Orographic origin of ancient Lake Bonneville
Introductory In a recent inquiry into the derivation of certain desert features of the Great basin, Great Salt Lake, and especially its precursor, the vaster Lake Bonneville, presented some seemingly anomalies which from a perusal of the literature alone could not be readily adjusted to the modern genetic scheme of pliysiographical development. This circumstance eventually led to several visits to the Utah field and a critical examination on the ground of the published data relating to the geologic history of the old desert lake. Concerning the origin of Lake Bonneville so many incongruities were found as to compel the abandonment of the prevailing hypothesis. Instead of a genesis due to conditions of moister climate induced by a Glacial epoch, the facts gathered seem to point not only to a pre-Glacial date of the lake’s birth, but to a diastrophic rather than a climatic cause for its existence. That the origin of . . .