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ONTARIO DIVISION OF MINES GEOLOGICAL BRANCH
Open File Report 5132
Quaternary Geology of the Dundalk Area Southern Ontario
By
Q.H.J. Gwyn 1975
Parts of this publication may be quoted if credit is given to the Ontario Division of Mines. It is recommended that reference to this report be made in the following form: Q.H.J. Gwyn 1975: Quaternary Geology of the Dundalk Area, Southern Ontario; Ontario Div. Mines OFR 5132, 138p., 22 tables, 14 figures, 4 maps.
OPEN FILE REPORTS Open file reports are made available to the public subject to certain conditions. Anyone using them shall be deemed to have agreed to these conditions which are as follows: This report is unedited. Discrepancies may occur for which the Division does not assume liability. Open file copies may be read at the following places: Mines Library (Room W1603, Whitney Block), Ministry of Natural Resources, Mines Branch, Parliament Buildings 9 Toronto. The office of the Resident or Regional Geologist in whose district the area covered by this report is located, A report cannot be taken out of these offices. Handwritten notes and sketches may be made from it. This particular report is on file in the Regional or Resident Geologist©s office located at: 10670 Yonge Street 1106 De a .ess Drive Richmond Hill London, Ontario Ontario - Open file reports cannot be handed out for office reading until a card, giving the name and address of the applicant, is filled with the Resident Geologist or Librarian. A copy of this report is available for inter-library loan* The Division cannot supply photocopies. Arrangements may be made for photocopying by an outside firm at the user1 s expense. The Librarian or Resident Geologist x-Till supply information about these arrangements. The right to reproduce this report is reserved by the Ontario Division of Mines. Permission for other reproduction must be obtained in writing from the Director, Geological Branch.
E.G. Pye, Director, Geological Branch.
-11-
CONTENTS Page Abstract viii INTRODUCTION , l Present Geological Survey l Acknowledgements 3 Previous Work 3 Bedrock Topography 4 Drift Thickness 6 Physiography 8 Drainage 11 PALEOZOIC GEOLOGY 12 Ordovician 14 Silurian 14 Economic Geology 15 Corbetton 15 Shelburne 16 QUATERNARY GEOLOGY 17 Glacial Deposits and Features 17 Tavistock Till 19 Newmarket Till 25 Relationship of Tavistock and Newmarket Tills 27A Ablation Till 2#A Kettleby Till 30 Stratigraphic Relation 35 Direction of Ice Flow 35 Tavistock Ice 36 Newmarket and Kettleby Ice 41 Glacial Landforms 41 Moraines 41 Orangeville Moraine 44 Singhampton Moraine 4# Singhampton-Gibraltar Moraine 49 Correlation of Singhampton and Singhampton- Gibraltar Moraines 50 Banks Moraine 50A Glaciofluvial Features and Deposits 52 Ice-contact Stratified Drift 52 Orangeville Moraine 52 Singhampton Moraine 59 Singhampton-Gibraltar Moraine 59 Miscellaneous Ice-Contact Deposits 62 Eskers and Kames 63 Shrigley Esker 63 Riverview Esker 67 Brice Hill Esker 67 Small Kames and Eskers 69
(iii) Page
Glaciofluvial Outwash Deposits 75 Lavender-Violet Hill Meltwater Channel 7# Pine and Boyne Rivers Outwash 82 Lacustrine Deposits #5 Peat, Muck and Marl 86 Alluvium #7 Aeolian Deposits 88 Quaternary History 90 Granular Resources 93 Ice-Contact Stratified Drift 93 Orangeville Moraine 93 Singhampton-Gibraltar Moraine 96 Eskers and Kames 97 Glaciofluvial Outwash Deposits 101 References 105 Appendix A 110 Appendix B 115
(iv) FIGURES Page
1. Key map showing location of the Dundalk area. 2 2. Schematic diagram of Niagara Escarpment components and profiles in the Dundalk area. &A 3. Drainage basins, Dundalk area. 11A 4. Profiles of thalwegs of Pine and Boyne Rivers and profile of bedrock surface and geology. 11B 5. Textural diagram for Dundalk area tills. 20 6. Schematic diagram of ice flow directions (Tavistock Till) and provenance areas. 26 7. Schematic diagram of ice flow directions (Newmarket Till) and provenance areas. 2# #. Schematic diagram of ice flow directions (Kettleby Till) and provenance areas. 34 9. Iceflow direction indicators. 37 10. Definition of the Singhampton, Singhampton- Gibraltar, and Orangeville Moraines, Dundalk area. 45 11. Kames, eskers and miscellaneous ice-contact deposits. 60 12. Glaciofluvial outwash deposits, Dundalk area. 76 13. Schematic diagram of glacial and nonglacial episodes, Dundalk area. 91 14. Ice-contact deposits in main sections of Orangeville, Singhampton and Singhampton- Gibraltar Moraines, and principal outwash gravel deposits. 94
