Some lakes are home to legendary monsters (here’s looking at you, Bear Lake), while others are home to other organisms. Great Salt Lake’s great lows have exposed microbialites, also known as bioherms, allowing scientists and researchers an uncommon opportunity to get a closer look.
thespectrum.com
As Utah’s Great Salt Lake continues to drop during recent years of drought, something strange and wonderful is coming into focus in the shallows and exposed lake bed.
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A couple of our geologists here at the UGS helped a team of researchers collect microbialites from Great Salt Lake for the Natural History Museum of Utah. Read more about these living rocks in this great write up.
sltrib.com
As Utah’s Great Salt Lake continues to drop during recent years of drought, something strange and wonderful is coming into focus in the shallows and exposed lake bed.
The shallow waters of Bridger Bay, on the northwestern tip of Antelope Island in the southern arm of hypersaline Great Salt Lake, support extensive microbial carbonate formation, especially in the north-northeast portion of the bay near Egg Island. Lake levels in the fall of 2014 were near 60-year lows (as low as 1278.1 m [4193.3 ft] AMSL, compared to the near-term historic average of about 1280 m [4200 ft]), giving unprecedented access to the microbial structures. Characterizing the microbialites of Bridger Bay, including facies delineation and aerial extent, can inform interpretations of similar deposits in the ancient rock record (e.g., Eocene Green River Formation), including potential petroleum reservoirs.
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The Utah Geological Survey (UGS) is a division of the Utah Department of Natural Resources. Several specialized programs comprise the UGS: Data Management, Energy & Minerals, Geologic Hazards, Geologic Information & Outreach, Geologic Mapping, Groundwater & Wetlands, and Paleontology.