Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T01:15:08.808Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Charles G. Oviatt ,
David B. Madsen  and
Dave N. Schmitt
Charles G. Oviatt*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA
David B. Madsen*
Affiliation:
Division of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences, Desert Research Institute, Reno, NV 89512, USA
Dave N. Schmitt*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, USA
*
Email Address:[email protected] (C.G. Oviatt)
1Corresponding author. Email Address:[email protected] (D.B. Madsen)
2Corresponding author. Email Address:[email protected] (D.N. Schmitt)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Field 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.

Keywords

Lake BonnevillePaleoclimateGreat Salt LakePaleoarchaic foragers
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 60 , Issue 2 , September 2003 , pp. 200 - 210
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

Allen, B.D., and Anderson, R.Y., (2000). A continuous, high-resolution record of late Pleistocene climate variability from the Estancia basin, New Mexico. Geological Society of America Bulletin 112, 1444 1458.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, R.Y., Allen, B.D., and Menking, K.M., (2002). Geomorphic expression of abrupt climate change in southwestern North America at the glacial termination. Quaternary Research 57, 371 381.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arkush, B.S., and Pitblado, B.L., (2000). Paleoarchaic surface assemblages in the Great Salt Lake Desert, Northwestern Utah. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 22, 12 42.Google Scholar
Batt, C.M., and Pollard, A.M., (1996). Radiocarbon calibration and the peopling of North America. Pollard, A.M. Archaeological Chemistry. Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge. 415 433.Google Scholar
Beck, C., and Jones, G.T., (1997). The terminal Pleistocene/Early Holocene archaeology of the Great Basin. Journal of World Prehistory 11, 161 236.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beck, C., Taylor, A., Jones, G.T., Fadem, C.M., Cook, C.R., Milward, S.A., (2002). Rocks are heavy: transport costs and paleoarchaic quarry behavior in the Great Basin. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 21, in press CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benson, L.V., Burdett, J., Lund, S., Kashgarian, M., and Mensing, S., (1997). Nearly synchronous climate change in the Northern Hemisphere during the last glacial termination. Nature 388, 263 265.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benson, L.V., Currey, D.R., Lao, Y., and Hostetler, S., (1992). Lake-size variations in the Lahontan and Bonneville basins between 13,000 and 9000 14 C yr B.P. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 95, 19 32.Google Scholar
Bills, B.G., Wanbeam, T.J., and Currey, D.R., (2002). Geodynamics of Lake Bonneville. Gwynn, J.W. Great Salt Lake. An Overview of Change. Utah Department of Natural Resources Special Publication, Salt Lake City. 7 32.Google Scholar
Broughton, J.M., Madsen, D.B., and Quade, J., (2000). Fish remains from Homestead Cave and lake levels of the past 13,000 years in the Bonneville basin. Quaternary Research 53, 392 401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carter, J.A., Young, D.C. Jr., (2001). TS-5 Central Area and Craners Cultural Resource Inventory Wendover and Hill Air Force Ranges, Tooele and Box Elder Counties, Utah. Technical Report on file, Hill Air Force Base, Ogden, UT.Google Scholar
Collins, M., (1999). Clovis Blade Technology. Univ. of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Currey, D.R., (1982). Lake Bonneville: selected features of relevance to neotectonic analysis.: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 82-1070 Google Scholar
Currey, D.R., (1990). Quaternary paleolakes in the evolution of semidesert basins, with special emphasis on Lake Bonneville and the Great Basin, USA. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 76, 189 214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Currey, D.R., Lips, E., Thein, B., Wambeam, T., and Nishazawa, S., (2001). Elevated Younger Dryas lake levels in the Great Basin, western USA. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 33, A-217 Google Scholar
Elston, R.G., and Zeanah, D.W., (2002). Thinking outside the box. a new perspective on diet breadth and sexual division of labor in the Prearchaic Great Basin. orld Archaeology 34, 103 130.Google Scholar
Gilbert, G.K., (1890). Lake Bonneville. U.S. Geological Survey Monograph 1 Google Scholar
