Basin-floor Lake Bonneville stratigraphic section as revealed in paleoseismic trenches at the Baileys Lake site, West Valley fault zone, Utah

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Abstract

 Recent paleoseismic trenching on the Granger fault of the West Valley fault zone in Salt Lake County, Utah, exposed a nearly complete section of late Pleistocene Lake Bonneville deposits, and highlights challenges related to accurate interpretation of basin-floor stratigraphy in the absence of numerical age constraints. We used radiocarbon and luminescence dating as well as ostracode biostratigraphy to provide chronostratigraphic control on the Lake Bonneville section exposed at the Baileys Lake trench site. The fault trenches exposed folded and faulted pre- to post- Bonneville sediments, including about 0.7 m of pre-Bonneville wetland/fluvial-marsh deposits, a nearly complete Bonneville section 2.5–4.0 m thick, and 0.4–1.0 m of post-Bonneville deposits consisting primarily of loess with minor scarp-derived colluvium. The relatively thin Bonneville section compares favorably with basin-floor Bonneville sections documented in boreholes and seismic reflection profiles beneath Great Salt Lake. Distinctive features of the Bonneville section at the Baileys Lake site include a sequence of turbidites in the upper part of the Bonneville transgressive deposits, evidence for an earthquake during Provo-shoreline time that disturbed lake-bottom sediments and destroyed any stratigraphic signature of the Bonneville Flood, tufa deposition associated with Gilbert-phase shoreline transgression, and stratigraphic evidence for two Gilbert transgressions across the site.
Publication type Book chapter
Publication Subtype Book Chapter
Title Basin-floor Lake Bonneville stratigraphic section as revealed in paleoseismic trenches at the Baileys Lake site, West Valley fault zone, Utah
Volume 41
Year Published 2012
Language English
Publisher Utah Geological Association
Contributing office(s) Geologic Hazards Science Center
Description 19 p.
Larger Work Type Book
Larger Work Title Selected topics in engineering and environmental geology in Utah
First page 175
Last page 193
Country United States
State Utah
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