Sedimentation in Lillooet Lake, British Columbia

Abstract

Sediment from Lillooet River Basin, 3580 sq km of alpine and subalpine landscape, 7% of which is glacier-covered, is deposited in Lillooet Lake. During the summer when the lake is stratified by temperature and suspended sediment content, processes of interflow and underflow distribute sediment throughout the lake and give rise to a distinctive sedimentary sequence of varved silts and clays interspaced irregularly with massive beds of coarser grained sediments up to 120 mm thick. Coarse sediment deposited on the proximal delta slope is redistributed by infrequent slumps; mounds of slumped material cover the foreset slopes to their base at 120 m depth. Thickness of varves is related to the annual inflow to the lake, and continuous records of water temperature near the lake bottom indicate that the numerous laminae within varves are due to intermittent underflow events.