May 21, 2025 - Field Trip on Lake Bonneville, the GSL, and LGM Glaciers of the Wasatch @ LCC (D20)

Another long (10 hour) day of excellent geologizing with some of the most well trained minds of Quaternary Geology in the region including Ben Laabs (Glacial and Quaternary geology/geomorphology), Jack Oviatt (Bonneville history), Paul Jewell (All Quaternary geology local to the region), and Genevieve Atwood (GSL shorelines). There were just three stops, but we spent all day talking Geomorphology. Fun times with everyone involved including Dr. Rachel Atkins (UVU) and Kristen Smith (BYU) and like minded geologists from Montana, Vermont, Idaho, California, New Mexico, and Beyond! 

Learning and Pondering:

I am slightly embarrassed to say that I either forgot or didn't previously know that the primary reason that Bonneville shorelines likely exceeded the height of previous pluvial lakes in the basin is because that sometime (after 30ka) during the lake cycle volcanics diverted the Bear River into the Bonneville basin increasing the drainage area (and discharge) significantly (more than 1/3). 

Other interesting lake ponderings were about the reason for the hugely broad platform of the Bonneville level of the Lake on the north side of Traverse Ridge and whether or not that side of the ridge is also normal fault bounded. I cannot get past the uniform uplifted (footwall?) block with very little drainage incision, it looks like a fault block rising up, clearly steeper than the angle you'd expect for a non-fault-based hillslope. But, we talked about whether prior to Bonneville perhaps there were not more channels present that were washed away by lake shore action. Also, curiously at this location there is quite a bit of shoreline deposition (offshore on the bench) in addition to the cutting. People asked about the origin of the sediments and relation ships to glacial and fluvial sources up long-shore drift as well as the source being nearby landslides just to the east along Traverse Ridge. Curiously there is a marked difference between the amount and spacing of rills above Bonneville and above Provo lake levels. I guess this is due to the Bonneville-deposited shoreline deposits offshore that are easier to incise (above Provo level) than the weathered and fractured bedrock above the Bonneville level.

I still think a great undergraduate research project would be to use GIS analyses to quantify rill-derived fan volumes and calculate erosion rates since various lake levels on various substrates. Could be a good MS project really. 

At LCC we discussed the possible interplay between the Lake and Glacial Moraines, answer unresolved. 

A GSL we discuss ooid formation and modern shorelines and witnessed shoreline strands entirely defined by carcasses of deal brine fly larvae! So weird! 

here is a photo from the last stop where we are all trying to be the shorelines of the basin: 



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