Geochemistry of the dry valley lakes

Abstract

The Dry Valleys area is characterised by the presence of a number of lakes and ponds, some of them fresh but others containing extremely saline water. In this repon a general description of the nature of these waters is given. From the geochemical point of view, the most interesting problems concerning the saline lakes are those of salt origin, the evolution of the lakes themselves, and the causes of the unusually high temperature of the bottom water of Lake Vanda. For the possible sources of salts, an explanation using a single source has never been successful, and most workers are now inclined to favour multiple sources. From the geochemical point of view, the most interesting problems concerning the saline lakes are those of salt origin, the evolution of the lakes themselves, and the causes of the unusually high temperature of the bottom water of Lake Vanda. For the possible sources of salts, an explanation using a single source has never been successful, and most workers are now inclined to favour multiple sources. Recent studies conducted during the Dry Valley Drilling Project (DVDP) helped clarify the geochemistry of unconsolidated sediment near the saline lakes and of the groundwater system in Wright Valley, producing some new ideas concerning the origin of salts in the region. We maintain that more of the salts in the saline waters of the Dry Valleys are likely to have originated in the accumulation of atmospheric salts rather than from the alteration of trapped seawater, even though the dry valleys area was composed of fiords in the late Miocene. © Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand.