| Pavilion Lake | |
|---|---|
 A surface view of Pavilion Lake | |
  Pavilion Lake | |
| Location | British Columbia |
| Coordinates | 50°52′00″N121°44′31″W / 50.86677°N 121.74191°W |
| Primary outflows | Pavilion Creek |
| Basin countries | Canada |
| Max. length | 5.8 kilometers (3.6 mi) |
| Max. width | 0.8 kilometers (0.50 mi) |
| Max. depth | 65 meters (213 ft) |
| Surface elevation | 820 meters (2,690 ft) |
Pavilion Lake is a freshwater lake located in Marble Canyon, British Columbia, Canada home to colonies of freshwater microbialites.
It is located between the towns of Lillooet and Cache Creek (29.44 kilometres WNW, as the crow flies, from Cache Creek) and lies along BC Highway 99, 8.85 highway kilometres (northeast then southeast) from Pavilion, British Columbia. There is a small community of lakeshore residences, some recreational and seasonal only, located on the lake's eastern shore adjacent to the highway. The lake is overlooked by the cliffs of Marble Canyon, which is the southern buttress of the Marble Range, and the forests of the northernmost Clear Range. Also overlooking the lake is Chimney Rock (K'lpalekw in Secwepemc'tsn, "Coyote's Penis"), which like the lake and the canyon have spiritual significance to the adjoining native communities, the Tskwaylaxw people of Pavilion and the Bonaparte band of Secwepemc at Upper Hat Creek. One of the rancheries and a rodeo and pow-wow ground of the Pavilion Band is located at Marble Canyon's south entrance. The lake area and its foreshore were added to Marble Canyon Provincial Park in order to protect its special scientific and heritage values.
The lake demonstrates karst hydrology, with underground inflows from Marble Canyon creeks. [1] The lake has generally low biological productivity, and is classified as ultraoligotrophic. It also features a high degree of water clarity. [1] The lake gets covered with ice annually, and is dimictic, going through two thermal overturns per year. [1] The lake reaches a maximum depth of 65 meters below the surface. [2] It is also a hard water lake, due to its high mineral content. [1]
Part of a karst formation, the lake is most notable for being home to colonies of microbialites, [1] a type of stromatolite. Colonies of microbialites grow from depths of 5 to 55 meters. Low sedimentation rates may allow for continued development of these colonies. [1] One estimate puts microbialite growth at 0.05 mm per year within the last 1,000 years. [3] Research at Pavilion Lake has suggested that most biological activity in microbialite structures occurs near the surface of these structures. [3] The lake's harsh geochemical environment prevents the development of metazoan grazers, also allowing for microbialite development. [1]
The lake has been the subject of astrobiology research by NASA, the Canadian Space Agency, and research institutions from around the world. The research falls under the umbrella of the Pavilion Lake Research Project. The Pavilion Lake Research Project has used the site to help train Canadian Space Agency astronauts.
Stromatolites or stromatoliths are layered sedimentary formations (microbialite) that are created mainly by photosynthetic microorganisms such as cyanobacteria, sulfate-reducing bacteria, and Pseudomonadota. These microorganisms produce adhesive compounds that cement sand and other rocky materials to form mineral "microbial mats". In turn, these mats build up layer by layer, growing gradually over time.
Kootenay National Park is a national park of Canada in southeastern British Columbia. The park consists of 1,406 km2 (543 sq mi) of the Canadian Rockies, including parts of the Kootenay and Park mountain ranges, the Kootenay River and the entirety of the Vermilion River. While the Vermilion River is completely contained within the park, the Kootenay River has its headwaters just outside the park boundary, flowing through the park into the Rocky Mountain Trench and eventually joining the Columbia River. The park ranges in elevation from 918 m (3,012 ft) at the southwestern park entrance to 3,424 m (11,234 ft) at Deltaform Mountain.
Highway 97 is a major highway in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is the longest continuously numbered route in the province, running 2,081 km (1,293 mi) and is the only route that runs the entire north–south length of the British Columbia, connecting the Canada–United States border near Osoyoos in the south to the British Columbia–Yukon boundary in the north at Watson Lake, Yukon.
The Fraser Canyon is a major landform of the Fraser River where it descends rapidly through narrow rock gorges in the Coast Mountains en route from the Interior Plateau of British Columbia to the Fraser Valley. Colloquially, the term "Fraser Canyon" is often used to include the Thompson Canyon from Lytton to Ashcroft, since they form the same highway route which most people are familiar with, although it is actually reckoned to begin above Williams Lake at Soda Creek Canyon near the town of the same name.
