Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Great Salt Lake, and precursors, Utah: The last 30,000 years

  • Published:
Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Sediment cores up to 6.5 m in length from the South Arm of Great Salt Lake, Utah, have been correlated. Radiocarbon ages and volcanic tephra layers indicate a record of greater than 30,000 years. A variety of approaches have been employed to collect data used in stratigraphic correlation and lake elevation interpretation; these include acoustic stratigraphy, sedimentologic analyses, mineralogy, geochemistry (major element, C, O and S isotopes, and organics), paleontology and pollen.

The results indicate that prior to 32,000 year B.P. an ephemeral saline lake-playa system was present in the basin. The perennial lake, which has occupied the basin since this time, rose in a series of three major steps; the freshest water conditions and presumably highest altitude was reached at about 17,000 year B.P. The lake remained fresh for a brief period, followed by a rapid increase in salinity and sharp lowering in elevation to levels below that of the present Great Salt Lake. The lake remained at low elevations, and divided at times into a north and south Basin, until about 8,000 year B.P. Since that time, with the exception of two short rises to about 1290 m, the lake level has remained near the present elevation of 1280 m.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Berner RA (1970) Sedimentary pyrite formation. Am J Sci 268:1–23

    Google Scholar 

  • Berner RA (1982) Burial of organic carbon and pyrite sulfur in the modern ocean: its geochemical and environmental significance. Am J Sci 282:451–473

    Google Scholar 

  • Bright RC (1963) Pleistocene lakes Thatcher and Bonneville, southeastern Idaho. Ph.D. Dissertation, Univ of Minnesota

  • Bright RC (1965) Pollen and seed stratigraphy of Swan Lake southeastern Idaho: its relation to regional vegetational history and to Lake Bonneville history. Tebiwa 9(2):1–47

    Google Scholar 

  • Broecker WS, Kaufman A (1965) Radiocarbon chronology of Lake Lahontan and Lake Bonneville II, Great Basin. Geol Soc Am Bull 76:537–566

    Google Scholar 

  • Broecker WS, Olson EA (1959) Lamont radiocarbon measurements VI. Radiocarbon 1:111–132

    Google Scholar 

  • Broecker WS, Orr PC (1958) Radiocarbon chronology of Lake Lahontan and Lake Bonneville. Geol Soc Am Bull 69:1009–1032

    Google Scholar 

  • Broecker WS, Walton A (1959) Re-evaluation of the salt chronology of several Great Basin Lakes. Geol Soc Am Bull 70:601–618

    Google Scholar 

  • Butts DS (1980) Factors affecting the concentration of Great Salt Lake brines, in Great Salt Lake, a scientific, historical and economic overview. Gwynn JW (ed) Utah Geol Min Surv Bull 116:163–168

    Google Scholar 

  • Clarke FW (1924) The data of geochemistry. US Geol Surv Bull 770:783

    Google Scholar 

  • Crank J (1975) The mathematics of diffusion. 2nd edition 414 pp. Clarendon Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Crittendon MD, Jr (1963) New data on the isostatic deformation of Lake Bonneville. US Geol Surv Prof Paper 454-F:1–31

    Google Scholar 

  • Curry DR (1980a) Unpublished compilation of radiocarbon dates in the Bonneville Basin

  • Curry DR (1980b) Coastal geomorphology of Great Salt Lake and vicinity. In: Gwynn JW (ed) Great Salt Lake, a scientific, historical and economic overview. Utah Geol Min Surv Bull 116:69–82

  • Davis JO (1978) Quaternary tephrochronology of Lake Lahontan area Nevada and California. Nevada Archaeological Survey Research Paper 7, pp 137

    Google Scholar 

  • Deevey ES Jr, Gross MS, Hutchinson GE, Kraybill HL (1954) The Natural C14 contents of materials from hard-water lakes. Proc Nat Acad Sci 40:185–288

