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Timing of glaciation and last glacial maximum paleoclimate estimates from the Fish Lake Plateau, Utah

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

David W. Marchetti ,
M. Scott Harris ,
Christopher M. Bailey ,
Thure E. Cerling  and
Sarah Bergman
David W. Marchetti*
Affiliation:
Geology Program, Western State College of Colorado, 600 N. Adams St. Gunnison, CO 81230, USA
M. Scott Harris
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Environmental Sciences, College of Charleston, 66 George St. Charleston, SC 29424, USA
Christopher M. Bailey
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, College of William and Mary, 251 Jamestown Road, Williamsburg, VA 23185, USA
Thure E. Cerling
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah, 115 S. 1460 E. Room 383, Salt lake City, UT 84112, USA
Sarah Bergman
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Carleton College, One North College Street, Northfield, MN 55057, USA
*
⁎Corresponding author.
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Abstract

The High Plateaus of Utah include seven separate mountain ranges that supported glaciers during the Pleistocene. The Fish Lake Plateau, located on the eastern edge of the High Plateaus, preserves evidence of at least two glacial advances. Four cosmogenic 3He exposure ages of boulders in an older moraine range from 79 to 159 ka with a mean age of 129 ± 39 ka and oldest ages of 152 ± 3 and 159 ± 5 ka. These ages suggest deposition during the type Bull Lake glaciation and Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage (MIS) 6. Twenty boulder exposure ages from four different younger moraines indicate a local last glacial maximum (LGM) of ~ 21.1 ka, coincident with the type Pinedale glaciation and MIS 2. Reconstructed Pinedale-age glaciers from the Fish Lake Plateau have equilibrium-line altitudes ranging from 2950 to 3190 m. LGM summer temperature depressions for the Fish Lake Plateau range from −10.7 to −8.2°C, assuming no change in precipitation. Comparison of the Fish Lake summer temperature depressions to a regional dataset suggests that the Fish Lake Plateau may have had a slight increase (~ 1.5× modern) in precipitation during the LGM. A series of submerged ridges in Fish Lake were identified during a bathymetric survey and are likely Bull Lake age moraines.

Keywords

Alpine glaciationCosmogenic exposure-age datingColorado PlateauWestern U.S.
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 75 , Issue 1 , January 2011 , pp. 183 - 195
Copyright
University of Washington

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