Ancient Sea Water Trapped in Powell Lake

Today I had the pleasure of being a guest blogger on Powell River Daily News. It's my go to blog for information about my home town that's written by Drewen, also known as citizenjournalist. Earlier this month there was a post about Powell Lake, and it prompted me to leave a comment. Almost immediately I got a response from Drewen inviting me to be a guest blogger. You can head over there to see it for yourself. Here's a reprint.

Ancient Sea Water 
Trapped in Powell Lake

Wayne with the Kemmerer bottle.

My husband Wayne and I live most of the year in our float cabin up the lake. We discovered Powell River on holiday in 2000 and ventured onto Powell Lake when we returned in 2001. Float cabins captivated us. Our cabin began as a holiday retreat, now it’s our home.

While seeking information about Powell Lake, we discovered the results of oceanographic studies conducted by the University of British Columbia in 1962 and 1972. Oceanic? Yes. Powell Lake is one of the deepest lakes in BC recorded at 360 metres (1,180 feet). It was created when glaciers scoured out its fjord-shaped basin. If you travel up any of the inlets along the BC coast, they look virtually the same as Powell Lake. The difference is they are filled with seawater. In the case of Powell Lake, after the glaciers retreated, the surrounding land rose and seawater was trapped. Over the years, fresh water increased the depth of the lake, but did not mix with the heavier salt water at the bottom.

What was discovered at the bottom of Powell Lake in 1962 was some of the oldest trapped seawater to date, about 10,000 years. The lake becomes salty at about 122 metres (400 feet) and at the deepest levels was found to contain methane and hydrogen sulfide, which gives it a distinctive rotten egg odour. It contains no oxygen or life other than possible bacteria. This information sparked our imagination.

Margy hauling in 1000 feet of line.

First we tried to think of a way to build a deep-water sample apparatus of our own. In the end, we went to a friend and borrowed a Kemmerer bottle designed for such a task. On October 21, 2006, Wayne and I conducted our own deep-water drop of 335 metres (1,100 feet) in Powell Lake. We were really excited when we opened the Kemmerer bottle and discovered our own 10,000-year-old water. Yes, it was yellow and smelled of rotten eggs.

You just never know where your imagination can lead you. In our case, it led us back 10,000 years. Want more information about the drop? It’s included in Wayne’s book Coastal BC Stories: Up the Strait. Books in this series are available locally at Coles in Town Centre Mall and Breakwater Books on Marine Avenue, and e-books through Kobo and Amazon. You can go to our website www.PowellRiverBooks.com for more information.

UBC research team led by Professor Pawlowicz.

And that’s not the end of the story. In 2014, Wayne and I met Professor Rich Pawlowicz and one of his students from UBC at the Powell Lake Marina. They were launching their boat the Kraken to conduct more studies in the unique waters of Powell Lake. They’ve been gracious enough to allow Wayne to follow along on several oceanographic voyages. What new stories will they discover? -- Margy