The Clear Range is a small mountain range located in the angle of the Fraser and Thompson Rivers in south-central British Columbia, Canada. It has a small subdivision just northeast of that confluence named the Scarped Range. The Clear Range totals 16,270 km2 (6,280 sq mi) and is 75 km (47 mi) north to south and 35 km (22 mi) east to west. The Clear Range and its northward neighbour the Marble Range are both subranges of the Pavilion Range.
Marble Canyon is in the south-central Interior of British Columbia, a few kilometres east of the Fraser River and the community of Pavilion, midway between the towns of Lillooet and Cache Creek. The canyon stems from a collapsed karst formation.
The Camelsfoot Range is a sub-range of the Chilcotin Ranges subdivision of the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains in British Columbia. The Fraser River forms its eastern boundary. The range is approximately 90 km at its maximum length and less than 30 km wide at its widest.
Edge Hills Provincial Park is a provincial park in British Columbia, Canada, located west of the town of Clinton. The Edge Hills flank the wall of the Fraser Canyon north of Moran Canyon and form a small fore-range between the river and the higher Marble Range just east. Access to the Edge Hills is via the Jesmond Road, which cuts north off the Pavilion Mountain Road at Kelly Lake. A spur road from the Jesmond Road west goes to an overlook atop the Edge Hills, known as Cougar Point.
Marble Canyon Provincial Park is a provincial park in British Columbia, Canada, established in 1956 to protect Marble Canyon, a limestone formation at the south end of the Marble Range. In 2001 the park was expanded to 355 hectares to include all of Pavilion Lake due to the presence of microbialites, a type of stromatolite important to research into astrobiology and other fields, and in 2010, it was further expanded to 2,544 hectares.
The Secwépemc, known in English as the Shuswap people, are a First Nations people residing in the interior of the Canadian province of British Columbia. They speak one of the Salishan languages, known as Secwepemc or Shuswap.
Clinton is a village in British Columbia, Canada, located approximately 40 km (25 mi) northwest of Cache Creek and 30 km south of 70 Mile House.
The Pavilion Indian Band or Ts'kw'aylaxw First Nation or Tsk'waylacw First Nation or Tsk'weylecw First Nation, and also known in the plural e.g. Ts'kw'alaxw First Nations, is a First Nations government, located in the Fraser Canyon region of the Central Interior of the Canadian province of British Columbia. It was created when the government of the then-Colony of British Columbia established an Indian reserve system in the 1860s.
Fountain is an unincorporated rural area and Indian reserve community in the Fraser Canyon region of British Columbia, Canada, located at the ten-mile (16 km) mark from the town of Lillooet on BC Highway 99, which in that area is also on the route of the Old Cariboo Road and is located at the junction of that route with the old gold rush-era trail via Fountain Valley and the Fountain Lakes.
Upper Hat Creek is a rural locality and ranching community in British Columbia, Canada, located roughly midway between the towns of Cache Creek and Lillooet, located near the headwaters of Hat Creek. Comprising the upper basin of Hat Creek the area is home to some of the oldest ranches in British Columbia. At the area's northeastern edge, near Marble Canyon, large lignite deposits have spurred interest since first discovered by prospectors during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush and are the basis of the aborted Hat Creek coal-thermal proposal. During the gold rush, a trail from Foster Bar led through Upper Hat Creek to the Bonaparte River and then northwards via the Brigade Trail.
Cayoosh Creek is a northeast-flowing tributary of the Seton River in the Canadian province of British Columbia. The name Cayoosh Creek remains on the bridge-sign crossing the stream on BC Highway 99 and continues in use locally to refer to the final reaches of the Seton River, formerly Seton Creek, which prior to the renaming ending at the confluence with Cayoosh Creek. The creek is the namesake of Cayoosh Creek Indian Reserve No. 1, one of the main Indian reserves of the Cayoose Creek Indian Band, which lies adjacent to what was renamed the Seton River without local consultation.
Marble Canyon 3, properly and most commonly referred to as Marble Canyon Indian Reserve No. 3, is an Indian reserve of the Ts’kw’aylaxw First Nation, located at the southeast end of Marble Canyon, adjacent to BC Highway 99 just northwest of the Upper Hat Creek junction, which is about midway between the towns of Lillooet and Cache Creek. The main reserve of the Tx'kw'ylaxw/Pavilion Band is Pavilion Indian Reserve No. 1, located at the community of Pavilion, which lies at the northwest end of Marble Canyon, which is to say at the opening of the valley of Pavilion Creek into the Fraser Canyon.
The Pavilion Lake Research Project (PLRP) is an international, multi-disciplinary, science and exploration effort to explain the origin of freshwater microbialites in Pavilion Lake, British Columbia, Canada.
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