HomeUse of Satellite Imagery to Locate Paleo Stream Channels in the Bonnevill Basin of Utah
Dr. Oviatt uses satellite imagery to locate paleo stream channels in Utah as a way of understanding drainage patterns and their relationship to past climates. Oviatt's graduate stucent, Ben Meade, studied a set of buried fluvial channels on Dugway Proving Ground in western Utah. Some of the channels are partially exposed and hints of others are visible on aerial photographs and satellite images. Meade also experimented with remotely sensed radar data and land-based ground-penetrating radar. The purpose of the project was to map and determine the buried character of the channels to help our understanding of the late-Pleistocene and early Holocene geologic history of the region and to provide archaeologists with valuable information on paleoenvironments that were essential to prehistoric people in the area.