Revisiting the deformed high shoreline of Lake Bonneville

Abstract

Since G. K. Gilbert's foundational work in the eastern Great Basin during the late 1800s, the late Pleistocene Lake Bonneville (30-10 ka) has been recognized as a natural laboratory for various Quaternary studies, including lithospheric deformation due to surface loading and climate-forced water balance changes since the Last Glacial Maximum (∼21 ka). Such studies rely on knowledge of the elevations of Lake Bonneville's paleoshoreline features and depositional landforms, which record a complex history of lake level variations induced by deglacial climate change. In this paper, we present (1) a new compilation of 178 elevation measurements of shoreline features marking Lake Bonneville's greatest areal extent measured using high-precision differential GPS (dGPS), and (2) a reconstructed outline of the highest shoreline based on dGPS measurements, submeter-resolution aerial imagery, topographic digital elevation models (DEMs), and field observations. We also (3) devise a simplified classification scheme and method for standardizing shoreline elevation measurement for different shoreline morphologies that includes constraints on the position of the still water level (SWL) relative to each feature type. The deformation pattern described by these shoreline features can help resolve the relative effects of local hydro-isostasy due to the lake load and regional solid earth deflection due to the Laurentide ice sheet, with potential implications for Earth rheology, glacial isostatic adjustment, and eustatic sea level change.

TerraceM-2: A Matlab® Interface for Mapping and Modeling Marine and Lacustrine Terraces

“…Despite the limited age constraints and the possible uncertainties in our correlation method, this example highlights the applicability of TerraceM-2 morphometric analyses in mapping lacustrine shorelines and in efforts to detect and measure subtle manifestations of surface deformation. These new approach open new possibilities for potential application in other terminal lakes exhibiting emerged lacustrine shorelines, such as at Uyuni salt lake in Bolivia and lake Bonneville in US among others (Chen and Maloof, 2017;Zeilinger et al, 2018).…”

LakeCC: a tool for efficiently identifying lake basins with application to palaeogeographic reconstructions of North America

“…Major PD lakes are shown as thin black outlines with a black label: At – Athabasca; Er – Erie; GB – Great Bear Lake; GSa – Great Salt Lake; GSl – Great Slave Lake; Hu – Huron; LW – Lake of the Woods; Mb – Manitoba; Mi – Michigan; Ni – Nippigon; On – Ontario; Rd – Reindeer; Su – Superior; Wi – Winnipeg; Wp – Winnipegosis. The red outlines represent the basins of major palaeolakes discussed in the paper: Ag – Agassiz (Teller and Leverington, ); Bv – Bonneville (Chen and Maloof, ); Lh – Lahontan (Reheis, ); MC – McConnell (Smith, ); MK – McKenzie (Smith, ); Ms – Missoula (Hanson et al ., ); Pe – Peace (Mathews, ; Hickin et al ., ). Areas where surficial sediments (Fullerton et al ., ; Soller et al ., ; Geological Survey of Canada, ) indicate a lacustrine history are shown in brown.…”

“…These are located in the Great Basin, which at present is the largest endorheic basin in North America and is characterised by an arid climate. The climatic conditions in this area were different in the past, as strandlines and lake sediments provide evidence of large ancient lakes (Chen and Maloof, ). These are assumed to have evaporated as the climate became drier (Reheis, ).…”

Constraints on mantle viscosity and Laurentide ice sheet evolution from pluvial paleolake shorelines in the western United States

“…Because Currey (1982) carried his study out prior to GPS availability, approximately half of his 202 sites were remeasured with modern differential GPS technology (Chen & Maloof, 2017). 203 Therefore, while we use the Currey (1982) dataset of Provo shoreline features in its entirety, we 204 combine both datasets by Currey (1982) and Chen and Maloof (2017) for our analysis of 205…”

“…Chen and Maloof (2017) to determine SWL constraints from elevational measurements of 229 shoreline features gathered byCurrey (1982) and Adams et al (1999) (see SM for details). 230 231 Because we are solely interested in understanding the deformation pattern induced by lake 232 rebound and a possible regional tilt, we also remove from our analysis shoreline features which 233 are known to have, or are strongly suspected of having, undergone a non-negligible amount of 234 local, post-depositional displacement by other processes.…”