Magnetic and Sedimentological Analyses of Sediment Cores from Otsego Lake Reveal Climate and Possible Delta Dynamics Throughout the Holocene

Abstract:

Otsego Lake (42°43’N, -74°54’W) is a large oligotrophic, monomictic lake in upstate New York that occupies a narrow, N-S trending basin (approx. 13 km length, 2 km width) and has a maximum water depth of approx. 50 m. We collected two sediment cores from a shallow (4 m water depth) bench near the SW shore of the lake. The cores were collected approximately 200 m off-shore from a small stream delta. Age control was established through five ¹⁴C AMS-dates obtained from terrestrial plant macrofossils. We analyzed sediments for their magnetic properties (magnetic susceptibility, anhysteretic- and isothermal remanent magnetization, hysteresis properties and coercivity distributions) and performed loss-on-ignition and X-ray analyses to determine the relative abundance of organic matter, quartz and calcite. The watershed of Otsego Lake rests in glacial debris and Devonian shale and limestone. The base of the core (> 9 ka) consists mostly of silt-sized, massive to weakly laminated siliceous and strongly magnetic sediments. Between 8-9 ka the climate warmed sufficiently to allow for the formation of calcareous sediments. Between 8 – 6 ka magnetic minerals are characterized by low abundance and small grainsize, while organic and inorganic carbon increase. Sedimentation rates decrease significantly between 6-2 ka (from ~100 cm/ka to 12-15 cm/ka). During this time interval the relative abundance of quartz increases, sediment becomes slightly more magnetic, and the magnetic grain-size increases as well. We interpret this time period as a low-stand, when lower lake levels allow for the redeposition and possible loss of sediment into the deeper part of the lake, as well as increased terrigenous input from the nearby lakeshore. This lowstand is clearly identified as a strong, continuous reflector in GPR profiles. Sediments younger than 2 ka are characterized by variable abundances of magnetic minerals, with magnetic remanence peaks appearing semi-periodically approximately every 400 years. These strongly magnetic layers may be the result of multiple periods of low lake levels, or represent changes in the nearby stream delta and associated terrestrial sediment input.