Lake Bonneville, the Great Basin's largest late-Pleistocene lake, reached a maximum depth of about 1,000 feet. Its highstand and much of its shrinkage occurred before the Younger Dryas, although lake levels remained low during that interval. The modern Great Salt Lake, its principal remnant, averages roughly 15 feet deep and can reach about 40 feet; some shallow areas are only a few feet deep. Great Basin basins are tectonic depressions where sediment and evaporites accumulated to form broad, flat playa surfaces. Deglaciation also increased freshwater and sediment delivery through the Mississippi system to the Gulf of Mexico, changing Gulf sedimentation rates.
Lake Bonneville reached 1,000 feet deep; much of its shrinkage predates the Younger Dryas
Key facts
- Lake Bonneville, the Great Basin's largest late-Pleistocene lake, reached a maximum depth of about 1,000 feet.
- Lake Bonneville's highstand occurred roughly 16,000–17,000 years ago, and much of its regression preceded the Younger Dryas, about 12,900–11,700 years ago.
- The modern Great Salt Lake averages about 15 feet deep and can reach about 40 feet; only some shallow areas are just a few feet deep.
- Great Basin basins are fault-bounded tectonic depressions. Sediment and evaporites accumulated within them and helped form the broad, flat playa surfaces.
- Deglaciation increased freshwater and sediment delivery through the Mississippi River system to the Gulf of Mexico, changing Gulf sedimentation rates.
Sources
Lake Bonneville - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
Lake Bonneville was the largest Late Pleistocene paleolake in the Great Basin of western North America. It was a pluvial lake that formed in response to an ...
Utah's ancient Lake Bonneville holds clues to the West's changing ...hcn.org
Lake Bonneville is a perfect place to study how wetness in the Great Basin changed as a result of those temperature swings: The lake's water ...
[PDF] Lake Bonneville: Geology of Northern Utah Valley Utahpubs.usgs.gov
only secure source of irrigation water when water was most needed; on the other hand, there were flood dis- charges into Great Salt Lake in nearly every year.
Lake Bonneville flood | Idaho State Universityisu.edu
Lake Bonneville was the largest stage of the ancient lake that is now the Great Salt Lake. After the Lake Bonneville Flood, the lake fell to the Provo shoreline ...
Lake Bonneville Ice Age Safari | Natural History Museum of Utahnhmu.utah.edu
Lake Bonneville formed around 30,000 years ago when the climate became colder and wetter. Glacial melt water, rain and rivers filled the Salt ...
Great Salt Lake & Lake Bonneville - Utah Geological Surveygeology.utah.gov
Lake Bonneville was about 325 miles long, 135 miles wide, and had a maximum depth of over 1,000 feet. It contained many islands that are the present-day ...
Lake Bonneville - ArcGIS StoryMapsstorymaps.arcgis.com
The elevation of the lake was about 5,090 feet at its highest (as measured near Red Rock Pass in southeastern Idaho), more than 1,000 feet deeper than present ...
The Snowplow, Lake Bonneville, Utahserc.carleton.edu
The lake was hydrographically open, or overflowing, during its higher phases (>300 m deep at its maximum) (Fig. 2). The entire history of Lake Bonneville ...
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