H163-0009
Terrestrial water storage change in the Great Basin from the Last Glacial Maximum to the present day

Tuesday, 15 December 2020
Poster
Kerry Lee Callaghan1, Andrew D Wickert1, Richard Barnes2 and Ying Fan3, (1)University of Minnesota, Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences and Saint Anthony Falls Laboratory, Minneapolis, MN, United States, (2)University of California Berkeley, Energy Research Group, BIDS, and EECS, Berkeley, CA, United States, (3)Rutgers University, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Piscataway, NJ, United States
Abstract:
The Great Basin in the US once held the large pluvial Lake Bonneville, and today holds the Great Salt Lake in an arid closed basin. The contrasting hydrologic conditions suggest that this region is highly sensitive to past and likely future climate change.

In this study, we use the Terrestrial Water Storage Model (TWSM) to assess changes in lakes and groundwater from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, ~21,000 years ago) to the present. TWSM simulates dynamic lake levels by balancing surface-water routing into and across enclosed depressions with evaporation, as well as groundwater flow following Darcy’s Law.

We present modern-day water table simulations, and contrast the results with an LGM simulation forced by palaeoclimate model reconstructions and ice age topography. Our results shed light on how the Great Basin groundwater and lake storage might have changed during the last deglaciation.

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