Gosse, J.C., Evenson, E.B., Klein, J., Lawn, B., and Middleton, R., (1995). Precise cosmogenic 10Be measurements in western North America. support for a global Younger Dryas cooling event. Geology 23, 877 880.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graf, K.E., (2001). Paleoindian technological provisioning in the western Great Basin. M.Sc. thesis, Univ. of Nevada-Reno, Google Scholar
Grayson, D.K., (1998). Moisture history and small mammal community richness during the latest Pleistocene and Holocene, Northern Bonneville Basin, Utah. Quaternary Research 49, 330 334.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grayson, D.K., (2000). Mammalian responses to Middle Holocene climatic change in the Great Basin of the western United States. Journal of Biogeography 27, 181 192.Google Scholar
Holmer, R.N., (1986). Common projectile points of the Intermountain West. Condie, C., and Fowler, D. Anthropology of the Desert West. Essays in Honor of Jesse D. Jennings. University of Utah Anthropological Papers, No 110, Salt Lake City. 89 115.Google Scholar
Huckleberry, G., Beck, C., Jones, G.T., Holmes, A., Cannon, M., Livingston, S., and Broughton, J.M., (2001). Terminal Pleistocene/early Holocene environmental change at the Sunshine locality, north-central Nevada, U.S.A. Quaternary Research 55, 303 312.Google Scholar
Ives, R.L., (1946). Desert ripples. American Journal of Science 244, 492 501.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, G.T., Beck, C., Jones, E.E., and Hughes, R.E., (2003). Lithic source use and Paleoarchaic foraging territories in the Great Basin. American Antiquity 68, 5 38.Google Scholar
Licciardi, J.M., (2001). Chronology of latest Pleistocene lake-level fluctuations in the pluvial Lake Chewaucan basin, Oregon, USA. Journal of Quaternary Science 16, 545 553.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Light, A., (1996). Amino acid paleotemperature reconstruction and radiocarbon shoreline chronology of the Lake Bonneville basin, USA. M.Sc. thesis, Univ. of Colorado, Google Scholar
Liu, T., Broecker, W.S., Bell, J.W., and Mandeville, C.W., (2000). Terminal Pleistocene wet event recorded in rock varnish from Las Vegas Valley, southern Nevada. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 161, 423 433.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Madsen, D.B., (2000). Late Quaternary Paleoecology in the Bonneville Basin. Utah Geological Survey Bulletin 130, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Madsen, D.B., (2002). Great Basin peoples and late Quaternary aquatic history. Hershler, R., Currey, D.R., and Madsen, D.B. Great Basin Aquatic Systems History, Smithsonian Contributions to Earth Sciences No. 33. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Madsen, D.B., and Currey, D.R., (1979). Late Quaternary glacial and vegetation changes, Little Cottonwood Canyon Area, Wasatch Mountains, Utah. Quaternary Research 12, 254 270.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Madsen, D.B., Rhode, D., Grayson, D.K., Broughton, J.M., Livingston, S.D., Hunt, J.M., Quade, J., Schmitt, D.N., Shaver, M.W. III Late Quaternary environmental change in the Bonneville Basin, Western USA. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 167, (2001). 243 271.Google Scholar
Madsen, D.B., Schmitt, D.N., Hunt, J.M., (2000). Archaeological Evaluation of Areas Associated with the Gilbert Shoreline and Old River Bed Delta, Dugway Proving Ground, Utah. Manuscript submitted to the U.S. Department of Defense, Dugway Proving Ground, UT, by the Utah Geological Survey, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Menounos, B., and Reasoner, M.A., (1997). Evidence for cirque glaciation in the Colorado Front Range during the Younger Dryas chronozone. Quaternary Research 48, 38 47.Google Scholar
Mensing, S.A., (2001). Late-glacial and early Holocene vegetation and climate change near Owens Lake, eastern California. Quaternary Research 55, 57 65.Google Scholar
Mock, C.J., and Bartlein, P.J., (1995). Spatial variability of late-Quaternary paleoclimates in the western United States. Quaternary Research 44, 425 433.Google Scholar
Ortega-Ramírez, J.R., Valiente-Banuet, A., Urrutia-Fucugauchi, J., Mortera-Gutiérrez, C.A., and Alvarado-Valdez, G., (1998). Paleoclimatic changes during the late Pleistocene-Holocene in Laguna Babícora, near the Chihuahuan Desert, Mexico. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 35, 1168 1179.Google Scholar
Osborn, G., Gerloff, L., (1997). Latest Pleistocene and early Holocene fluctuations of glaciers in the Canadian and Northern American Rockies. Quaternary International 38–39., 7–19.Google Scholar
Oviatt, C.G., (1987). Lake Bonneville stratigraphy at the Old River Bed. American Journal of Science 287, 383 398.Google Scholar
