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Timing and cause of water level fluctuations in Kluane Lake, Yukon Territory, over the past 5000 years

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Janice Brahney ,
John J. Clague ,
Brian Menounos  and
Thomas, W.D. Edwards
Janice Brahney*
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada V5A 1S6
John J. Clague
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada V5A 1S6
Brian Menounos
Affiliation:
Natural Resources and Environmental Studies Institute and Geography Program, University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, BC, Canada V2N 4Z9
Thomas, W.D. Edwards
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada N2L 3G1
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail address:Janice.brahney@colorado.edu (J. Brahney).
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Abstract

We reconstructed late Holocene fluctuations of Kluane Lake in Yukon Territory from variations in bulk physical properties and carbon and nitrogen elemental and isotopic abundances in nine sediment cores. Fluctuations of Kluane Lake in the past were controlled by changes in climate and glaciers, which affected inflow of Slims and Duke rivers, the two largest sources of water flowing into the lake. Kluane Lake fluctuated within a narrow range, at levels about 25 m below the present datum, from about 5000 to 1300 cal yr BP. Low lake levels during this interval are probably due to southerly drainage of Kluane Lake to the Pacific Ocean, opposite the present northerly drainage to Bering Sea. Slims River, which today is the largest contributor of water to Kluane Lake, only rarely flowed into the lake during the period 5000 to 1300 cal yr BP. The lake rose 7–12 m between 1300 and 900 cal yr BP, reached its present level around AD 1650, and within a few decades had risen an additional 12 m. Shortly thereafter, the lake established a northern outlet and fell to near its present level.

Keywords

PaleolimnologySedimentologyCarbon isotopesNitrogen isotopesMagnetic susceptibilityKluane LakeYukon Territory
Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 70 , Issue 2 , September 2008 , pp. 213 - 227
Copyright
University of Washington

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Footnotes

1 Current address: Department of Geological Sciences, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO., 80309, USA.

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