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Spatially irregular sedimentation in a small, morphologically complex lake: implications for paleoenvironmental studies

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Abstract

A sub-bottom acoustic survey of Devil Lake on the Canadian Shield in southern Ontario reveals three acoustic facies: (I) a moderately acoustically transparent, laminated sequence interpreted as a glacilacustrine deposit in glacial Lake Iroquois or a subsequent phase in water depths up to 200 m greater than at present, (II) a transitional more transparent, less layered facies interpreted as being deposited in a more distal glacial lake from erosion of sediment in the watershed exposed by the failure of the ice dam and lowering of the glacial lake before stabilization by the development of forests, and (III) an acoustically transparent facies with similar transmissivity to the water column, interpreted as Holocene gyttja. Each is spatially variable in extent and thickness in response to those processes. There is only a very weak relation between sediment thickness and the water depth in which it was deposited. Wave processes prevent deposition in water depths less than about 6 m and evidence of erosion to the greatest depths of the lake (>40 m) is pervasive. The data demonstrate the value of acoustic survey in assessing lacustrine processes and the history of lakes, and the significance of such documentation in planning a coring program and in interpreting the results.

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  1. Department of Geography, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, K7L 3N6, Canada

    Robert Gilbert

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Gilbert, R. Spatially irregular sedimentation in a small, morphologically complex lake: implications for paleoenvironmental studies. Journal of Paleolimnology 29, 209–220 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1023287009148

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