Chronology of the early transgressive phase of Lake Bonneville

Abstract

Radiocarbon and uranium-thorium dating of microbialites and penecontemporaneous cements in a microbialite mound at Death Point at Lakeside, Utah, on the shore of Great Salt Lake, Utah, call for a revision of the Lake Bonneville hydrograph. At about 30,000 cal yr BP, the lake experienced an abrupt rise of about 20 m, then dropped back down to levels near or slightly higher than the modern average elevation of Great Salt Lake. Over the ensuing ~6000 yr the lake experienced a series of fluctuations, up to levels a few tens of meters higher than the modern average Great Salt Lake, then down again. The exact timing and amplitudes of those fluctuations are not known, but importantly, the lake did not rise to levels near the Stansbury shoreline (~80 m higher than Great Salt Lake) until after about 24,000 cal yr BP. After the Stansbury shoreline, the lake rose almost 200 m to its highest level at the Bonneville shoreline by about 17,500 cal yr BP. This interpretation is different from previously published hydrographs, many of which show a relatively steady rise to near the Stansbury shoreline between 30,000 and 25,000 cal yr BP.