Pluvial Lakes

Climate and Chronology of the Last Glacial-Interglacial Transition, North-Central Great Basin, U.S.A.: My colleague Ben Laabs (North Dakota State University) and I were funded by the NSF-P2C2 program in 2009 to investigate the timing and spatial pattern of events during the last deglaciation in the northern Great Basin. This project had multiple components including reconstructing ice masses in this region during the Angel Lake Glaciation, numerical modeling to determine the paleoclimate responsible for these glaciers, cosmogenic surface-exposure dating to determine the timing of the Angel Lake glacial maximum and pace of the subsequent retreat, and dating and numerical modeling of pluvial lake deposits. A second award from P2C2 in 2017, to me and Ben along with Middlebury colleague Will Amidon, supported numerical modeling of Lake Bonneville, additional cosmogenic dating and lake modeling in northern Nevada, and development of a luminescence-based chronology for the regression of pluvial Lake Clover.  Recent publications from this work include a paper in Quaternary presenting the Lake Clover chronology, and a paper in Quaternary Science Reviews on a Holocene hydroclimate reconstruction from dunes on the former floor of Lake Clover.