Lake Frome Geochemistry and Sediment Stratigraphy in South Australia

Over the last 17,000 years, medium to fine sand accumulated on the lake margins and mud in the centre. This dataset from the Australian Ocean Data Network contains geochemical analyses of sediments and brines from Lake Frome, a large playa lake, to study metal ion concentration and playa sedimentation. The data includes stratigraphic units, major and minor element concentrations, and water chemistry from hypersaline brines.

Use Cases

• Modeling metal ion transport and concentration in arid environments based on the study of fluids and sediments.
• Analyzing playa sedimentation patterns based on stratigraphic units identified from shallow auger holes.
• Studying the geochemical differences between sandy and muddy lake sediments based on organic carbon and minor element concentrations.
• Investigating the mixing of artesian water with lake brines based on the composition of mound springs.

Strengths

• Provides a temporal coverage of approximately 17,000 years for sediment accumulation.
• Includes analysis of hypersaline brines with specific salinity ranges (26 to 34 percent).
• Distinguishes between three informal stratigraphic units (upper sand, lower sand, muddy unit) with geochemical comparisons.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to data_gov_au, focusing solely on a single lake system.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Analysis of samples from shallow auger holes and water sampling.

Time Range

Covers approximately the last 17,000 years.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-17 00:24:05.007038; freshness should be verified

Geography

Lake Frome, a playa lake in southeast South Australia, Australia.