OVERVIEW MAPS and KEY RESOURCES

Click Map to Enlarge

Map Credit (left) : Copyright 1995 Ray Sterner, Johns Hopkins University, Applied Physics Lab - as shown on the Color Landform Atlas of the US). Map Credit (right) :USGS website on the Great Salt Lake.

Do you need weather information on the region?

See UTAH MesoWest courtesy of the University of Utah or Utah Climate Center, Utah State University. See also the National Weather Service - GSL Marina - north. See also scenic and weather CAMS around Utah and the GSLB.

Learn More: There are many more educational resources about the GSLB than can be introduced in this virtual tour but here are a few important ones:

If you have suggestions, questions or corrections please contact me--Robert E. Ford--at rford@llu.edu.

SOME KEY RESOURCES:

For information on the water and weather forecast situation in the Great Salt Lake Basin see David James's Weather Links or the USGS Water Resources page.

• The Utah State University's discussion of the GSL as a Terminal lake--part of the Water Atlas of Utah.
• The Wetlands and Riparian Center of Utah.
• The salt industry and salinity (from the Salt Institute)

Are you looking for information on impacts on the Great Salt Lake ecosystem such as the proposed Legacy Highway?  Go to the Friends of the Great Salt Lake or Envision Utah a longterm growth planning project. See also Specialists and Organizations or Select Sources.

• See especially work by Don R. Currey, University of Utah and his many students and colleagues. See the recent memorial fieldtrip tour (#25) held in his honor at the GSA meetings in Salt Lake City (August 2005) organized by Holly Godsey.
  

• See Holly Godsey's recent GSA presentations on Geoantiquities (also video outreach and education) and her paper on Stockman Bar: The Stockton Bar, a Geologic Treasure in Tooele County.

• See also work over the years by Genevieve Atwood, first woman to head Utah's Geological Survey. See her recent presentation on the Lakes of the Bonneville Basin - presented at the GSA meetings in Salt Lake City (August 17, 2005) and her ESRI User Conference presentation - Columnar Display of Multiple Attributes of a Great Salt Lake Shoreline.

Click on image below to see satellite images of changes in the lake by the EROS/Earthshots site. 

Overview and Links

The western half of Utah falls within a region called The Great Basin or Basin and Range Province (see map of georegions). 

The mountain barrier along the eastern side of the basin--The Wasatch Front--is part of the Rocky Mountain Province and the very active Intermountain Seismic Belt. 

See the photo of a severe rupture zone along the Wasatch Fault near Nephi, Utah--note  the diagram of a block fault system (courtesy Utah Comprehensive Emergency Management). 

The Great Basin at one time contained a very large Pleistocene freshwater lake called Lake Bonneville. Today The Great Salt Lake, a remnant of Lake Bonnevile is saline.

This fascinating and unusual ecological and hydrographical region--the Great Salt Lake Basin (GSLB) --is the focus of this tour. From this page you can explore various aspects of the basin from its geological history, ecology, hydrology, and human-environment dimensions. Come back often as we add more resources.

MORE RESOURCES AND SPECIALISTS:

• The Great Salt Lake Project at Westminster College of Salt Lake City. See some of the materials by Ty Harrison a biological ecologist and his students such as the Great Salt Lake Playa Foodweb Project. Several modules are contained on various themes and issues.

• Resources on freshwater ecology of the GSL in the course at Utah State University (AWER 4500) by Amy Marcarelli.

• The Great Salt Lake, Utah - USGS with its links to information on topics such as: 
  • Changing lake elevations and other hydrological facts.
  • Changing datums for the lake.
  • Groundwater Atlas of the Great Basin and Utah Water Atlas.
  • Aquatic ecology and habitat issues such as the ecology of brine shrimp, birds and wildlife , salinity and water quality , planktonic and benthic habitats, boating and recreation.
  • Water quality research results such as Circular 1236 (2004)--NAWQA Program: The Great Salt Lake Basins NAWQA--see Utah Water Science Center.
  • USGS Bibliography on the GSL.

 

• Get the booklet Geology & Antelope Island State Park, Utah, 1988. Other maps are listed in the Great Salt Lake Map Exercise.

• UGS (Utah Geological Survey) - Great Salt Lake Resources & Questions along with Publications. 

GLOSSARY
BIBLIOGRAPHY
SPECIALISTS