The shoreline preservation index as a relative-age dating tool for late pleistocene shorelines: An example from the bonneville basin,U.S.A.

This paper evaluates the utility of the shoreline preservation index (s.p.i.) for estimating the age of late Pleistocene palaeolake shorelines, the relative influence of various factors on shoreline preservation, and whether shoreline preservation varies significantly with shoreline aspect. Sampled shorelines from the 3300 km² study area, which includes the Skull, Tule and Puddle Valley portions of the Lake Bonneville basin, range in age from approximately 26 to 12 ka. Their total s.p.i. values range from 23 to 69 per cent, average 46 per cent, and do not vary significantly with shoreline aspect. The data from Skull and Tule Valleys, where studied shorelines are of known age, are analysed first in order to determine if there are statistically significant associations between variables representing shoreline preservation, age, degree of geomorphic development and duration of subaerial exposure. Pairwise correlation is then repeated using observations from all three valleys in order to determine how data from the Puddle Valley shorelines, whose hypothesized ages are not supported by radiocarbon analyses, affect the results. Results show that s.p.i. is useful as a relative-age dating tool, that the postulated ages of the Puddle Valley shorelines are ordinally correct, and that geomorphic development is not an important influence on the preservation of these late Pleistocene shorelines. The relative importance of shoreline age and the relative unimportance of duration of subaerial exposure with respect to shoreline preservation suggest that subaqueous processes play a more substantial role in shoreline obliteration than is generally suggested.