Bear Lake is a large alkaline lake on a high plateau on the Utah-Idaho border. The Bear River was partly diverted into the lake in the early twentieth century so that Bear Lake could serve as a reservoir to supply water for hydropower and irrigation downstream, which continues today. The northern Rocky Mountain region is within the belt of the strongest of the westerly winds that transport moisture during the winter and spring over coastal mountain ranges and into the Great Basin and Rocky Mountains. As a result of this dominant winter precipitation pattern, most of the water entering the lake is from snowmelt, but with net evaporation. The dominant solutes in the lake water are Ca 2+ , Mg 2+ , and HCO 3 2‒ , derived from Paleozoic carbonate rocks in the Bear River Range west of the lake. The lake is saturated with calcite, aragonite, and dolomite at all depths, and produces vast amounts of carbonate minerals. The chemistry of the lake has changed considerably over the past 100 years as a result of the diversion of Bear River. The net effect of the diversion was to dilute the lake water, especially the Mg 2+ concentration. Bear Lake is oligotrophic and coprecipitation of phosphate with CaCO 3 helps to keep productivity low. However, algal growth is colimited by nitrogen availability. Phytoplankton densities are low, with a mean summer chlorophyll a concentration of 0.4 mg L ‒1 . Phytoplankton are dominated by diatoms, but they have not been studied extensively (but see Moser and Kimball, this volume). Zooplankton densities usually are low (<10 L ‒1 ) and highly seasonal, dominated by calanoid copepods and cladocera. Benthic invertebrate densities are extremely low; chironomid larvae are dominant at depths <30 m, and are partially replaced with ostracodes and oligochaetes in deeper water. The ostracode species in water depths >10 m are all endemic. Bear Lake has 13 species of fish, four of which are endemic.

Bear Lake, on the Idaho-Utah border, lies in a fault-bounded valley through which the Bear River flows en route to the Great Salt Lake. Surficial deposits in the Bear Lake drainage basin provide a geologic context for interpretation of cores from Bear Lake deposits. In addition to groundwater discharge, Bear Lake received water and sediment from its own small drainage basin and sometimes from the Bear River and its glaciated headwaters. The lake basin interacts with the river in complex ways that are modulated by climatically induced lake-level changes, by the distribution of active Quaternary faults, and by the migration of the river across its fluvial fan north of the present lake. The upper Bear River flows northward for ~150 km from its headwaters in the northwestern Uinta Mountains, generally following the strike of regional Laramide and late Cenozoic structures. These structures likely also control the flow paths of groundwater that feeds Bear Lake, and groundwater-fed streams are the largest source of water when the lake is isolated from the Bear River. The present configuration of the Bear River with respect to Bear Lake Valley may not have been established until the late Pliocene. The absence of Uinta Range–derived quartzites in fluvial gravel on the crest of the Bear Lake Plateau east of Bear Lake suggests that the present headwaters were not part of the drainage basin in the late Tertiary. Newly mapped glacial deposits in the Bear River Range west of Bear Lake indicate several advances of valley glaciers that were probably coeval with glaciations in the Uinta Mountains. Much of the meltwater from these glaciers may have reached Bear Lake via ground-water pathways through infiltration in the karst terrain of the Bear River Range. At times during the Pleistocene, the Bear River flowed into Bear Lake and water level rose to the valley threshold at Nounan narrows. This threshold has been modified by aggradation, downcutting, and tectonics. Maximum lake levels have decreased from as high as 1830 m to 1806 m above sea level since the early Pleistocene due to episodic downcutting by the Bear River. The oldest exposed lacustrine sediments in Bear Lake Valley are probably of Pliocene age. Several high-lake phases during the early and middle Pleistocene were separated by episodes of fluvial incision. Threshold incision was not constant, however, because lake highstands of as much as 8 m above bedrock threshold level resulted from aggradation and possibly landsliding at least twice during the late-middle and late Pleistocene. Abandoned stream channels within the low-lying, fault-bounded region between Bear Lake and the modern Bear River show that Bear River progressively shifted northward during the Holocene. Several factors including faulting, location of the fluvial fan, and channel migration across the fluvial fan probably interacted to produce these changes in channel position. Late Quaternary slip rates on the east Bear Lake fault zone are estimated by using the water-level history of Bear Lake, assuming little or no displacement on dated deposits on the west side of the valley. Uplifted lacustrine deposits representing Pliocene to middle Pleistocene highstands of Bear Lake on the footwall block of the east Bear Lake fault zone provide dramatic evidence of long-term slip. Slip rates during the late Pleistocene increased from north to south along the east Bear Lake fault zone, consistent with the tectonic geomorphology. In addition, slip rates on the southern section of the fault zone have apparently decreased over the past 50 k.y.

