The Taconite Inlet Lakes Project: A systems approach to paleoclimatic reconstruction

• Main Authors: Bradley, R. S., Retelle, Michael, Ludlam, S. D., Hardy, D. R., Zolitschka, B., Lamoureux, S. F., Douglas, M. S.V.
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: SCARAB 1996
• Subjects: arctic; drainage basin characteristics; lacustrine sedimentation; meromictic; paleoclimatic; varves; isostatic uplift; lacustrine sediment; lake sediment; palaeoclimate; palaeoclimate reconstruction; seawater; varve; Arctic; Canada; Ellesmere Island; Taconite Inlet
• Online Access: https://scarab.bates.edu/faculty_publications/62

A comprehensive study of meteorological, hydrological, limnological and sedimentological conditions in the watersheds of density-stratified (meromictic) lakes around Taconite Inlet, northern Ellesmere Island, N.W.T., Canada was carried out from 1990-1992. Lakes C1 and C2 contain seawater 'trapped' by isostatic uplift as the former embayments became isolated from the sea. These lakes, and Lake C3, contain varved sediments which provide an annually resolvable paleoclimatic record. By studying the major systems influencing sedimentation in one of these lakes (Lake C2) a better understanding of the climatic controls on varve formation, and hence on the paleoclimatic signal in the varved sediment record, was obtained. The varves of Lake C2 provide a proxy record of summer temperature for the region.