Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T21:26:17.895Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A Revised Chronology for the Last Pleistocene Lake Cycle in the Central Lahontan Basin

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Robert S. Thompson
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912-1846 USA
Larry Benson
Affiliation:
U.S. Geological Survey, P.O. Box 25046, M.S. 403, Denver Federal Center, Denver, Colorado 80225 USA
Eugene M. Hattori
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Nevada State Museum, Capitol Complex, Carson City, Nevada 89710 USA

Abstract

Radiocarbon dates of plant materials from packrat middens in caves below the elevation of the last high stand of Pleistocene Lake Lahontan, in conjunction with radiocarbon dates of ancient archaeological materials, provide evidence that the last high stand terminated before 12,070 yr B.P. This new information suggests that the last major fluctuation in the level of Lake Lahontan was approximately synchronous with those of Lakes Bonneville and Russell, and that these three lakes probably responded contemporaneously to the same regional paleoclimatic changes.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Benson, L. V. 1978 Fluctuation in the level of pluvial Lake Lahontan during the last 40,000 years. Quaternary Research, 9 300 318 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benson, L. V. 1981 Paleoclimatic significance of lake-level fluctuations in the Lahontan Basin. Quaternary Research, 16 390 403 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benson, L. V., Mifflin, M. 1984 Bathymetry of Basins Occupied by Pleistocene Lake Lahontan, Nevada and California, United States Geological Survey Open File ReportGoogle Scholar
Born, S. M. 1972 Late Quaternary History, Deltaic Sedimentation, and Mudlump Formation at Pyramid Lake, Nevada, Center for Water Resources Research, Desert Research Institute, University of Nevada System Google Scholar
Broecker, W. S., Kaufman, A. 1965 Radiocarbon chronology of Lake Lahontan and Lake Bonneville. II. Great Basin. Geological Survey of America Bulletin, 76 537 566 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broecker, W. S., Orr, P. C. 1958 Radiocarbon chronology of Lake Lahontan and Lake Bonneville. Geological Survey of America Bulletin, 69 1009 1032 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broecker, W. S., Walton, A. 1959 The geochemistry of C14 in freshwater systems. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 16 15 38 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, J. O. 1978 Quaternary Tephrochronology of the Lake Lahontan Area, Nevada and California, Nevada Archeological Survey Research Paper No. 7Google Scholar
Davis, J. O. 1982 Bits and pieces: The last 35,000 years in the Lahontan Basin. Madsen, D. B., O'Connell, J. F. Man and Environment in the Great Basin, . Society for American Archaeology Papers No. 2.53 75 Google Scholar
Davis, J. O. 1983 Level of Lake Lahontan during deposition of the Trego Hot Springs Tephra about 23,400 years ago. Quaternary Research, 19 312 324 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hartman, G., Venstrom, C. 1941 A Onehundred-year record of Truckee River runoff estimated from changes in levels and volumes of Pyramid and Winnemucca Lakes. American Geophysical Union Transactions, 22 71 90 Google Scholar
Hattori, E. M. 1982 The Archaeology of Falcon Hill, Winnemucca Lake, Washoe County, Nevada, Nevada State Museum Anthropological Papers Number 18Google Scholar
Heizer, R. F. 1951 Preliminary report on the Leonard Rockshelter Site, Pershing County, Nevada. American Antiquity, 17 89 98 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lajoie, K. R. 1968 Quaternary Stratigraphy and Geologic History of Mono Basin, eastern California. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of California Berkeley Google Scholar
Morrison, R. B. 1965 Quaternary geology of the Great Basin. Wright, H. F. Jr., Frey, D. G. The Quaternary of the United States, Princeton Univ. Press Princeton, N.J., 265 285 Google Scholar
Morrison, R. B. 1970 Conflicting pluvial-lake evidence on climatic changes between 14 and 9 millennia ago, with particular reference to Lakes Lahontan, Bonneville, and Searles. AMQUA Abstracts, 1 97 98 Google Scholar
Morrison, R. B., Frye, J. C. 1965 Correlation of the Middle and Late Quaternary Successions of the Lake Lahontan, Lake Bonneville, Rocky Mountain (Wasatch Range), Southern Great Plains, and Eastern Midwest Areas, Mackay School of Mines, University of Nevada Nevada Bureau of Mines Report 9Google Scholar
Scott, W. E., McCoy, W. D., Shroba, R. R., Rubin, M. 1983 Reinterpretation of the exposed record of the last two cycles of Lake Bonneville, western United States. Quaternary Research, 20 261 285 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, G. I., Street-Perrott, A. F. 1983 Pluvial lakes of the western United States. Wright, H. E. Jr., Porter, S. C. Late-Quaternary Environments of the United States, Vol. 1 Univ. of Minnesota Press Minneapolis 190 212 “The Late Pleistocene”Google Scholar
Spencer, R. J., Baedecker, M. J., Eugster, H. P., Forester, R. M., Goldhaber, M. B., Jones, B. F., Kelts, K., Mckenzie, J., Madsen, D. B., Rettig, S. L., Rubin, M., Bowser, C. J. 1984 Great Salt Lake, and precursors, Utah: The last 30,000 years. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, 86 321 334 CrossRefGoogle Scholar