Mirror Lake constantly “keeps track” of its ecological “history” through the sedimentation of materials in the lake bottom. Anything and everything that does not decompose rapidly, such as pollen, plankton exoskeletons, pine needles, and precipitated minerals can be sequestered away permanently. Most of the lake bottom within about 4m of the surface is firm sand, gravel or cobbles, but deeper than that the sediments become more and more organic, gooey, and dark. In the deepest ooze of the lake around 10m is a deposit of soft sediments (almost) 20m deep. In 196x a core was taken of this material and from that we have a view into the ecological conditions of the nearby area back to perhaps 14,000 years.

More to come...