Shoreline carbonate structures in West Reflex Lake, Alberta-Saskatchewan

West Reflex Lake is a hypersaline lake in the Canadian Great Plains. The lake contains four types of shoreline carbonate structures: isolated pinnacles, bioherms (aggregates of pinnacles), laminated coatings, and beachrock. This study investigates the processes of formation of West Reflex Lake’s shoreline carbonates. A variety of petrographic and geochemical techniques were used to characterize the texture, mineralogy, and chemistry of the carbonates. The shoreline carbonates formed as a result of biotic and abiotic precipitation at the site of saline springs that supply Ca2+ to the lake. Evidence for biologically-influenced precipitation includes strong epifluorescence, presence of micrite cements, and abundance of microbial filaments. Abiotically-precipitated cements formed due to groundwater inflow. The isolated pinnacles and bioherms formed as a result of groundwater percolating through a framework of microbial filaments, whereas the laminated coatings formed as a result of calcification of coherent microbial mats adhering to a substrate.