Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T06:27:53.988Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Water Provenance at the Old River Bed Inland Delta and Ground Water Flow from the Sevier Basin of Central Utah during the Pleistocene-Holocene Transition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 September 2020

Christopher D. Bradbury Open the ORCID record for Christopher D. Bradbury [Opens in a new window] ,
Paul W. Jewell ,
Diego P. Fernandez ,
Jory C. Lerback ,
Jennifer V. DeGraffenried  and
Erich U. Petersen
Christopher D. Bradbury*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah, 115 S 1460 E, Room 383, Salt Lake City, UT84112-0102, USA
Paul W. Jewell
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah, 115 S 1460 E, Room 383, Salt Lake City, UT84112-0102, USA
Diego P. Fernandez
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah, 115 S 1460 E, Room 383, Salt Lake City, UT84112-0102, USA
Jory C. Lerback
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah, 115 S 1460 E, Room 383, Salt Lake City, UT84112-0102, USA
Jennifer V. DeGraffenried
Affiliation:
IMWU-PWEP (Environmental Programs), Dugway Proving Ground, 5330 Valdez Circle, Dugway, UT84022-1076, USA
Erich U. Petersen
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah, 115 S 1460 E, Room 383, Salt Lake City, UT84112-0102, USA
*
*Corresponding author at: E-mail address: [email protected] (C.D. Bradbury).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

To ascertain the provenance of water reaching wetlands in an area sustaining a population of Pleistocene–Holocene foragers, 87-strontium/86-strontium isotopic ratios (87Sr/86Sr) of mollusks from channels of the Old River Bed inland delta of central Utah were measured. Potential provenances examined included overflow from Pleistocene–Holocene Lake Gunnison, ground water flow from the Sevier basin, ground water discharge from piedmont aquifers infiltrated by Lake Bonneville, and ground waters from local regional aquifers. Old River Bed inland delta channels active from ~13.2 cal ka BP until ~11.2 cal ka BP have 87Sr/86Sr values of 0.70930–0.71049 that are consistent with water sourced from Lake Gunnison in the Sevier basin. Inland delta channels active from ~11.2 cal ka BP until shortly after ~9.3 cal ka BP have 87Sr/86Sr values of 0.70977–0.71033, suggesting ground water flowed from the Sevier basin during the early Holocene. Ratios of 87Sr/86Sr did not match known values for Lake Bonneville, but the youngest Old River Bed inland delta channel system has an 87Sr/86Sr ratio consistent with a local ground water source, perhaps Government Creek. Consistent ground water discharge may explain the persistence of foragers in the region despite the increasingly arid climate of the Great Basin.

Keywords

Old River BedSevier basinLake GunnisonPleistocene–Holocene transitionground water
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 99 , January 2021 , pp. 114 - 127
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © University of Washington. Published by Cambridge University Press, 2020

