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The Composite Nature of the Provo Level of Lake Bonneville, Great Basin, Western North America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Dorothy Sack
Dorothy Sack*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Ohio University, 122 Clippinger Labs, Athens, Ohio, 45701
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Abstract

Deposits of a transgressive-phase Lake Bonneville stillstand or oscillation are found just below the elevation of the regressive-phase Provo shoreline at numerous exposures throughout the Bonneville basin. Existence of these subProvo shoreline deposits provides a new explanation for the massive size of Provo depositional and erosional landforms, which can no longer be explained by a long stillstand at the Provo shoreline. Provo coastal landforms are large because they are superimposed on subProvo landforms. Results also help to clarify divergent interpretations regarding the relative age of the Provo shoreline and the number of times it was occupied by the water plane. Occupation of approximately the same level during both the transgressive and the regressive phase of Lake Bonneville may be coincidental, or it may indicate that a bedrock sill controlled outflow at subProvo as well as Provo time. Rise to the Bonneville level could have occurred after massive slope failure plugged the outlet pass.

Keywords

Lake Bonneville chronologyProvo shorelinesubProvo shoreline deposits
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 52 , Issue 3 , November 1999 , pp. 316 - 327
Copyright
University of Washington

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