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JAMES T. TELLER Department of Earth Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Preglacial (Teays) and Early Glacial Drainage in the Cincinnati Area, Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana ABSTRACT River was established, approximately along its present course from Pittsburgh to southern The preglacial rivers of southwestern Ohio, Illinois. The new river closely followed the northern Kentucky, and southeastern Indiana trend of the Teays-age valleys but seldom flowed toward the north and joined with the coincided with those old meandering valleys in west-flowing trunk river, the Teays, in central the Cincinnati area. Entrenchment of the new Ohio. The main tributary valleys to the Teays Ohio River took place soon after the old River in this region—containing the Old valleys were abandoned, leaving many high- Kentucky, Manchester, and Old Licking Riv- elevation preglacial valley remnants south of ers—were meandering and incised to a depth the pre-Illinoian glacial boundary. of 30 to 60 m (100 to 200 ft) below the upland The initial post-Teays drainage pattern was level. The bedload carried by these rivers had modified in several places when Illinoian glacia- a distinctly southern source. tion, and, possibly, a second pre-Illinoian ad- During the first glacial advance into central vance (stade?) invaded the Ohio River valley Ohio and Indiana in pre-Illinoian time, the north of Cincinnati and at several points to Teays drainage was dammed, and impounded the east and west of the city. waters filled the valleys. East of Cincinnati in the Manchester and Old Licking River valleys, INTRODUCTION thick lacustrine clays were deposited. West of Prior to glaciation, the major stream system Cincinnati, however, in the Old Kentucky draining Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and West River basin, there is very little lacustrine Virginia was that of the Teays River. The sediment, suggesting that either (1) the Old eastern part of the drainage basin of this river Kentucky River was not ponded because its was studied in detail first by Tight (1903) and flow had already been reversed as a result of named for now-abandoned valleys in West preglacial piracy by the west-flowing Old Ohio Virginia. It headed in the Appalachians and the River, or (2) glacial ponding occurred but was Teays River itself flowed west across central short-lived because overflow from the Old Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois to the Mississippi Kentucky River basin west into the Old Ohio Embayment (Fig. 1). "Teays" is used in this River basin caused rapid downcutting of the paper, as Wayne (1956, p. 36) has suggested, divide between these basins. to refer only to preglacial streams of the Teays Thick lacustrine sediment in the Manchester River drainage basin. and Old Licking River valleys indicates a long Several writers (Coffey, 1958, 1961; Durrell, period of water impoundment. Hence, deepen- 1961) have suggested that the preglacial drain- ing of the spillways between this lake and the age was across northern Ohio and Indiana into Kentucky River basin to the west must have the Great Lakes basins, rather than west across taken place very slowly. The lake probably the central parts of these states as shown in existed for many years before the addition of Figure 1. According to Coffey and Durrell, the water overflowing from the Teays tributaries in west-flowing Teays River was not developed southeastern Ohio, West Virginia, and western until after the invasion of Nebraskan ice. No Pennsylvania began to contribute to spillway evidence is available to confirm this hypothesis, erosion. and maps of buried bedrock surface of Ohio Eventually, probably as a result of this (Cummins, 1959, PI. 2) and Indiana (Burger initial glaciation, a new west-flowing Ohio and others, 1966) do not indicate the presence Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 84, p. 3677-3688, 7 figs., November 1973 3677 Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-pdf/84/11/3677/3428778/i0016-7606-84-11-3677.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 3678 J. T. TELLER of any valleys that could have connected the guishable (Fig. 2). These valleys have a central parts of these states with the Great meandering pattern and are entrenched 30 to Lakes basins. 