Collaborative Research: Undocumented Shorelines of Lake Bonneville: New Paleoclimatic and Hydrodynamic Interpretations

主要调查人员：犹他州盐湖城犹他州大学地质和地球物理学副教授Paul W.Jewell；犹他州大学盐湖城分校地理学助理教授Kathen Nicoll；堪萨斯州立大学曼哈顿分校地质学教授Charles G.Oviatt；犹他州大学曼哈顿分校的地球科学家和堪萨斯州立大学的地球科学家将对更新世湖泊进行基础研究，这是美国西部最后一个冰川期最大的湖泊，也是现代大盐湖的核心。尽管博纳维尔湖过去18,000年的记录被很好地记录下来，但对早期(18,000-30,000年前)的了解很少，因为这些沉积物被更年轻的上升的湖水或随后的侵蚀所破坏或叠加。这个由美国国家科学基金会资助的项目将应用各种分析工具，包括探地雷达、三维数字摄影、流体动力学建模和极少量有机物质的放射性碳测年，以了解我们对景观动态的理解，这些景观动态长期以来一直困扰着研究人员，在这段记录不足的博纳维尔湖记录中。博纳维尔湖及其相关沉积物是美国西部山间重要的文化和经济地貌。湖泊沉积的沙子和砾石形成了重要的地下水含水层，并为该地区的大部分地区提供了综合资源。被研究的博纳维尔湖时期是地球-S气候史上的一个关键时期，因为它标志着从冰期非常寒冷、干燥的全球气候向现代较温暖的间冰期气候的过渡。博纳维尔湖地貌变化的记录对于研究大盆地省的这种气候转变至关重要，并将提供北美最大沙漠中长期水文变化速度的详细信息。

Title: Undocumented Shorelines of Lake Bonneville: New Paleoclimatic and Hydrodynamic InterpretationsPrincipal Investigators: Paul W. Jewell, Associate Professor of Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah; Kathleen Nicoll, Assistant Professor of Geography, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah; Charles G. Oviatt, Professor of Geology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas Earth scientists at the University of Utah and Kansas State University will undertake fundamental research regarding Pleistocene Lake Bonneville, which was the largest lake in the western United States during the last glacial period, and the precursor to the modern Great Salt Lake. While the Lake Bonneville record for the past 18,000 years is reasonably well documented, the earlier period (18,000-30,000 years ago) is poorly understood because those deposits have been destroyed or overprinted by younger, rising lake waters, or subsequent erosion. This NSF-funded project will apply a variety of analytical tools including ground penetrating radar, 3-dimensional digital photography, hydrodynamic modeling, and radiocarbon dating of extremely small amounts of organic material to inform our understanding of landscape dynamics that have long puzzled researchers in this poorly documented period of the Lake Bonneville record. Lake Bonneville and its associated sediments are culturally and economically important landforms of the Intermountain Western United States. Sands and gravels deposited by the lake form important groundwater aquifers, and provide aggregate resources to much of the region. The time period of Lake Bonneville being studied is a critical period in Earth?s climate history as it marked the transition from a very cold, dry global climate during glacial times to the warmer, interglacial climate of the modern era. The records of landscape change at Lake Bonneville are vital for studying this climatic transition in the Great Basin province, and will provide details about rates of long-term hydrologic change within North America's largest desert.