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

REFERENCES

Arkush, B.S., 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
Bradbury, C.D., 2019. Water resources and utilization in the Sevier basin and Old River Bed inland delta of central Utah during the Pleistocene–Holocene transition. PhD Dissertation, University of Utah, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Brennan, S.R., Fernandez, D.P., Mackey, G., Cerling, T.E., Bataille, C.P., Bowen, G.J., Wooller, M.J., 2014. Strontium isotope variation and carbonate versus silicate weathering in rivers from across Alaska: Implications for provenance studies. Chemical Geology, 389, 167–181.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buchardt, B., Fritz, P., 1978. Strontium uptake in shell aragonite from the freshwater gastropod Limnaea stagnalis. Science, New Series, 199, 291–292.Google ScholarPubMed
Capo, R.C., Stewart, B.W., Chadwick, O.A., 1998. Strontium isotopes as tracers of ecosystem processes: theory and methods. Geoderma, 82, 197–225.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Currey, D.R., 1982. Lake Bonneville: selected features of relevance to neotectonics analysis. U.S. Geological Survey, Open File Report 82-1070.Google Scholar
Danzeglocke, U., Jöris, O., Weninger, B.P., 2012. CalPal-2007online. Available online at: http://www.calpal-online.de/, accessed February 24, 2012.Google Scholar
Elston, R.G., Zeanah, D.W., Codding, B.F., 2014. Living outside the box: an updated perspective on diet breadth and sexual division of labor in the Prearchaic Great Basin. Quaternary International, 352, 200–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fitzmayer, J., Larsen, D., Braxton, D., Staes, E., 2004. Hydrogeology of Government Creek basin, Dugway, Utah, with a recommended practical approach to ground-water management in arid, saline regions of the Great Basin. In: Spangler, L.E., (Ed.), Ground Water in Utah: Resource, Protection, and Remediation. Utah Geological Association, Vol. 31, pp. 160–178.Google Scholar
Gilbert, G.K., 1890. Lake Bonneville USGS Monograph 1. US Government Printing Office.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, 221–223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Godsey, H.S., Oviatt, C.G., Miller, D.M., Chan, M.A., 2011. Stratigraphy and chronology of offshore to nearshore deposits associated with the Provo shoreline, Pleistocene Lake Bonneville, Utah. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 310, 442–450.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gosz, J.R., Moore, D.I., 1989. Strontium isotope studies of atmospheric inputs to forested watersheds in New Mexico. Biogeochemistry 8, 115–134.Google Scholar
Graustein, W.C., Armstrong, R.L., 1983. The use of strontium-87/strontium-86 ratios to measure atmospheric transport into forested watersheds. Science, 219, 289–292.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hart, W.S., Quade, J., Madsen, D.B., Kaufman, D.S., Oviatt, C.G., 2004. The 87Sr/86Sr ratios of lacustrine carbonates and lake-level history of the Bonneville paleolake system. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 116, 1107–1119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Isiorho, S.A., Matisoff, G., When, K.S., 1996. Seepage relationships between Lake Chad and the Chad aquifers. Groundwater, 34, 819–826.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, G.T., Beck, C., 2012. The emergence of the desert Archaic in the Great Basin. In: Bousman, C.B., Vierra, B.J. (Eds.), From the Pleistocene to the Holocene: Human organization and cultural transformations in prehistoric North America. Texas A&M University Press, 17, pp. 105–124.Google Scholar
Khan, H.H., Khan, A., 2019. Groundwater and surface water interaction. In: Senapathi, V., Prasanna, M.V., Chung, S.Y. (Eds.), GIS and Geostatistical Techniques for Groundwater Science. Elsevier, pp. 197–207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kohn, M.J., Cerling, T.E., 2002. Stable isotope compositions of biological apatite. Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry, 48, 455–488.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lenihan, J.M.A., 1966. Strontium metabolism. Nature, 211, 572–573.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lerback, J.C., Hynek, S.A., Bowen, B.B., Bradbury, C.D., Solomon, D.K., Fernandez, D.P., 2019. Springwater provenance and flowpath evaluation in Blue Lake, Bonneville basin, Utah. Chemical Geology, 529(119280).Google Scholar
Mackey, G.N., Fernandez, D.P., 2011. High throughput Sr isotope analysis using an automated column chemistry system. In: Abstract V31B-2525 Presented at 2011 AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, California, 5–9 December.Google Scholar
Madsen, D.B., 2007. The Paleoarchaic to Archaic transition in the Great Basin. In: Graff, K.E., Schmitt, D.N. (Eds.), Paleoindian or Paleoarchaic? Great Basin Human Ecology at the Pleistocene–Holocene Transition. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, pp. 1–20.Google Scholar