60 m (100 to 200 ft) below upland level. The drainage courses established across most The major incised Teays-age valleys of the of Ohio and Indiana before glaciation are now area average ~0.8 km (0.5 mi) wide; the largely buried by a thick mantle of glacial meander belt of the main (Old Kentucky sediment and are recognized only in well-log River) valley has a width of nearly 8 km (5 mi). records. At places within the outer margin of The present Ohio River valley roughly paral- glacial drift, as well as beyond the limits of lels the trend of several segments of these glaciation, post-Teays modification has been ancient valleys, but in only a few places does slight, and the original valley form is still its course actually coincide with that of Teays- preserved. age river valleys (Fig. 2). In this paper, the history of preglacial valleys Smaller modern streams have partially or and their successors in the Cincinnati area is completely eroded the ancient alluvial deposits examined. New and existing information on irom these valleys in place:;, and, in some cases, the preglacial and glacial sediment in this area have cut well below Teays-age valley bottoms. is presented, and an attempt is made to estab- Ir. uneroded parts of the valleys, the old floors lish the sequence of events leading to abandon- are generally flat, although in the Old Ken- ment of Teays drainageways and to establish- tucky River valley between Carrollton and ment of the present Ohio River system. Patriot (Fig. 2), there are gentle slopes toward the outer sides of the valley bends which GENERAL DESCRIPTION may be the original slip-ofr slopes. OF VALLEYS Reconstruction of the courses of these old In northern Kentucky, extreme southwest- rivers is easiest beyond the glacial boundary ern Ohio, and southeastern Indiana, now- and in the very marginal areas of thin drift abandoned segments of part of the Teays River cover where the present land surface is essen- drainage system are still topographically distin- tially the bedrock surface. Here only post- Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-pdf/84/11/3677/3428778/i0016-7606-84-11-3677.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 PREGLACIAL (TEAYS) DRAINAGE IN THE CINCINNATI AREA 3679 Figure 2. Preglacial (Teays age) drainage in southwestern Ohio, southeastern Indiana, and northern Kentucky. Teays dissection complicates the reconstruc- others, 1961, p. 67, 74; Teller, 1962, 1970, tion, whereas a few miles north of the glacial p. 16; Schaber, 1962; Ettensohn, 1970; Gib- boundary, erosion and glacial deposition have bons, 1971) and in the western suburbs of almost completely obliterated the preglacial Cincinnati (Ettensohn, 1970; Hester, 1965). topography. The origin of some of these deposits and similar ones to the west near Louisville has been vari- NAMING OF THE VALLEYS ously explained as (1) late Paleozoic river- Several authors have proposed names for channel sediment (Hrabar and Potter, 1969), the main preglacial rivers in this area and, in (2) early Cenozoic nearshore marine sediment some cases, more than one name has been (Wayne, 1960), (3) Tertiary(P) river-channel applied to part or all of the same river segment. sediment (Leverett, 1929), (4) loess (Fenne- Table 1 summarizes the various names used. man, 1916); and (5) outwash and glacial No new names are proposed in this paper and lacustrine sediment (Brand, 1934; Schaber, those names retained are the ones that most 1962). An early glaciofluvial origin has been closely apply to the presently recognized river clearly demonstrated by Schaber (1962) for (Fig. 2). some of this upland sediment. Some, however, lies well south of the glacial boundary and SEDIMENT DESCRIPTION probably is related to pre-Teays drainage in Preglacial Sediment on the Uplands. the region. Much more study is needed to Deeply weathered very fine sand, silt, and properly evaluate the origin of these deposits. clay are exposed at many localities on the Preglacial Sediment in the Teays-Age Val- uplands of northern Kentucky south of Cin- leys. Within the abandoned high-elevation cinnati (Fenneman, 1916; Leverett, 1929; valleys of the Old Kentucky River, at 182 to Brand, 1934; Durrell, 1961, p. 55; Durrell and 213 m (600 to 700 ft) in elevation (Fig. 2), Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-pdf/84/11/3677/3428778/i0016-7606-84-11-3677.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 3680 J. T. T1LLLER TABLE 1. SUMMARY OF NAMES USED FOR PR:3LACIW. (TEAYS AGE) RIVERS IN NORTHERN KENTUCKY, SOUTHWESTERN OHIO, AND SOUTHEASTERN INDIANA* Preglacial river name Geographic extait of name Initial reference Old Limestone In and adjacent to present Ohio River valley from Maysville to Fowke (1898) eastern Cincinnati, then north and west through Norwood Trough to present Mill Creek valley; original reference did not extend river north of Cincinnati Manchester Same as Old Limestone except headwaters extended to Manchester Fowke (1924, p. 86) Norwood Same as Manchester Stout and others (1943) Old Licking Coincident with present Licking River valley from headwaters to Fowke (1898) Butler, Ky., then across uplands to junction with Manchester River 15 mi. southeast of Cincinnati; original reference extended river entire length of present Licking River and north through Mill Creek valley to Hamilton Old Laughery Roughly coincident with Laughery Cree< (south and west of Lawrenceburg, Fowke (1898) Ind.) and then within and adjacent to the present Great Miami River valley north as far as Hamilton Old Kentucky Same as Old Laughery between Lawrenceburg and Hamilton, but its Fowke (1900) headwaters were extended south and west alcng present Ohio River valley to Carrollton, Ky., and then uo the Kentucky River valley Cincinnati Roughly same as Old Kentucky but flowed in opposite direction Tight (1903, PI.

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