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Lake
Bonneville (which existed during marine oxygen isotope stage 2, 30-10
ka) occupied a topographically closed basin at the eastern margin of
the Great Basin in the Basin and Range physiographic province. Lake
Bonneville was the last deep lake cycle in the Bonneville basin (Fig
1). At its maximum height of 1552 m above sea level, the lake covered
an area of approximately 51,281 km2 (Currey et al., 1984) making it
the largest late Pleistocene lake in the Great Basin (Grayson, 1993).
Lake Bonneville began to rise about 30 ka and continued to transgress
with minor fluctuations to its highest level (1552 m), where it formed
the Bonneville shoreline sometime shortly after 15.3 ka (Oviatt et al.,
1992) (Fig. 3). At the Bonneville shoreline, the lake overflowed intermittently
near Red Rock Pass into the Snake River drainage of southeastern Idaho
(Currey et al., 1984). The overflow waters eventually caused hydraulic
failure of relatively unconsolidated sediments forming the rim near
Red Rock Pass and scoured a channel down to well-indurated materials.
This event released the catastrophic Bonneville Flood at approximately
15 ka (Currey and Oviatt, 1985; Jarrett and Malde, 1987). The flood
lowered lake level approximately 100 m to the Provo shoreline, where
the lake overflowed intermittently until the post-Provo regression (14
- 10 ka) ended the Bonneville deep lake cycle (Oviatt et al., 1992).
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