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River Incision, Circulation, and Wind Regime of Pleistocene Lake Bonneville, USA

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River Incision, Circulation, and Wind Regime of Pleistocene Lake Bonneville, USA Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 293 (2010) 41–50 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/palaeo River incision, circulation, and wind regime of Pleistocene Lake Bonneville, USA Paul W. Jewell Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, United States article info abstract Article history: Pleistocene Lake Bonneville of the western U.S. and its associated alluvial systems present a unique Received 26 January 2010 opportunity to understand the relationship between prevailing winds of the time, lake circulation, and river Received in revised form 22 April 2010 incision. The lake underwent a catastrophic flooding event ∼18,300 yr B.P. resulting in the incision of Accepted 26 April 2010 streams entering the lake along its eastern border. Incision patterns of twelve streams and rivers suggest that Available online 31 May 2010 they were influenced by the prevailing circulation in the lake at the time. In order to match patterns of river incisions, simulations of lake circulation were performed with a state-of-the-art numerical model for the Keywords: Great Basin maximum transgressive (Bonneville) lake elevation. Simulations were conducted using the forcing of Lake Bonneville westerly and easterly prevailing winds. Simulated circulation can be described in terms of simple Pleistocene climate geostrophic balances in which the currents are generally cyclonic (counter clockwise) for westerly winds Paleowinds and anti-cyclonic (clockwise) for easterly winds. Irregularities in lake shorelines and bathymetry cause localized variation of this general pattern. Comparison of model output with the deflected stream incision patterns suggest that prevailing winds during the Pleistocene in the Great Basin of North America were westerly and that, unlike the interior of North America, the continental ice sheet did not exert significant influence on the climatological wind patterns of the Great Basin. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction component considerably further south than the modern jet stream (Kutzbach and Wright, 1985; Manabe and Broccoli, 1985; Rind, 1987; Paleoclimate studies have long benefited from a symbiotic Bush and Philander, 1999; Whitlock et al., 2001). If so, increased relationship between numerical models and paleoclimate proxies. precipitation caused by storms tracking along the southern arm of the While this relationship has worked particularly well for understand- jet stream resulted in a significantly wetter climate that led to large ing climate variables such as precipitation and temperature, field pluvial lakes in the Great Basin of North America. Recent, more detailed evidence of paleowind direction and magnitude is more difficult. regional circulation models (RCMs) suggest the northern branch of the Analysis of dunes and associated sedimentary features is the most jet was stronger than the southern branch during the LGM and that both obvious and widely employed methodology (e.g., Allen, 1982; arms show distinct seasonality (Bromwich et al., 2004, 2005). Kocurek, 1999). Fallen trees can provide indications of ancient wind The GCM and RCM studies also suggest that continental ice sheets set directions where they are preserved in the geologic record (Allen, up a very large, quasi-permanent high pressure cell over much of North 1998). Ancient pyroclastic deposits sometimes have asymmetric America that produced anticyclonic surface circulation. The prevailing thickness that can be used to infer wind direction (Fisher and surface winds over much of the central part of the continent were Schmincke, 1984; Oviatt and Nash, 1989). More recently, isotopic and predominantly easterly (Kutzbach and Guetter, 1986; Thompson et al, geochemical analyses of loess and dune deposits have shown promise 1993) with a strong katabatic component during the winter (Bromwich in understanding the provenance and hence, wind direction (Aleinik- et al., 2004). These model results are corroborated by studies of eolian off et al., 2008; Muhs et al., 2008). The sediments, shorelines and features in Saskatchewan (David, 1981), Alaska (Lea and Waythomas, geomorphology of lakes have occasionally been used to estimate wind 1990), the Pacific Northwest (Barnosky et al., 1987) and New England strength (Krist and Schaetz, 2001; Adams, 2003). (Thorson and Schile, 1995) as well as indirect evidence from continental Both field and modeling studies suggest that the wind regime during diatoms found off the coast of North America (Sancetta et al., 1992). The the last glacial maximum (LGM) was considerably different from that of field and climate model studies are contradicted by paleowind analysis the modern atmosphere. General circulation models (GCMs) indicate of Pleistocene dunes in the Great Plains of North America that indicate that continental ice sheets modified the climate of the northern prevailing winds were from the west in approximately the same fashion