(v) TABLES Page 1. List of the litho-stratigraphic units underlying the Dundalk area. " 12 2. Detailed section of Paleozoic sediments at Morning©s Mills. 13 3. Analyses of the Guelph Formation. 16 4. Quaternary deposits of the Dundalk area. 1# 5. Summary of till analyses from the Dundalk area. 21 6. Measured section of Kettleby Tills Mono Township. 32 7. Correlation of Moraine in the Dundalk area. 43 B. Textural analysis of sand samples in the Orangeville Moraine. 54 9. Summary data of sand and gravel deposits in the Orangeville Moraine. 55 10. Summary data of sand and gravel in isolated deposits, Orangeville Moraine. 57 11. Textural analysis of sand samples from isolated deposits, Orangeville Moraine. 5^ 12. Summary data of sand and gravel deposits in the Singhampton and Singhampton-Gibraltar Moraines. 6l 13. Summary data of sand and gravel deposits in the Shrigley Esker. 65 14. Textural analysis of sand samples from Shrigley Esker. 66 15. Summary data of sand and gravel deposits in Riverview Esker. 6# 16. Summary data of sand and gravel deposits in Brice Hill Esker. 70 17. Textural analysis of sand samples from Brice Hill Esker. 71 1&. Summary data of Esker adjacent to the Orangeville Moraine and isolated kames. 73 19. Textural analysis of sand samples from esker adjacent to the Orangeville Moraine and isolated kames. 74 20. Summary data on outwash deposits, Dundalk area. 79 21. Textural analysis of sand samples from outwash deposits. #1 22. Possible reserves in major outwash deposits, Dundalk area. 104
(vi) Maps (in pocket)
1. Bedrock Topography and Geology (f, 2. Drift Thickness (P.1023) 3- Quaternary Geology (P.72?) 4. Pebble Lithology
(vii) ABSTRACT
The Dundalk area includes the headwaters of rivers that flow into three major basins; Georgian Bay, Lake Huron, and Lake Erie. It also lies astride a section of Niagara Escarpment. Up to 400 feet of drift overlie Ordovician shale and Silurian shale, sandstone, and dolostone. All the known sediments of Pleistocene age were deposited during the Late Wisconsinan Substage. The earliest ice advance that has been identified deposited Tavistock Till and built at its margin the Orangeville Moraine. Most of Tavistock Till was deposited by ice flowing southeastward and part of it, in the area east of Shelburne, by southwest- ward flowing ice. The suture between these two ice margins was the locus of deposition of the Orangeville Moraine. It was built both during and following the advance of Tavistock ice and is correlative with an advance of Port Stanley ice from the Lake Ontario basin. The ice then retreated and readvanced over the Escarpment into the eastern and extreme northwestern parts of the map-area, and built the Singhampton Moraine and then the Singhampton-Gibraltar moraine. These moraines were built by ice which deposited Newmarket Till on and below the Escarpment. During the early phases of retreat of Newmarket ice a succession of meltwater channels develope between the ice margin and the Escarpment. The largest of these channels
(viii) the Lavender-Violet Hill Meltwater Channel, flowed southward across Pine, Boyne and Nottawasaga River valleys and into the Credit River valley. During the extensive retreat of Newmarket ice to the northeast, Early Schomberg Ponds were formed between the ice margin and the Escarpment. The sediments deposited in them were then overridden twice and Kettleby Till was deposited as two separate but indistinguishable units. Middle Schomberg sediments separate the units. During stagnation of Kettleby ice outwash deposits and some ice-contact sediments were laid down between the ice and the Escarpment. Upon final retreat of the ice Late Schomberg Ponds were formed. As these receded to lower levels the rivers flowing eastward off the Escarpment cut successive paired terraces in the outwash deposits below it. With this, glacial and related events ceased in the Dundalk area. Although abundant glaciofluvial sediment was deposited, particularly in Mono and Mulmur Townships, a large proportion of it is only fine grained sediment. The principal exceptions to this are eskers and part of the Orangeville Moraine north of Shelburne on the Dundalk Till Plain, and the outwash gravels in the Lavender-Violet Hill Meltwater Channel.
(ix)
Quaternary Geology of the Dundalk Area Southern Ontario by Q.H.J. Gwyn1 INTRODUCTION
The Dundalk area comprises approximately 430 square miles bounded by 80O 00 T and 80O 30 ! west longitude and 40O 00 and 40O15© north latitude (N.T.S. Sheet 40A/1). It consists of all or parts of the townships of Amaranth, East Luther, Melancthon, Mono and
Mulmur (Dufferin County); Artemesia, Osprey and Proton (Grey County);
Tosorontio (Simcoe County); West Luther (Wellington County) (Fig. 1). The principal towns are Dundalk and Shelburne, and some of the smaller communities include Corbetton, Honeywood, Morning©s Mills, Mansfield, Mono Centre, Redickville and Terra Nova. Trans portation routes throught the area include the King©s Highways 10, 24, and 89 and Canadian Pacific Railway; as well as a close net work of county and township roads. Agriculture is the main industry in the map area. Several gravel pits are operated but they are not a major industry, and the only building stone quarry in the map area ceased production in the late 1920©s (Goudge, 1938). There are, however, very large reserves of sand and grave particularly in Mono and Mulmur Townships. Present Geological Survey Mapping of the Quaternary Geology of which the sand and gravel forms a part, is intended to provide information on the distribution, properties, and stratigraphy of the surficial deposits, elucidate part of the geological history
Geologist, Ontario Division of Mines, Toronto. Manuscript approved for publication by the Chief, Phanerozoic Geology Section, May 5, 1975. - 2 -
Figure 1. Key map showing location of the Dundalk area Scale: l inch to 25 miles. - 3 -
of the area, determine the origin of the deposits and landforms where possible, and for use in planning, engineering and other environmental studies. Mapping of the surface deposits in the Dundalk area was begun and completed during the summer of 1971. Field mapping methods included the examination of road exposures, stream banks, foundation excavations, and soil augering. Air photographs (scale 1:36,000) were used throughout the map area.
Acknowledgements The author thanks B.C. Cairns, A.G. Higgins and E.G. Eggertson for their enthusiastic and capable field assistance. Cairns mapped independently the west half of the map area. I would also like to thank my colleagues in the Ministry of Natural Resources for their helpful discussions, in particular W.R. Cowan and D.R. Sharpe. Previous Work The Paleozoic bedrock underlying the report area was mapped by Liberty (1969) and the Silurian stratigraphy in the Niagara Escarpment has been studied by Bolton (1953, 1957), Crombie (1943) and Holstein (1936). Regional mapping of the Paleozoic rocks in the Dundalk area has been completed by Telford et al. (1974). Information about the subsurface stratigraphy is contained in water well records maintained by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and in the Oil and Gas Well records of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. Soil surveys have been completed for the counties included in the map area as part of the Ontario Soil Survey. These include the counties of Dufferin (Hoffman jrb al. 1962), Grey (Gillespie and Richards, 1954), Simcoe (Hoffman et al., 1962) and Wellington (Hoffman et al., 1963). The earliest work in which Quaternary features in the Dundalk area were discussed was done by Spencer (1###) who referred to "ridges in the form of moraines" around Georgian Bay. Subsequently Taylor (1913) published his work on the moraines of southwestern Ontario. More recent work by Chapman and Putnam (1966) included a description of the physiography of the area. A portion of the area has been mapped and described as part of a study of the Upper Nottawasaga River drainage basin (Sibul and Choo-Ying, 1971. Studies on the Quaternary deposits and geology which are relevant to the study area but outside it are those of Deane (1950) and White (1971). Hewitt and Cowan (1969, p. 95) included the description of only one gravel pit in the map area. Bedrock Topography Gwyn and Fraser (1975&) prepared a map of the bedrock topography for the Dundalk map-area. (Map l). Two styles in the bedrock surface permit the area to be divided into east and west portions. The dividing line lies approximately 5
through Mono Centre, Primrose, Hornings Mills, and Honeywood. This marks, approximately, the upper edge of Niagara Escarp ment. In the western part the bedrock surface is a relatively smooth, rolling area with an overall gradient to the west of 20 feet per mile (k m per kilometer). It has a maximum relief of 125 feet (6l m) and a local relief of 50 feet (15 m). One broad bedrock valley is present it extends southward from Riverview towards Keldon. The valley is probably the expression of the drainage basin of Grand River in the bedrock surface. In contrast to the relatively smooth surface of the western portion and its low relief, the eastern part is strongly cut by several bedrock valleys, and includes a section of Niagara Escarpment. The average gradient in this part of the map area is 70 feet per mile (13 m per kilometer) to the east. The maximum relief is 700 feet (212 m) and the local relief is in the order of 200 feet (6l m). Three main eastwest trending valleys, which disect the eastern portion of the map area, correspond to the present valleys of Boyne, Pine, and Nottawasaga Rivers. There are as well several smaller tributary bedrock valleys which have north northwest-south southeast axes. This set of perpendicular valleys is, in general, parallel to a well developed joint mattern in the bedrock and is especially noticeable in outcrops of the - 6 -
Amabel Formation. The process of development of the perpendicular sets of bedrock valleys is probably the principal process resulting in the retreat of Niagara Escarpment. It is suggested that as a result of the continued deepening of the north-south set of valleys, parts of the Escarpment become defined as large, more or less rectangular blocks. After further river activity they become isolated from the Escarpment as outliers. Hewitt (1971, p* 1&) has described two basic types of outliers those that are still partly attached (attached outliers) and those that are completely detached (separated outliers). An interpretation of the outliers is that they represent the continuing process of dissection of the Escarpment and progressive isolation of large blocks of it as outliers and the final destruction of these.
Drift Thickness A map of the overburden thickness has been constructed from water well data (Map 2) (Gwyn and Fraser, 1975b). It should be noted that the contours are interpretive. However, it is possible to gain a fair impression of the drift thickness. The drift thickness can be discussed with respect to east and west portions suggested for the bedrock topography. Westward from the Escarpment edge to a line approximately through Shrigley, Corbetton and Jessopville the drift ranges - 7 -
between 25 feet and 50 feet (8 m and 16 m). Further west the drift thickens markedly, so that along the western border of the map-area it is 125 feet to 150 feet (3# m to 45 m) thick. In general the drift masks the slope on the bedrock surface which is steeper than the gradient on the drift surface. The exception to this pattern is the accumulation of drift in the Orangeville Moraine (Map 2). The drift is 100 feet (30 m) or more in the Whitfield area and between 50 feet (16 m) and 125 feet (33 m) in the main trunk of the moraine south of Boyne River and in the spur of the moraine extending west and south from Elba to Crombie Station. East of the Escarpment edge there are two patterns of drift accumulation. The first is the filling of the bedrock valleys with 100 to 400 feet (30 to 121 m) of sediments. This is observed in the valleys of Pine River, Boyne River, Sheldon Creek, and along the north bank of Nottawasaga River. Particularly thick drift is found in Pine River valley (greater than 400 feet (121 m)). The second drift pattern consists of 100 to 200 feet (30 - 60 m) of sediment at the foot of the Escarpment south from Pine River to the edge of the map-area (Map 2). This material forms part of the Singhampton-Gibraltar Moraine. - 8 -