Oviatt, C.G., (1988). Late Pleistocene and Holocene lake fluctuations in the Sevier Lake basin, Utah, USA. Journal of Paleolimnology 1, 9 21.Google Scholar
Oviatt, C.G., Currey, D.R., and Sack, D., (1992). Radiocarbon chronology of Lake Bonneville, eastern Great Basin, USA. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 99, 225 241.Google Scholar
Oviatt, C.G., Miller, D.M., Zachary, C., and McGeehin, J., (2001). Refining the age of the lake transgression to the Gilbert shoreline in the Lake Bonneville basin, Utah, USA. EOS, Transactions, American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting Supplement 82, F755 Google Scholar
Quade, J., Forester, R.M., Pratt, W.L., and Carter, C., (1998). Black mats, spring-fed streams, and late-glacial-age recharge in the southern Great Basin. Quaternary Research 49, 129 148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phillips, F.M., Campbell, A.R., Smith, G.I., and Bischoff, J.L., (1994). Interstadial climate cycles. a link between western North America and Greenland. Geology 22, 1115 1118.Google Scholar
Reasoner, M.A., and Jodry, M.A., (2000). Rapid response of alpine timberline vegetation to the Younger Dryas climate oscillation in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, USA. Geology 28, 51 54.Google Scholar
Rhode, D., (2000). Holocene vegetation history in the Bonneville Basin. Madsen, D.B. Late Quaternary Paleoecology in the Bonneville Basin. Utah Geological Survey Bulletin 130, Salt Lake City. 149 164.Google Scholar
Rhode, D., and Madsen, D.B., (1995). Late Wisconsin vegetation in the northern Bonneville basin. Quaternary Research 44, 246 256.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmitt, D.N., Madsen, D.B., Callister, K., Quist, R., (2002a). Archaeological Survey of Areas Associated with Lake Öferneet and Additional Old River Bed Deltaic Channel Features, Dugway Proving Ground, Utah. Manuscript submitted to the U.S. Department of Defense, Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, by the Desert Research Institute, Reno.Google Scholar
Schmitt, D.N., Madsen, D.B., Hunt, J.M., Callister, K., Jensen, K., Quist, R., (2002b). Archaeological Inventories of Areas Associated with West Baker Dunes in the Old River Bed Delta at U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground, Utah. Manuscript submitted to the U.S. Department of Defense. Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, by the Utah Geological Survey, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Schmitt, D.N., Madsen, D.B., and Lupo, K.D., (2002). Small-mammal data on early and middle Holocene climates and biotic communities in the Bonneville Basin, USA. Quaternary Research 58, 225 260.Google Scholar
Scott, W.E., McCoy, W.D., Shroba, R.R., and Rubin, M., (1983). Reinterpretation of the exposed record of the last two cycles of Lake Bonneville, western United States. Quaternary Research 20, 261 285.Google Scholar
Spaulding, W.G., and Graumlich, L.J., (1986). The last pluvial climatic episodes in the deserts of southwestern North America. Nature 320, 441 444.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuiver, M., and Reimer, P.J., (1993). Extended 14C database and revised CALIB radiocarbon calibration program. Radiocarbon 35, 215 230.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M., Reimer, P.J., and Braziunas, T.F., (1998). High-precision radiocarbon age calibration for terrestrial and marine samples. Radiocarbon 40, 1127 1151.Google Scholar
Taylor, R.E., Haynes, C.V. Jr., and Stuiver, M., (1996). Clovis and Folsom age estimates. Stratigraphic context and radiocarbon calibration. Antiquity 70, 515 525.Google Scholar
Thompson, R.S., Whitlock, C., Bartlein, P.J., Harrison, S.P., and Spaulding, W.G., (1993). Climatic changes in the western United States since 18,000 yr B.P.. Wright, H.E. Jr., Kutzbach, J.E., Webb, T. III, Ruddiman, W.F., Street-Perrott, F.A., and Bartlein, P.J. Global Climates Since the Last Glacial Maximum. Univ. of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis. 468 513.Google Scholar
Wakelin-King, G.A., (1999). Banded mosaic (“tiger bush”) and sheetflow plains. a regional mapping approach. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 46, 53 60.Google Scholar
Waters, M.R., and Haynes, C.V., (2001). Late Quaternary arroyo formation and climate change in the American Southwest. Geology 29, 399 402.Google Scholar
Willig, J.A., Aikens, C.M., Fagan, J.L., (1998). (eds.) Early Human Occupation in Far Western North America: The Clovis-Archaic Interface. Nevada State Museum Anthropological Papers 21, Carson City.Google Scholar
Zachary, C., (2001). Late Pleistocene-early Holocene paleoenvironments of the northeast Bonneville basin, Utah. M.S. thesis, Kansas State Univ, Google Scholar