    Google Scholar 

  • Eardley AJ (1938) Sediments of Great Salt Lake, Utah. Am Assoc Pet Geol Bull 22:1305–1411

    Google Scholar 

  • Eardley AJ (1962) Glauber's salt bed west of Promontory Point Great Salt Lake. Utah Geol Min Surv Spec Studies 1, pp 12

    Google Scholar 

  • Eardley AJ (1966) Sediments of Great Salt Lake. In Great Salt Lake. Utah Geol Soc Guidebook to Geol of Utah 20:105–120

    Google Scholar 

  • Eardley AJ, Gvosdetsky V, Marsell RE (1957) Hydrology of Lake Bonneville and sediments and soils of its basin. Geol Soc Am Bull 68:1141–1201

    Google Scholar 

  • Eardley AJ, Shuey RT, Gvosdetsky V, Nash WP, Picard MD, Grey DC, Kukla GJ (1973) Lake cycles in the Bonneville Basin, Utah. Geol Soc Am Bull 84:211–216

    Google Scholar 

  • Fryxell R (1965) Mazama and Glacier Peak volcanic ash layers: relative ages. Science 147:1288–1290

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilbert GK (1890) Lake Bonneville. US Geol Surv Mono 1, pp 438

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldhaber MB, Kaplan IR (1974) The sulfur cycle. The Sea (ed. ED Goldberg) Vol. 5:569–655. Wiley-Interscience, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Hunt CB, Varnes HD, Thomas HE (1953) Lake Bonneville: the geology of northern Utah Valley Utah. US Geol Surv Prof Paper 257-A:I-99

  • Ives PC, Levin B, Oman CL, Rubin M (1964) U.S. Geological Survey radiocarbon dates IX. Radiocarbon 9:505–520

    Google Scholar 

  • Ives PC, Levin B, Robinson RD, Rubin M (1967) U.S. Geological Survey radiocarbon dates VII. Radiocarbon 6:37–76

    Google Scholar 

  • Ives RL (1951) Pleistocene valley sediments of the Dugway area, Utah. Geol Soc Am Bull 62:781–797

    Google Scholar 

  • Jennings JD (1957) Danger Cave. Univ. of Utah Anthropology Paper 27, pp 328

    Google Scholar 

  • Kittleman LA (1963) Glass-bead silica determination for a suite of volcanic rocks from the Owyhee Plateau, Oregon. Geol Soc of Am Bull 74:1405–1409

    Google Scholar 

  • Madsen DB, Curry DR (1979) Late Quaternary Glacial and Vegetation Changes, Little Cottonwood Canyon Area, Wasatch Mountains, Utah. Quaternary Research Vol 12:254–270

    Google Scholar 

  • Madsen DB, Kay PA (1982) Late Quaternary Pollen Analysis in the Bonneville Basin. American Quaternary Association Conference, Seattle

  • Mehringer PJ Jr (1967) Pollen Analysis of the Tule Springs Site area, Nevada. In: Wormington HM, Ellis D (eds) Pleistocene Studies in Southern Nevada. Nevada State Museum Anthropological Papers 13:129–200

  • Mikulich MJ, Smith RB (1974) Seismic reflection and aeromagnetic surveys of the Great Salt Lake, Utah. Geol Soc Am Bull 85:991–1002

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller RD, Van Horn R, Scott WE, Forester RM (1980) Radiocarbon date supports concept of continuous low levels of Lake Bonneville since 11,000 Yr. B.P. Geol Soc Am Abstracts, Rocky Mountain Section, p 297

  • Morrison RB (1965) Quaternary geology of the Great Basin, in The Quaternary of the United States:265–285. Princeton Univ Press, Princeton, NJ

    Google Scholar 

  • Morrison RB (1966) Predecessors of Great Salt Lake, in The Great Salt Lake. Utah Geol Soc Guidebook to the Geol of Utah 20:77–104

