EXAMINATION OF SEDIMENTS IN PAYNE LAKE, ALONG THE PERIPHERY OF PROGLACIAL LAKE IROQUOIS IN NORTHERN NEW YORK

During the late Wisconsin glacial episode, the Laurentide ice sheet covered northern parts of central and eastern North America, which included most of Canada, the upper Midwest, and New England. Large proglacial lakes formed as the ice sheet retreated, one such lake was glacial Lake Iroquois, a large ice-dammed lake that formed about 12.5 ka due to blocked drainage downstream on the St. Lawrence River. Payne Lake, located in northern NY near the town of Antwerp, is near the former southern margin of glacial Lake Iroquois. We collected a sediment core from Payne Lake to assess environmental changes in this region of northern NY since the subsidence of glacial Lake Iroquois approximately 11.5 ka. The sediment core was collected using a modified Livingstone drive rod piston corer during the winter so lake ice could be used as a coring platform. To assess the changes in sediment deposition, we conducted a high-resolution magnetic susceptibility scan using a Bartington MS2E point sensor. The core was then subsampled using the standard method of sequential loss-on-ignition to assess the sediment composition.