Major levels of Great Salt Lake and Lake Bonneville (M-73)

By: D. R. Currey, G. Atwood, and D. R. Mabey

Great Salt Lake has intrigued and challenged the explorers, tourists, petroleum geologists, mineral extractors, brine-shrimp harvesters, transportation engineers, health professionals, wildlife biologists, meteorologists, climatologists, hydrologists, geologists, urban planners, and government officials who have tried to understand or control it. Management of the lake and predication of lake levels are of particular concern since its sudden rise in 1983, which destroyed or damaged millions of dollars of property that year alone by flooding and also created severe high ground-water and drainage problems in the adjacent lowlands. Rising levels of Great Salt Lake must be understood as a geologic hazard if management of the lake is to be effective. Most attempts to predict future levels of the lake for management purposes have relied upon the 140-year historic record. This map summarizes geologic and historic evidence of the most significant lake levels and flood plains of the Great Salt Lake basin over the last 32,000 years.

Other Information:
Published: 1984
Plates: 1 pl.
Scale: 1:750,000
Location: Beaver, Box Elder, Cache, Davis, Iron, Juab, Millard, Morgan, Salt Lake, Sanpete, Sevier, Tooele, Utah, and Weber Counties
Media Type: Rolled Map