Physiography The Dundalk area includes parts of three physiographic regions as defined by Chapman and Putnam (1966, pp. 174-175): Dundalk Till Plain, Niagara Escarpment, and Horseshoe Moraines. The Dundalk Till Plain is a gently rolling, partially drumlinized and fluted surface at an elevation ranging between 1725 feet and 1600 feet above sea level (523 m and 4#5 m) on its eastern border and 1625 feet (492 m) along the western margin of the map-area. As well as the glacially formed features there are three eskers, a number of kames, and a network of shallow meltwater channels. Both the glacial and associated features give the surface its gently rolling appearance. The Niagara Escarpment (Map 1) trends north-south through the eastern half of the map-area. The definitions and discussions of various types and parts of an escarpment have been presented by Hewitt (1971). In the simplest case the scarp is defined as consisting of a brow (the transition between a gently sloping upper surface and a steeper sloping middle surface), a scarp face which is the steeper middle surface, and a base (the transition between the face and a gently sloping lowest surface (Fig. 2a). Complications of this simple type include the presence of several steps within a single scarp feature (multiple scarps), the presence or - 3A -
01
Escarpment Component* drift mantle
.Monffed Scarp wifh outlier as of Mono Cenfre
.Mantled Scarp with stripped outlier, os of Mansfield
Buried, s tepped scarp os of fhe Boyne River
Fig. 2. Schematic Diagram of Niagara Escarpment components and profiles in the Dundalk Area. - 9 -
or absence of a cap rock (capped, uncapped or stripped scarp), and the presence or absence of outliers (attached, separated, capped, uncapped or stripped) which can be considered part of the scarp feature. Further complications are introduced when the scarp is covered by various amounts of deposits (mantled - thinly or partially covered; buried completely obscured by deposits). The deposits can be composed of material derived from the scarp face, glacial and non glacial types of sediments, or a combination of these. In the Dundalk area, the Escarpment is a composite of different types of the scarps outlined above. The brow of the Escarpment is well defined on the bedrock surface except in Boyne River Valley. The brow is at 1600 feet (4#5 m) above sea level at the northern edge of the map-area and descends to 1500 feet (455 m) at the southern edge (Map l ), a gradient of 3.3 feet per mile (.7m per kilometer). The upper edge of the Escarpment occurs at or slightly west of the contact between the Amabel Formation and the Clinton and Cataract Groups. In this section of the Escarpment the Amabel Formation forms the caprock. At Boyne River a broad swale, 2 km wide, has been eroded into the Amabel Formation so that the principal change in slope to mark the brow of the Escarpment occurs within the sediments of the Clinton and Cataract Groups ( Map l ). The Escarpment can be divided into two main segments - 10 -
along its length within the map-area. A northern unit extends from Horning* s Mills north to the map edge. It. consists of a simple mantled scarp (Fig. 2a). A 50 to 75 foot (15 m to 23 m) rock face is exposed for approximately 6 km (4 miles) south southwest from Black Bank. The remainder of the face is mantled under 25 to 100 feet (B m to 30 m) of drift. The base of this segment of the scarp is marked by a break in slope at about 900 feet (273 m) elevation (Map 1). The southern segment consists of a stepped scarp, two levels, parts of which include a rock face and a lower mantled face, and other sections being completely buried under drift (Fig. 2). A rock face, 25 feet high (S m), occurs east of Whitfield and another, 75 feet to 100 feet high (23 m to 30 m), from east of Granger south to Mono Centre. This segment of the escarpment also includes two separated and two attached outliers capped by the Amabel Formation (Fig. 2b). These are in the vicinity of Mono Centre. Along this segment, the lower level, is a broad step underlain by the Queenston Formation, and includes on its surface two, and possibly more, stripped outliers. One outlier is immediately north of Perm and the other north of Violet Hill. The base of the Escarpment in this segment is difficult to delineate in the absence of a well defined break in slope (Map l). Parts of the Horseshoe Moraines occur just west of the brow of the Escarpment north of Pine River and on the lower step in the southern segment. The moraines will be - 11 -
discussed in greater detail below. Chapman and Putnam (1966, pp. 174-175) appear to include parts of two other physiographic regions: the Simcoe Lowlands and the Peterborough Drumlin Field. However, at the present scale of 1:50,000 the boundaries for these regions are in the map-area to the east.
