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A new age for the initiation of an overflowing Lake Gunnison and the regressive phase of Lake Bonneville

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2026

Christopher D. Bradbury ,
Charles G. Oviatt Open the ORCID record for Charles G. Oviatt [Opens in a new window] ,
Joel Q.G. Spencer ,
Paul Jewell ,
Timothy J. Parker  and
Diego P. Fernandez
Christopher D. Bradbury
Affiliation:
Prison Education Program, Salt Lake Community College, Sandy, UT 84070, USA
Charles G. Oviatt*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA
Joel Q.G. Spencer
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA
Paul Jewell
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA
Timothy J. Parker
Affiliation:
Other Orb, LLC, Los Angeles, CA 90042, USA
Diego P. Fernandez
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA
*
Corresponding author: Charles G. Oviatt; Email: joviatt@ksu.edu
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Abstract

An ∼0.2-km-long gravel spit (1398 m above sea level) at Sunstone Knoll in the Sevier basin, Utah, prograded into Lake Gunnison, a shallow lake in the Sevier basin that overflowed northward into the Great Salt Lake basin during the regressive phase of Lake Bonneville. Six radiocarbon dates for Anodonta shells and one optically stimulated luminescence age, which overlaps with the uncertainty range of the radiocarbon dates, yield an age for spit development and therefore, the initiation of Lake Gunnison overflow, at ∼15.5 cal ka. This age is older than the age of a larger spit 8 m lower in elevation that ended its progradation in Lake Gunnison about 12 cal ka. Strontium isotope ratios of the Anodonta shells from Sunstone Knoll (0.71049, 0.71059, 0.71064) are within the range of values for Lake Gunnison. The new date from Sunstone Knoll is consistent with cosmogenic dates from the Provo shoreline for the initiation of the regressive phase of Lake Bonneville (about 70 m higher than the spit). The major climatic shift, which caused the lake water budget and hydrology to change from overflowing while the Provo shoreline was forming to closed-basin conditions during the regressive phase, occurred by about 16.5 cal ka.

Keywords

Lake BonnevilleRegressive phaseLake GunnisonGeochronologySunstone Knoll

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Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 131 , May 2026 , pp. 66 - 76
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© The Author(s), 2026. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Quaternary Research Center.

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