Paleohydrologic record from lake brine on the southern High Plains, Texas

Abstract

The timing of changes in the stage and salinity of Double Lakes of Lynn County, Texas, was estimated using dissolved-chloride profiles across an underlying shale layer. Lake conditions over the past 30 to 50 ka can be inferred from the chloride profiles by using the advective velocity of the pore water through the shale and an appropriate coefficient of molecular diffusion. The profiles suggest that net-evaporative conditions existed over the southern High Plains for the past 50 ka; a period of increasing salinity in the lake began at ∼20 ka and reached current levels at ∼5 ka. In addition, deflationary conditions were present for at least 4 ka, and likely began or were accelerated during the most recent altithermal period at ∼5 ka. This type of lake-brine record may also exist in many other saline lake environments throughout the Great Plains of North America.