Drainage Headwaters of seven rivers are within the map-area which drain into three major water bodies (Fig. 3). Saugeen and South Saugeen Rivers flow west to Lake Huron, Grand River flows south to Lake Erie, and Nottawasaga, Boyne, Pine and Noisy Rivers and Sheldon Creek flow east and then north toward Georgian Bay. Nottawasaga River is the only river that enters Georgian Bay. The westward and southward draining rivers have regular gradients in the order of 10 feet per mile (2 m per kilometer). The eastward draining rivers have similar gradients west of the Escarpment, but east of the Escarpment brow the gradients, and profiles change depending on the type of Escarpment face. For example, Pine River has only one stretch of steeper gradient (Fig. 4), between Horning*s Mills and Kilgorie, as it flows across a simple scarp face. Whereas, Boyne River, which flows across the southern segment of the Escarpment, as described above, includes two reaches where the profile intersects the upper and lower steps of the Escarpment (Fig. 4). These reaches are at Primrose and at Perm. -11A-
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PALEOZOIC GEOLOGY
The most recent and comprehensive mapping of the Paleozoic geology of the Dundalk area was done by Telford jet al. (1974) (Map 1). Liberty (1969) has studied the Paleozoic geology and stratigraphy of the Lake Simcoe region which included the present map-area. Table l is a list of Formations occurring within the Dundalk area as presented by Bolton (1957) and Liberty (1969) and compiled and summarized by Hewitt (1972). - 12A -
TABLE 1. List of litho-stratigraphic units underlying the Dundalk area.
Middle Silurian Guelph Formation: brown dolostone Amabel Formation: grey dolostone Middle and Lower Silurian Clinton Group Fossil Hill Formation: mottled grey or brown dolostone Cataract Group Cabot Head Formation: green and red shale Manitoulin Formation: grey or mottled brown dolostone Whirlpool Formation: quartz sandstone Upper Ordovician Queenston Formation: red shale Nottawasaga Group Georgian Bay Formation: grey green shale, silt stone, lime stone Whitby Formation: brown and black shale Simcoe Group Lindsay Formation: grey limestone - 13 -
Bolton (1957) studied the Silurian stratigraphy of Niagara Escarpment, and described several sections within the area including a section at Homings Mills (Table 2).
Table 2: Detailed section of Paleozoic sediments at Horring©s Mills (After Bolton, 1957, P- 98).
Formation or Description Thickness member Feet Colpoy Bay Dolomite; whitish grey, crystalline, massive, porous. 17
Fossil Hill Dolomite; light grey, dense, thin bedded ; upper contact undulating; Favosites cf. favosus (Goldfuss). 8
Cabot Head Shale; grey; minor thin red sandstone beds. 5 Loose at base of falls, sandstone, argillaceous red, fine (exposed) grained; fossiliferous, Pkaenopora expansa Hall, P. constellate. Hall: limestone, fine grained to dense, grey, fossiliferous; P. expansa Hall, P. constettata © Hall, Helopora fragilis Hall, Stegerhynchus neglectum (Hall), Rhynchotreta- sp., Cormdites sp.; similar to Section II at Nottawasaga River (65).
Covered interval Mainly Cabot Head. 55
Manitoulin Dolomite; dark grey, crystalline, brown weathered, more massive than usual, thin to thick bedded; argillaceous and thin grey shale units; white chert not as abundant; fossiliferous, confined to sandy, argillaceous dolomite; section exposed some 1,000 feet downstream from falls. 12-5 - 14 -
Ordovician The oldest bedrock in the map area, the Lindsay Formation, occurs in the extreme northeast corner (Map l), however, it is not exposed. It is predominantly grey, fine grained argillaceous limestone and includes shale partings and interbeds of crinoidal limestone and calcarenite. Disconformably overlying this are black, fissile calcareous shales of the Whitby Formation. This in turn is overlain by the Georgian Bay Formation consisting of blue-grey shales with interbeds of sandstone, limestone, dolostone and grey fossil-bearing limestone. The Georgian Bay Formation is exposed at several localities particularly near Mansfield and 2 miles east of Ruskview. At this latter place, the transitional contact between it and the overlying Queenston Formation is exposed. The Queenston Formation is brick-red micaceous and arenaceous shale and clay shale with green mottling in lenses and along fractures. The Ordovician sediments have an aggregate thickness of about 700 feet and underlie the eastern quarter of the map area.
