Mapping and dating of surficial deposits in the Bear Lake drainage basin were
undertaken to provide a geologic context for interpretation of cores taken
from deposits beneath Bear Lake, which sometimes receives water and sediment
from the glaciated Bear River and sometimes only from the small drainage basin
of Bear Lake itself. Analyses of core sediments by others are directed at (1)
constructing a high-resolution climate record for the Bear Lake area during
the late Pleistocene and Holocene, and (2) investigating the sources and weathering
history of sediments in the drainage basin. Surficial deposits in the upper
Bear River and Bear Lake drainage basins are different in their overall compositions,
although they do overlap. In the upper Bear River drainage, Quaternary deposits
derived from glaciation of the Uinta Range contain abundant detritus weathered
from Precambrian quartzite, whereas unglaciated tributaries downstream mainly
contribute finer sediment weathered from much younger, more friable sedimentary rocks. In contrast, carbonate rocks capped by a carapace of Tertiary sediments
dominate the Bear Lake drainage basin.
Version 1.0
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| Posted July 2005 |
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1U.S. Geological Survey, Federal Center, Box 25046, MS-980, Denver, CO 80225
2Department of Geology, Northern Arizona University, P.O. Box 4099, Flagstaff, AZ 86011-4099
3U.S. Geological Survey, National Center, 12201 Sunrise Valley Drive, MS-981, Reston, VA 20192 |