hemisphere by splitting the jet stream and steering the southern as modern atmospheric circulation patterns (Wells, 1983; Muhs and Bettis, 2000; Aleinikoff et al., 2008; Muhs et al., 2008). Particularly problematic is atmospheric circulation in the inter- E-mail address: [email protected]. mountain west of North America where mountain topography 0031-0182/$ – see front matter © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2010.04.028 42 P.W. Jewell / Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 293 (2010) 41–50 produces localized variations in surface winds unrelated to mean The nature and duration of the Bonneville flood has been the global circulation patterns. Paleowind analysis in the Great Basin subject of paleohydraulic studies. The volume of water of the flood is region of western North America during the LGM is especially sparse. estimated to be ∼4750 km3 (O'Conner, 1993)andmaximum The complex topography of the region and coarse grid spacing of discharge was ∼0.8–1.0×106 m3 s− 1, a discharge comparable to the GCMs and RCMs make conclusions of model results suspect. The most modern Amazon River (Jarrett and Malde, 1987). Were flow to persist detailed RCM atmospheric model of North America to date for the at maximum discharge, the flood would have lasted ∼2 months; in all LGM suggests that the prevailing winds in the Great Basin were likelihood, the discharge decreased over a considerably longer period easterly, but very weak (Bromwich et al., 2004, 2005). of time as the hydraulic head during the flood at Zenda was also decreasing with time (O'Conner, 1993). Although the flood produced 2. Lake Bonneville and associated alluvial systems a distinctive marker bed in the deep sediments of the lake (e.g., Oviatt et al., 1994) and likely had a significant impact on lake circulation in Lake Bonneville was the largest pluvial lake of the Pleistocene the immediate vicinity of the Zenda threshold, the main physical period in the Great Basin of the western United States. The lake is effect in the larger portions of the lake would have been a gradual believed to have formed in response to the regional climate which was lowering of lake level over a period of weeks or months. both wetter and cooler during the LGM (e.g., Thompson et al., 1993). A number of streams and rivers discharged into Lake Bonneville. The bathymetry of the lake can be roughly separated into a large, deep The most important of these include the Bear, Weber, and Provo Rivers eastern basin; a large, but somewhat shallower western basin; and the which today constitute the major freshwater inputs to Lake Bonne- relatively small, shallow Sevier basin to the south (Fig. 1). ville's successor, the Great Salt Lake. The Sevier River was no doubt an While the Bonneville basin has seen a number of lake transgres- equally important contributor to the water balance of Lake Bonneville sions and regressions during the Quaternary, the most recent lake although today it discharges into the Sevier playa to the south of the cycle is believed to have begun ∼30–32,000 yr B.P. The maximum Great Salt Lake basin. Lesser rivers and streams were concentrated transgression of this lake cycle established the Bonneville shoreline along the eastern edge of the lake, where the high mountains and between ∼18,300 and 17,800 yr B.P. During this time of the maximum mountain glaciers of the Wasatch Front provided abundant freshwater transgression, there is evidence of sapping and groundwater seepage sources. River discharge from the Weber and American Fork Rivers at at the Zenda threshold in southern Idaho that was a prelude to a the time of Lake Bonneville is estimated to have been approximately catastrophic flood (Janecke, pers. comm.). Following the flood, the double modern discharge rates (Lemons et al., 1996), a somewhat lake stabilized at the Provo shoreline between 17,400 and perhaps as greater number than the results of RCM simulations of the “lake effect” late as 14,300 yr B.P. (Oviatt, 1997; Godsey et al., 2005). produced by Lake Bonneville (Hostetler et al., 1994). Where streams enter lakes, they are subject to two dominant influences: (1) the Coriolis force which in the northern hemisphere tends to deflect river discharge to the right (e.g., Masse and Murthy, 1990) and (2) currents in the lake (Fig. 2). During the period in which the Bonneville flood was taking place, rivers and streams entering the lake between the Bonneville and Provo shorelines would have been deflected in a fashion reflecting these forces and thus be recorded as incisions in the poorly consolidated Bonneville sediments between Fig. 1. Location and paleobathymetry of Lake Bonneville at the maximum transgressive (Bonneville) shoreline elevation. Paleobathymetric data have been corrected for isostatic rebound (Bills et al., 2002). The major sub-basins of the lake are show along with the location of the Bear River (B) and Weber River (W). The east–west lineations in the western basin may represent Holocene alluvial features. Outlined areas refer to Fig. 2. Idealized flow of a stream into a large lake where is can be deflected to the right the detailed areas shown in Fig.
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