Geochemical Evolution of Great Salt Lake, Utah, USA

Abstract

The Great Salt Lake (GSL) of Utah, USA, is the largest saline lake in North America, and its brines are some of the most concentrated anywhere in the world. The lake occupies a closed basin system whose chemistry reflects solute inputs from the weathering of a diverse suite of rocks in its drainage basin. GSL is the remnant of a much larger lacustrine body, Lake Bonneville, and it has a long history of carbonate deposition. Inflow to the lake is from three major rivers that drain mountain ranges to the east and empty into the southern arm of the lake, from precipitation directly on the lake, and from minor groundwater inflow. Outflow is by evaporation. The greatest solute inputs are from calcium bicarbonate river waters mixed with sodium chloride-type springs and groundwaters. Prior to 1930 the lake concentration inversely tracked lake volume, which reflected climatic variation in the drainage, but since then salt precipitation and re-solution, primarily halite and mirabilite, have periodically modified lake-brine chemistry through density stratification and compositional differentiation. In addition, construction of a railway causeway has restricted circulation, nearly isolating the northern from the southern part of the lake, leading to halite precipitation in the north. These and other conditions have created brine differentiation, mixing, and fractional precipitation of salts as major factors in solute evolution. Pore fluids and diagenetic reactions have been identified as important sources and especially sinks for CaCO 3 , Mg, and K in the lake, depending on the concentration gradient and clays.

Arsenic in groundwater and its health risk assessment in drinking water of Mailsi, Punjab, Pakistan

“…Human activities that can potentially promote evaporative enrichment include increasing evaporation rates by decreasing the water table to the near-surface or by groundwater pumping for irrigation (Nickson et al 2005). Natural evaporation over long periods can cause solute concentrations in shallow groundwater to increase (Welch 2000) and effects of evaporative concentration under oxic conditions will be sorption of As to soils (Jones et al 2009) and aquifer sediments (Nimick et al 1998). In the present study, high Cl -and Na + concentrations are indication of high evaporation in the area.…”

Hydrogen and oxygen in brine shrimp chitin reflect environmental water and dietary isotopic composition

“…Approximately 80% of this water is delivered to Bear River and Ogden bays, at the eastern end of the lake, by the Bear and Weber Rivers (Jones et al, 2009). Of this, approximately 53% enters the lake from March-June (based on long-term daily discharge statistics from USGS gauging stations).…”

Geochemistry and Behavior of Trace Elements During the Complete Evaporation of the Merouane Chott Ephemeral Lake: Southeast Algeria

“…Risacher et al 2003;Jones et al 2009;Stojanivic et al 2009). Of these studies, relatively few have focussed of the behavior of trace elements in saline lakes (Domagalski et al 1990; Green and Lyons 2009).…”