, D.(1992). Radiocarbon chronology of Lake Bonneville, eastern Great Basin, USA.. Paleogeography, Paleoclimatology, and Paleoecology 99, 225–241.Google Scholar
Parish, T.R. (1982). Surface flow over East Antarctica.. Monthly Weather Review 110, 84–90.Google Scholar
Parish, T.R., Bromwich, D.H.(1998). A case study of Antarctic katabatic winds interaction with large-scale forcing.. Monthly Weather Review 126, 199–209.Google Scholar
Parish, T.R., Cassano, J.J.(2003). The role of katabatic winds in the Antarctic katabatic wind on the Antartic surface wind regime.. Monthly Weather Review 131, 317–333.Google Scholar
Rasmussen, E.A., Ninomiya, K., Carleton, A.M.(2003). Climatology.. Rasmussen, E.A., Turner, J. Polar Lows: Mesoscale Weather Systems in the Polar Regions Cambridge University Press, 52–149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sack, D. (1990). Quaternary geology of the Tule Valley, west-central Utah.. Utah Geological Survey 124.Google Scholar
Sack, D. (1999). The composite nature of the Provo level of Lake Bonneville, Great Basin, western North America.. Quaternary Research 52, 316–327.Google Scholar
Schofield, I., Jewell, P.W., Chan, M.A., Currey, D., Gregory, M.(2004). Longshore transport, spit formation, and surface wave modeling, Pleistocene Lake Bonneville, Utah.. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 29, 1675–1690.Google Scholar
J.C., Shafer, W.J., Steenbrugh, in press, Climatology of strong intermountain cold fronts: Monthly Weather Review..Google Scholar
Scott, W.E. (1988). Transgressive and high-shore deposits of the Bonneville cycle near North Salt Lake, Utah.. Utah Geological and Mineralogical Survey Miscellaneous Publication 88-1, 38–42.Google Scholar
Thompson, R.S., Whitlock, C., Bartlein, P.J., Harrison, S.P., Spaulding, W.G.(1993). Climatic changes in the Western United States since 18,000 yr B.P.. Wright, H.E., Kutzbach, J.E., Webb, T., Ruddiman, W.F., Street-Perrott, F.A., Bartlein, P.J. Global Climates Since the last Glacial Maximum University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis.468–511.Google Scholar
Wells, G.L. (1983). Late glacial circulation over central North America revealed by aeolian features.. Variations in the Global Water Budget: Street Perrott et al. D. Reidel Publishing Company, 317–330.Google Scholar
Whiteman, C.D. (2000). Mountain Meteorology: Fundamentals and Applications.. Oxford, 355 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodruffe, C.D. (2003). Coasts: form, Process and Evolution.. Cambridge, 623 pp.Google Scholar