Barriers with dune ridges are one of the few remaining unstudied deposits within lacustrine coastal depositional systems. The Lesser Slave Lake barrier complex, located in north central Alberta, is composed of one spit and four barriers. West-to-northwesterly winds blow along 90 km of fetch moving sediments by longshore transport to the eastern shore of the lake where the barrier complex is located. Ground penetrating radar was used to infer internal architecture of the barriers and deduce paleoprogradational processes and direction of deposition. Vibracoring was used to measure lake level and stratigraphy for each of the dune ridges on top of the barrier, which in turn, was used to understand shore processes that formed the barrier and infer paleoclimate.

Results show the eastern-most dune ridges for each barrier have forests dipping to the south, which implies the barriers initially formed as recurved spits towards the south.

Lake levels measured from the base of the foreshore deposit within vibracores show there has been climatic change occurring during the past 6,665 years. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)