Madsen, D.B., 2016. The Early Human Occupation of the Bonneville Basin. In: Schroder, J.F., Oviatt, C.G. (Eds.), Developments in Earth Surface Processes. Elsevier, Vol. 20, pp. 504–525.Google Scholar
Madsen, D.B., Oviatt, C.G., Young, D.C., Page, D.J., 2015. Old River Bed Delta geomorphology and Chronology. In: Madsen, D.B., Schmitt, D.N., Page, D.J. (Eds.), The Paleoarchaic Occupation of the Old River Bed Delta. University of Utah Press, Vol. 128, pp. 30–60.Google Scholar
Madsen, D.B., Rhode, D., Grayson, D.K., Broughton, J.M., Livingston, S.D., Hunt, J., Quade, J., Schmitt, D.N., Shaver, M.W. III, 2001. Late Quaternary environmental change in the Bonneville basin, western USA. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 167, 243–271.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nakano, T., Tayasu, I., Wada, E., Igeta, A., Hyodo, F., Miura, Y., 2005. Sulfur and strontium isotope geochemistry of tributary rivers of Lake Biwa: implications for human impact on the decadal change of lake water quality. Science of the Total Environment, 345, 1–12.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Oviatt, C.G., 1988. Late Pleistocene and Holocene lake fluctuations in the Sevier Lake basin, Utah, USA. Journal of Paleolimnology, 1, 9–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oviatt, C.G., 2014. The Gilbert Episode in the Great Salt Lake Basin, Utah. Miscellaneous Publication 14-3, Utah Geological Survey.Google Scholar
Oviatt, C.G., 2015. Chronology of Lake Bonneville, 30,000 to 10,000 yr BP. Quaternary Science Reviews, 110, 166–171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oviatt, C.G., Madsen, D.B., Miller, D.M., Thompson, R.S., McGeehin, J.P., 2015. Early Holocene Great Salt Lake, USA. Quaternary Research, 84, 57–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oviatt, C.G., Madsen, D.B., Schmitt, D.N., 2003. Late Pleistocene and early Holocene rivers and wetlands in the Bonneville basin of western North America. Quaternary Research, 60, 200–210.Google Scholar
Oviatt, C.G., Miller, D.M., McGeehin, J.P., Zachary, C., Mahan, S., 2005. The Younger Dryas phase of the Great Salt Lake, Utah, USA. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 219, 263–284.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pedone, V.A., Oviatt, C.G., 2013. South to north flow in Lake Bonneville: evidence from carbonate mineralogy and geochemistry. Geological Society of America Abstract Programs, 45, 552.Google Scholar
Rhode, D., 2016. Quaternary vegetation changes in the Bonneville Basin. In: Schroder, J. F., Oviatt, C.G. (Eds.), Developments in Earth Surface Processes. Elsevier, Vol. 20, pp. 420–441.Google Scholar
Rhode, D., Louderback, L.A., 2015. Bonneville Basin environments during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition. In: Madsen, D.B., Schmitt, D.N., Page, D.J. (Eds.), The Paleoarchaic Occupation of the Old River Bed Delta. University of Utah Press, Vol. 128, pp. 22–29.Google Scholar
Schmitt, D.N., Lupo, K.D., 2018. On early-Holocene moisture and small-mammal histories in the Bonneville basin, western United States. The Holocene, 28, 492–498.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmitt, D.N., Madsen, D.B., Oviatt, C.G., Quist, R., 2007. Late Pleistocene/early Holocene geomorphology and human occupation of the Old River Bed delta, western Utah. In: Graf, K.E., Schmitt, D.N. (Eds.), Paleoindian or Paleoarchaic? Great Basin Human Ecology at the Pleistocene–Holocene Transition, University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, pp. 105–119.Google Scholar
Sophocleous, M., 2002. Interactions between groundwater and surface water: the state of the science. Hydrogeology Journal, 10, 52–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steiger, R.H., Jager, E., 1977. Subcommission on geochronology: Convention on the use of decay constants in geo- and cosmochronology. Earth Planetary Science Letters, 36, 359–362.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, R.S., Oviatt, C.G., Honke, J.S., McGeehin, J.P., 2016. Late Quaternary changes in lakes, vegetation, and climate in the Bonneville Basin reconstructed from sediment cores from Great Salt Lake. In: Schroder, J.F., Oviatt, C.G. (Eds.), Developments in Earth Surface Processes, Elsevier, Vol. 20, pp. 221–291.Google Scholar
Trammell, J., DeGraffenried, J., 2012. Old River Bed archaeological site recordings, Tooele and Juab counties. Utah. Utah SHPO Project No. U-10-LY-0868b.Google Scholar
Waddell, K.M., Barton, J.D., 1980. Estimated inflow and evaporation for Great Salt Lake, Utah, 1931–76, with revised model for evaluating the effects of dikes on the water and salt balance of the lake: comprehensive water planning program. Cooperative Investigations Report No. 20, Utah Department of Natural Resources.Google Scholar