The relative flatness of South Jordan is due to lacustrine sediments of a pleistocene lake called Lake Bonneville. Lake Bonneville existed from 75,000 to 8,000 years ago; at its peak some 30,000 years ago, the lake reached an elevation of above sea level and had a surface area of . The elevation of South Jordan ranges from approximately near the Jordan River in the east and rises gently to the foothills of the Oquirrh Mountains at . A notable exception is a bluff at the western edge of the Daybreak Community which is an old sandbar of Lake Bonneville.