Bear Lake sediments were predominantly aragonite for most of the Holocene, reflecting a hydrologically closed lake fed by groundwater and small streams. During the late Pleistocene, the Bear River flowed into Bear Lake and the lake waters spilled back into the Bear River drainage. At that time, sediment deposition was dominated by siliciclastic sediment and calcite. Lake-level fluctuation during the Holocene and late Pleistocene produced three types of aragonite deposits in the central lake area that are differentiated primarily by grain size, sorting, and diatom assemblage. Lake- margin deposits during this period consisted of sandy deposits including well-developed shoreface deposits on margins adjacent to relatively steep gradient lake floors and thin, graded shell gravel on margins adjacent to very low gradient lakefloor areas. Throughout the period of aragonite deposition, episodic drops in lake level resulted in erosion of shallow-water deposits, which were redeposited into the deeper lake. These sediment-focusing episodes are recognized by mixing of different mineralogies and crystal habits and mixing of a range of diatom fauna into poorly sorted mud layers. Lake-level drops are also indicated by erosional gaps in the shallow-water records and the occurrence of shoreline deposits in areas now covered by as much as 30 m of water. Calcite precipitation occurred for a short interval of time during the Holocene in response to an influx of Bear River water ca. 8 ka. The Pleistocene sedimentary record of Bear Lake until ca. 18 ka is dominated by siliciclastic glacial flour derived from glaciers in the Uinta Mountains. The Bear Lake deep-water siliciclastic deposits are thoroughly bioturbated, whereas shallow-water deposits transitional to deltas in the northern part of the basin are upward-coarsening sequences of laminated mud, silt, and sand. A major drop in lake level occurred ca. 18 ka, resulting in subaerial exposure of the lake floor in areas now covered by over 40 m of water. The subaerial surfaces are indicated by root casts and gypsum-rich soil features. Bear Lake remained at this low state with a minor transgression until ca. 15 ka. A new influx of Bear River water produced a major lake transgression and deposited a thin calcite deposit. Bear Lake quickly dropped to a shallow-water state, accumulating a mixture of calcite and siliciclastic sediment that contains at least two intervals of root-disrupted horizons indicating lake-level drops to more than 40 m below the modern highstand. About 11,500 yr B.P., the lake level rose again through an influx of Bear River water producing another thin calcite layer. The Bear River ceased to flow into the basin and the lake salinity increased, resulting in the aragonite deposition that persisted until modern human activity. The climatic record of Bear Lake sediment is difficult to ascertain by using standard chemical and biological techniques because of variations in the inflow hydrology and the significant amount of erosion and redeposition of chemical and biological sediment components.

Major-ion chemistry, strontium isotope ratios ( 87 Sr/ 86 Sr), stable isotope ratios (δ 18 O, δ 2 H), and tritium were analyzed for water samples from the southern Bear Lake Valley, Utah and Idaho, to characterize the types and distribution of groundwater sources and their relation to Bear Lake’s pre-diversion chemistry. Four ground-water types were identified: (1) Ca-Mg-HCO 3 water with 87 Sr/ 86 Sr values of ~0.71050 and modern tritium concentrations was found in the mountainous carbonate terrain of the Bear River Range. Magnesium (Mg) and bicarbonate (HCO 3 ) concentrations at Swan Creek Spring are discharge dependent and result from differential carbonate bedrock dissolution within the Bear River Range. (2) Cl-rich groundwater with elevated barium and strontium concentrations and 87 Sr/ 86 Sr values between 0.71021 and 0.71322 was found in the southwestern part of the valley. This groundwater discharges at several small, fault-controlled springs along the margin of the lake and contains solutes derived from the Wasatch Formation. (3) SO 4 -rich groundwater with 87 Sr/ 86 Sr values of ~0.70865, and lacking detectable tritium, discharges from two springs in the northeast quadrant of the study area and along the East Bear Lake fault. (4) Ca-Mg-HCO 3 -SO 4 -Cl water with 87 Sr/ 86 Sr values of ~0.71060 and sub-modern tritium concentrations discharges from several small springs emanating from the Wasatch Formation on the Bear Lake Plateau. The δ 18 O and δ 2 H values from springs and streams discharging in the Bear River Range fall along the Global Meteoric Water Line (GMWL), but are more negative at the southern end of the valley and at lower elevations. The δ 18 O and δ 2 H values from springs discharging on the Bear Lake Plateau plot on an evaporation line slightly below the GMWL. Stable isotope data suggest that precipitation falling in Bear Lake Valley is affected by orographic effects as storms pass over the Bear River Range, and by evaporation prior to recharging the Bear Lake Plateau aquifers. Approximately 99% of the solutes constituting Bear Lake’s pre-diversion chemistry were derived from stream discharge and shallow groundwater sources located within the Bear River Range. Lake-marginal springs exposed during the recent low lake levels and springs and streams draining the Bear Lake Plateau did not contribute significantly to the pre-diversion chemistry of Bear Lake.

Radiocarbon analyses of pollen, ostracodes, and total organic carbon (TOC) provide a reliable chronology for the sediments deposited in Bear Lake over the past 30,000 years. The differences in apparent age between TOC, pollen, and carbonate fractions are consistent and in accord with the origins of these fractions. Comparisons among different fractions indicate that pollen sample ages are the most reliable, at least for the past 15,000 years. The post-glacial radiocarbon data also agree with ages independently estimated from aspartic acid racemization in ostracodes. Ages in the red, siliclastic unit, inferred to be of last glacial age, appear to be several thousand years too old, probably because of a high proportion of reworked, refractory organic carbon in the pollen samples. Age-depth models for five piston cores and the Bear Lake drill core (BL00-1) were constructed by using two methods: quadratic equations and smooth cubic-spline fits. The two types of age models differ only in detail for individual cores, and each approach has its own advantages. Specific lithological horizons were dated in several cores and correlated among them, producing robust average ages for these horizons. The age of the correlated horizons in the red, siliclastic unit can be estimated from the age model for BL00-1, which is controlled by ages above and below the red, siliclastic unit. These ages were then transferred to the correlative horizons in the shorter piston cores, providing control for the sections of the age models in those cores in the red, siliclastic unit. These age models are the backbone for reconstructions of past environmental conditions in Bear Lake. In general, sedimentation rates in Bear Lake have been quite uniform, mostly between 0.3 and 0.8 mm yr ‒1 in the Holocene, and close to 0.5 mm yr ‒1 for the longer sedimentary record in the drill core from the deepest part of the lake.