Ted Lewis is a physical geography Master's student at Queen's University in Canada. His project was the study of sedimentation patterns in a glacial lake on Devon Island in the Canadian High Arctic. Working with Dr. R. Gilbert and Dr. Scott Lamoureux, he found an original use for our Event logger, normally used in tipping bucket rain gauges, and used it to record the timing and velocity of bottom currents in the lake. In glacial lakes, bottom currents containing large amounts of sediment can move down steep delta slopes.
Faster currents can contain more sediment.
When the currents slow, they produce characteristic deposits called turbidites, which are useful for paleoenvironmental interpretations. By recording the currents, Ted can infer the environmental conditions that lead to their formation. The importance of turbidity currents to the sediments in the lake can therefore be assessed. He had two HOBO Event loggers and two current meters. One current meter was kept at one meter above the lake bottom, while the other was positioned at various depths above the first.