Silurian Overlying the Ordovician sediments are approximately 300 feet of deposits of the Silurian Period which cover 75 percent of the map area. The lowermost Silurian unit is the Whirlpool - 15 -
Formation which unconformably overlies the Queenston Formation. It is medium to light grey, fine to medium grained sandstone. Conformably overlying it is the Manitoulin Formation of grey fine-crystalline dolomitic limestone. The Cabot Head Formation consists of grey, red and green shale and calcareous shale with variable amounts of interbedded calcareous sandstone and limestone. The only unit of the Clinton Group present in the area is the Fossil Hill Formation which consists of light grey dense dolostone. Two middle Silurian formations occur within the map area: the Amabel and Guelph Formations. The Amabel Formation is grey to white dolostone and usually finely crystalline and porous. Boulton (1959) divided it into three members including the Colpoy Bay Member (Table 2). The Guelph Formation is brown to grey dolostone having a dense to sugary texture.
Economic Geology Although several of the formations just described have been developed as industrial mineral deposits in other areas, only the Guelph Formation has been quarried. Two quarries have been operated. Corbetton Goudge (193&, p.214) described a small quarry two miles northeast of Corbetton (Lot 244, Concession 1W) in Melancthon Township. The stone consisted of "hard, very fine-grained, dark bluish-grey dolomite in beds 6" (15 cm) - 16 -
thick without shale partings and contains many small cavities, some of which are filled with black bituminous matter." An analysis of representative samples is given in Table 3.
Table 3- Analyses of the Guelph Formation Ratio cf Ca2 CaO to Cj/N F'; 20.j A120-} (P0^) 2 CaCO, MgCOo. Total S CaO MgO MgO Corh. tn--i O.'.'J 0.33 0.16 O.O/* 55.00 43-42 99.40 Nil 30.32 20.76 1.43:1 Ch.n.ur-^ 0.24 0.34 0.02 0.02 55.55 43.14 99.31 Nil 31.12 20.63 1:51:1 t The material was used for road metal. This quarry could not be located during the present survey.
Shelburne The second quarry in the Dundalk area was located 1.5 miles (2.4 km) east of Shelburne (Goudge, 1927, p. 46; Goudge, 1933, p. 75; Goudge, 193#, p- 214; Hewitt, 1964, p. 37). Approximately 16 feet (5m) of buff aphanitic, medium bedded dolomite is exposed. The beds dip southwest at 10 to 20 degrees and the beds thicken to the southwest. Goudge (193&, p* 214) considered the dolomite to be the Lockport Formation, and Hewitt (1964, p. 37) considered it to be the Amabel Formation, More recent mapping by I.J. Bond and P.G. Telford has shown it to be the Guelph Formation (Telford, Bond and Liberty, 1974). The material was used for building stone and ashlar. The quarry was operated in the late 1920 f s by Ritchie Cut Stone Ltd. - 17 -
QUATERNARY GEOLOGY
It is probable that the Pleistocene deposits in the Dundalk area (Table 4) are all the result of Late Wisconsinan glaciation (approx. 23,000 to 10,000 years B.P.; Dreimanis and Karrow, 1972, p* B). However, there is little evidence that indicates the age of the deposits. During this period large quantities of ice-contact stratified sand and gravel were deposited in the Orangeville Moraine and west of it in a series of eskers, and to the east of it in what is probably the Singhampton-Gibraltar Moraine. Following,and in places contemporaneous with the ice-contact deposits, large amounts of outwash sand and some gravel were deposited in major melt water channels and numerous smaller channels, and in the eastward draining river valleys. Following deglaciation, the main rivers cut through their valley fills forming a series of terraces, closed depressions were filled with organic deposits, and during two periods wind blown deposits were laid down.
Glacial Deposits Till is an unsorted, usually nonstratified material which is derived, transported, deposited, or deformed directly by a glacier. Texturally it can be composed of grain sizes ranging from clay-sized to boulders in a wide range of proportions. - 13 -
Table 4: Quaternary deposits of the Dundalk area*
Deposits Materials Landforms Wind-blown deposits fine sand, silt dunes, veneer on til] plain, depression fill modern alluvium silt, sand, gravel present day flood plain and channel deposits -p c bog muck, peat, marl filled depressions o0 Q) older alluvium sand, gravel paired terraces present river courses
glacial and post silt, sand, clay filled depressions glacial ponds glaciofluvial outwash sand, gravel terraces, outwash plains, channel fills.
