DISCERNING THE RECORD OF EVENT DEPOSITION AND PALEOSALINITY FLUCTUATION FROM SALINE LAKES: INSIGHTS FROM SEDIMENT CORES FROM STORR'S LAKE AND SALT POND, SAN SALVADOR ISLAND, BAHAMAS

The shallow lakes of San Salvador Island, Bahamas contain important high resolution records of the past 4,000 years in the SW Atlantic. These lakes form in sinkholes and interdunal depressions, varying in salinity from brackish to hypersaline and have average maximum water depths of 2 m. Two lakes from the eastern side of the island (Storr's Lake and Salt Pond) were cored. Six cores, measuring from 30 to 200 cm were taken from the southern, middle and northern sub-basins of Storr's Lake; and two cores, measuring approximately 60 cm were taken from the depocenter of Salt Pond. Multiproxy analyses of magnetic susceptibility, loss on ignition, bulk mineralogy, grain size, sediment fabric, ostracode and mollusk faunal composition were performed. Both the Storr's Lake and Salt Pond cores record saline-lake sedimentation punctuated by storm events, possibly hurricanes. The Storr's Lake cores record the closing of a tidal creek system and the subsequent development of a saline lake favorable for algal mat and stromatolite formation. The Salt Pond cores record a salinity history that varies from brackish to hypersaline, with the formation of salts and protodolomite. Three species of ostracodes found in both lakes - Cyprideis americana, Hemicyprideis setipunctata and Perissocytheridea bicelliforma - were used to reconstruct the salinity history of both lakes. Faunal zone boundaries appear to correlate with Holocene sea level low stands and may provide an important tool to further resolve the paleoclimate and hurricane record of the SW Atlantic during the Late Holocene.