West Reflex Lake is a hypersaline lake in the Canadian Great Plains. The lake contains four types of shoreline carbonate structures: isolated pinnacles, bioherms (aggregates of pinnacles), laminated coatings, and beachrock. This study investigates the processes of formation of West Reflex Lake’s shoreline carbonates. A variety of petrographic and geochemical techniques were used to characterize the texture, mineralogy, and chemistry of the carbonates. The shoreline carbonates formed as a result of biotic and abiotic precipitation at the site of saline springs that supply Ca2+ to the lake. Evidence for biologically-influenced precipitation includes strong epifluorescence, presence of micrite cements, and abundance of microbial filaments. Abiotically-precipitated cements formed due to groundwater inflow. The isolated pinnacles and bioherms formed as a result of groundwater percolating through a framework of microbial filaments, whereas the laminated coatings formed as a result of calcification of coherent microbial mats adhering to a substrate. / May 2017
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:MANITOBA/oai:mspace.lib.umanitoba.ca:1993/32181 |
| Date | 31 March 2017 |
| Creators | Harrison, Jemma |
| Contributors | Kuzyk, Zou Zou (Geological Sciences) Last, William (Geological Sciences), Chow, Nancy (Geological Sciences) Goldsborough, Gordon (Biological Sciences) |
| Source Sets | University of Manitoba Canada |
| Detected Language | English |
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