Variation in the composition of Lake Bonneville marl: a potential key to lake-level fluctuations and paleoclimate

• Published in: Journal of paleolimnology 1994-01, Vol.11 (1), p.19-30
• Main Authors: Oviatt, Charles G., Habiger, Geoff D., Hay, James E.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Freshwater
• ISSN: 0921-2728; 1573-0417
• DOI: 10.1007/BF00683268

Lake Bonneville marl provides a stratigraphic record of lake history preserved in Pts carbonate minerals and stable isotopes. We have analyzed the marl in shallow cores taken at three localities in the Bonneville basin. Chronology for the cores is provided dated volcanic ashes, ostracode biostratigraphy, and a distinctive lithologic unit believed to have been deposited during and immediately after the Bonneville Flood. A core taken at Monument Point at the north shore of Great Salt Lake encompasses virtually the entire Bonneville lake cycle, including the 26.5 ka "Thiokol" basaltic ash at the base and deposits representing the overflowing stage at the Provo shoreline at the top of the core. Two cores from the Old River Bed area near the threshold between the Sevier basin and the Great Salt Lake basin (the main body of Lake Bonneville) represent deposition from the end of the Stansbury oscillation () 20 ka) to post-Provo time () 13 ka), and one core from near Sunstone Knoll in the Sevier basin provides a nearly complete record of the period when Lake Bonneville flooded the Sevier basin () 20-13 ka).