    Google Scholar 

  • Morrison RB, Frye JC (1965) Correlation of the middle and late Quaternary successions of the Lake Lahontan, Lake Bonneville, Rocky Mountain (Wasatch Range), southern Great Plains, and eastern Midwest areas. Nevada Bureau of Mines Report 9, pp 45

    Google Scholar 

  • Ohmoto H, Rye RO (1979) Carbon and sulfur isotopes. In: Barnes HL (ed) Geochemistry of Hydrothermal Ore Deposits. Wiley Interscience, New York, pp 509–567

    Google Scholar 

  • Powers HA, Wilcox RE (1964) Volcanic ash from Mount Mazama (Crater Lake) and from Glacier Peak. Science 144:1334–1336

    Google Scholar 

  • Rubin M, Alexander C (1958) US Geological Survey dates VI. Science 127:1476–1487

    Google Scholar 

  • Rubin M, Alexander C (1960) US Geological Survey radiocarbon dates V. Am J Sci Radiocarbon Supplement 2:129–185

    Google Scholar 

  • Rubin M, Berthold SM (1961) US Geological Survey radiocarbon dates VI. Radiocarbon 3:86–98

    Google Scholar 

  • Scott WE (1979) Evaluation of evidence for controversial rise of Lake Bonneville about 10,000 yrs ago. Geol Soc Am Abstr 11:301–302

    Google Scholar 

  • Scott WE, McCoy WD, Shroba RR, Miller RD (1980) New interpretations of the late Quaternary history of Lake Bonneville, western United States. AMQUA 6th Biennial Meetings: 168–169

  • Scott WE, Machette MN, Shroba RR, McCoy WD (1982) Guidebook for the 1982 friends of the Pleistocene Rocky Mountain cell field trip to central Utah, Part I:1–58

  • Smith DGW, Westgate JA (1969) Electron probe technique for characterizing pyroclastic deposits. Earth Planet Sci Lett 5:313–319

    Google Scholar 

  • Spencer RJ (1982) The geochemical evolution of Great Salt Lake. Ph.D. dissertation, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, pp 308

    Google Scholar 

  • Stockmarr J (1971) Tablets with spores used in absolute pollen analysis. In: Pollen et Spores, 13:615–621

    Google Scholar 

  • Whelan JA (1973) Great Salt Lake, Utah: chemical and physical variation of the brine, 1966–1972. Utah Geological and Mineral Survey, Water Research Bull 17, pp 25

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilcox RE (1965) Volcanic-ash chronology. In: The Quaternary of the United States, Princeton Univ. Press, pp 807–816

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Geology and Geophysics, Univ. of Calgary, T2N 1N4, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

    Ronald J. Spencer

  2. U.S. Geological Survey, 22092, Reston, VA, USA

    M. J. Baedecker, B. F. Jones, S. L. Rettig & M. Rubin

  3. Dept. of Earth and Planetary Science, Johns Hopkins Univ., 21218, Baltimore, MD, USA

    H. P. Eugster

  4. U.S. Geological Survey, 80225, Denver, CO, USA

    R. M. Forester & M. B. Goldhaber

  5. E.T.H. Geologisches Institut, Zürich, Switzerland

    K. Kelts & J. Mckenzie

  6. Division of State History, 300 Rio Grande, 84101, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

    D. B. Madsen

  7. Univ. of Wisconsin, 53706, Madison, WI, USA

    C. J. Bowser

Authors
  1. Ronald J. Spencer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. M. J. Baedecker
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. H. P. Eugster
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. R. M. Forester
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. M. B. Goldhaber
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. B. F. Jones
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. K. Kelts
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. J. Mckenzie
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. D. B. Madsen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. S. L. Rettig
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  11. M. Rubin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  12. C. J. Bowser
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Spencer, R.J., Baedecker, M.J., Eugster, H.P. et al. Great Salt Lake, and precursors, Utah: The last 30,000 years. Contr. Mineral. and Petrol. 86, 321–334 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01187137

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01187137

Keywords

Search

Navigation