Preliminary Correlation of Post-Erie
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Preliminary Correlation of Post-Erie Interstadial Events (16^000-10,000 Radiocarbon Years Before Present), Central and Eastern Great Lakes Region, and Hudson, Champlain, and St. Lawrence Lowland^, United States and Canada Preliminary Correlation of Post-Erie Interstadial Events (16,000-10,000 Radiocarbon Years Before Present), Central and Eastern Great Lakes Region, and Hudson, Champlain, and St. Lawrence Lowlands, United States and Canada By DAVID S. FULLERTON GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 1089 A correlation of glacial and proglacial lakes, glacial tills, end moraines, and related features from eastern Wisconsin to western Vermont and Quebec UNITEDSTATESGOVERNMENTPRINTINGOFFICE, WASHINGTON: 1980 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR CECIL D. ANDRUS, Secretary GEOLOGICAL SURVEY H. William Menard, Director Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Fullerton, David S. Preliminary correlation of post-Erie interstadial events (16,000-10,000 radiocarbon years before present). (Geological Survey Professional Paper 1089) Bibliography: p. 33 1. Geology, Stratigraphic Quaternary. 2. Stratigraphic correlation Canada. 3. Stratigraphic correlation - United States. 4. Radioactive dating. I. Title: Professional Paper 1089. QE696.F84 551.7*9 78-18292 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Washington, D.C. 20402 Stock Number 024-001-03289-9 CONTENTS Page Abstract........................................................................... 1 Introduction ....................................................................... 1 Emphasis on New York State ........................................................ 2 Bases of correlation................................................................. 3 Explanation of correlation chart..................................................... 5 Time stratigraphy .............................................................. 5 Radiocarbon ages............................................................... 5 Glacial tills..................................................................... 13 End moraines .................................................................. 14 Altitudes of lake phases ......................................................... 14 Supplementary notes ........................................................... 14 Selected references.............................................................. 14 Acknowledgments.................................................................. 15 Supplementary notes ............................................................... 15 Selected references ................................................................. 33 ILLUSTRATIONS Page PLATE 1. Preliminary correlation of post-Erie interstadial events central and eastern Great Lakes region and Hudson, Champlain, and St. Lawrence Lowlands, United States and Canada..................................................... In pocket FIGURE 1. Regions represented by numbered column headings on plate 1...................................................... 3 2. Map of late Wisconsinan (Woodfordian) ice-flow patterns in the central and eastern Great Lakes region................. 6 TABLES Page TABLE 1. Time-stratigraphic classifications in the Great Lakes region........................................................ 7 2. Selected radiocarbon ages and sources .................................................••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 8 in IV CONTENTS METRIC-ENGLISH EQUIVALENTS [SI, International System of Units, a modernized metric system of measurement] SI unit U.S. customary equivalent SI unit U.S. customary equivalent Length Volume per unit time (includes flow)—Continued millimeter (mm) = 0.03937 inch (in) decimeter3 per second = 15.85 gallons per minute meter (m) = 3.281 feet (ft) (dm3/s) (gal/min) = 1.094 yards (yd) = 543.4 barrels per day kilometer (km) = 0.621 4 mile (mi) (bbl/d) (petroleum, = 0.540 0 mile, nautical (nmi) 1 bbl = 42 gal) meter3 per second (m3/ = 15 850 gallons per minute Area (gal/min) centimeter2 (cm2 ) = 0.1550 inch2 (in8) meter2 (m2) = 10.76 feet2 (ft2) — 1.196 yards2 (yd2) Mass = 0.0002471 acre hectometer3 (hm2 ) = 2.471 acres gram (g) = 0.035 27 ounce avoirdupois (oz = 0.003 861 section (640 acres or avdp) 1 mi2) kilogram (kg) = 2.205 pounds avoirdupois (Ib kilometer2 (km2) avdp) = 0.3861 mile2 (mia) megagram (Mg) — 1.102 tons, short (2000 Ib) Volume = 0.984 2 ton, long (2 240 Ib) centimeter3 (cm3) = 0.061 02 inch3 (in3) Mass per unit volume (includes density) decimeter3 (dm3) — 61.02 inches3 (in3 ) = 2.113 pints (pt) kilogram per meter3 =i 0.062 43 pound per foot3 fib/ft3) = 1.057 quarts (qt) (kg/m3 ) — 0.264 2 gallon (gal) = 0.035 31 foot3 (ft3 ) meter3 (m3) = 35.31 feet3 (ft3) Pressure — 1.308 yards3 (yd3) = 264.2 gallons (gal) kilo pascal (kPa) = 0.1450 pound-force per inch* = 6.290 barrels (bhl) (petro (lbf/ina) leum, 1 bbl = 42 gal) = 0.009 869 atmosphere, standard = 0.000 810 7 acre-foot (acre-ft) (atm) hectometer3 (hm3) = 810.7 acre-feet (acre-ft) = 0.01 bar kilometer3 (km3 ) = 0.239 9 mile3 (mi3 ) = 0.296 1 inch of mercurv at 60°P (in Hg) Volume per unit time (includes flow) decimeter3 per second = 0.035 31 foot3 per second (ft3/s) Temperature (dm»/s) = 2.119 feet3 per minute (ft1/ temp kelvin (K) = [temp deg Fahrenheit (°F) +459.67] /1.8 min) temp deg Celsius (°C) = [temp deg Fahrenheit (°F) — 32]/1.8 PRELIMINARY CORRELATION OF POST-ERIE INTERSTADIAL EVENTS (16,000-10,000 RADIOCARBON YEARS BEFORE PRESENT), CENTRAL AND EASTERN GREAT LAKES REGION, AND HUDSON, CHAMPLAIN, AND ST. LAWRENCE LOWLANDS, UNITED STATES AND CANADA By DAVID S. FULLERTON ABSTRACT More than 290 radiocarbon ages that provide maximum, approxi mate, or minimum ages for events are included on the chart. A A tentative correlation of glacial and deglacial events between ap series of supplementary notes accompanies the chart to clarify some proximately 16,000 and 10,000 radiocarbon years before present in correlations and to focus attention on inconsistent interpretations the central and eastern Great Lakes region and the Hudson, and selected unsolved problems. Champlain, and St. Lawrence Lowlands is presented as a correlation chart. Stratigraphic, morphologic, and chronologic data from New INTRODUCTION York are integrated with similar data from parts of Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ver The development of a stratigraphic scheme can have no final con mont, Ontario, and Quebec to provide a regional synthesis of glacial clusion, because the work is never finished. It goes on indefinitely, and deglacial events. usually in a series of jumps, slowly reaching ever-more-probable Ancestral lake phases are correlated on the basis of drainage rela correlations * * * Although parts of the structure are surely in error, tionships of the lake phases and continuity of strand features from little by little and perhaps at times painfully, these will be set right, one basis or lowland into another. Tills are correlated on the basis of and progress will continue with greater and greater refinement. lithostratigraphic continuity and their stratigraphic relationships (Flint, 1976, p. 407) to strand features and sediments of lake phases. End moraines are correlated on the basis of morphostratigraphic continuity, correla Chronologic and correlation schemes of glacial and tions of the tills of which they are composed, and relationships of deglacial events that postdate the Erie interstadial in moraines to strand features and sediments of lake phases. Radio the central and eastern Great Lakes region and in the carbon ages that have been assigned to lake phases, advances and Hudson, Champlain, and St. Lawrence Lowlands have recessions of ice margins, and formation of end moraines are not evolved rapidly during the past 25 years. The schemes considered as a primary basis for correlation. Two schemes of time-stratigraphic classification are used on the of Flint (1947, 1953, 1955, 1956, 1957), Hough (1953, chart and in the text. The classification of Dreimanis and Harrow 1958, 1963, 1966, 1968), Flint and Rubin (1955), and (1972) is based on stratigraphic relationships in the Lake Huron, Kelley and Farrand (1967), based on earlier studies, Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario basins and the St. Lawrence Lowland. were very generalized because of a paucity of informa The classification of Frye and others (1968) is based on tion, limited chronologic control, and a desire for sim stratigraphic relationships in Illinois and the Lake Michigan basin, and presently it cannot be extended east of Indiana and Michigan plicity. More recent reviews and syntheses by Wayne by lithostratigraphic criteria. and Zumberge (1965), Lewis (1969), Dorr and Eschman The correlations presented on the chart are a result of assessment (1970), Eschman and Farrand (1970), Prest (1970), of original observational data; they are not based on interpretations Flint (1971, 1976), Sly and Lewis (1972), Terasmae, from published summaries and syntheses. More than 2,500 sources Karrow, and Dreimanis (1972), Dreimanis and were consulted to obtain the observational data to construct the chart. Many of the stratigraphic and morphologic data upon which Goldthwait (1973), Farrand and Eschman (1974), and earlier syntheses of Great Lakes history were based were published Evenson and Dreimanis (1976) refined the earlier cor more than 50 years ago, and the original sources were not refer relations and added much new observational data enced in the more recent summaries. Unpublished