(D ctf C C Kettleby Till clayey silt till Q) H O W O C ice-contact stratified sand, gravel, silt hummocky Orangeville p O CO O drift and Singhampton- •H W O) H Gibraltar moraine, H eskers, kames, ice- fi, 0 contact terraces -P ablation till pebbly sandy silt cd till Newmarket Till sandy silt till Singhampton Moraine
Tavistock Till silt till till plain, drumlins 19 -
Four till units occur in the Dundalk area which cover about 60 percent of the surface. These are Tavistock Till, Kettleby Till, a few exposures of Newmarket Till and an ablation till probably related to Newmarket Till (Table 5).
Tavistock Till Tavistock Till was first described by Karrow (1963, p. 23) in the Guelph area where it was informally referred to as "northern .till". Later, Karrow (1970, p. #) described it in the Stratford-Conestogo area as a gritty clayey silt till deposited by ice flowing from the northwest, and gave it the informal name till "C". The till is named after the village of Tavistock in the Stratford map-area (Karrow 197V, p. 762). The till is contiguous with the surface till west of the Orangeville Moraine in the Orangeville area (Cowan and Sharpe, 1973; Cowan, 1974) which has been correlated with tills "C" and "T" in the Stratford-Conestogo area (Karrow, 1971) and the Zorra till in the Woodstock area (Cowan, 1975). In the Dundalk area the till is a sandy silt to silt to clayey silt till (Fig. 5).
Textural descriptions follow the classification of Elson (1961), however, granulometric boundaries (sand?0.0625 mm mm, clay^.002 mm) differ from those of Elson. - 20 -
© Kottloby Till * Taviatock Till O Mean, Taviatock 7111 B Mean, Taviatock Till (Karrow. 1974} O Moan, Tavictock Till (Cowan, 1974) n, T*vi*to*5c Till (Cowan, 1975) tt (Karrow, lc
SAND SILT
Figure 5. Textural diagram for Dundalk area tills (Sand > 0*0625 mm and < 2 mm, clay < 0.002 mm). - 21 -
o o o-* r-l O O l O Vj t*\ O\ -*J Vj w\vO tO C^ rt -^ v •(110 l l * l l l l i i r-- l l J l •\fs c*~o *T v\fo o CA i
KM M (V CM CM OOOO **\f
f\Sy l?v\ 1
NC4 (V CMCVtN
-Uo. CM CM
tO-i-'.-kCV.' i-l r"* l l l t l l l l l l ^ l J^ CV O4 O f^O^ vrv •r-t ' r-tO
^ fi
o C ^ C f* h C C -H E- H rt o ci o eJ o o c c o t- 01 O S! c' *i c; o o .0 C o o o .0 j O ti J X -H h K (0 c C ** *J -* E Q *J-i O ** a c \ e> id 0 0 17 *l *J r!V. —-4 r? r*t V^ r-1 C- O ft r-4 f-" g B t*\ *^ "^ •r-4 i- O t. l. O E-- O O i-3 E- .? n fi. rt 15 rt r~4 ^ i-i -" *J O X'c- llr-l C" O C 1 1 1 1 i rH -r4 CJ -1 0 .CI r-! l, l-! rt o o J o 5 o n o o 05.0 Oi 2Z ,J O O t-i 0. ,-J o at-o H :i c: n. s-, p. V. X o: - 22 -
It is usually oxidized giving it a brown to light brown colour (7.5YR 5/2 - 7.5TR 6/4, Munsell System). Leaching of carbonates seldom extends more than 0.3 m (l foot) below the surface, but discolouration due to oxidation may extend 3 to 4 m (10 to 13 feet) below the surface. In the few exposures where unoxidized till was seen, it was olive to olive grey (5Y 5/4 - 5Y 4/2). Cowan (1974, p. 31) described Tavistock Till as a silt or clayey silt till and locally it was a clay till or more sandy in texture depending on local substrates. The till becomes progressively sandier from south to north which is a continuation of a trend noted by Cowan (1974, p* 31). Typical values in the southwest part of the map-area range between 20 and 35 percent sand and in the north they range between 40 and 50 percent. The values in the southern part of the present area are the same as those in the northern part of the Orangeville area. The mean textural value (Fig. 5) indicates that the till is generally sandier than in the Orangeville and Stratford-Conestogo areas, however, it is distinctly less sandy than in the Woodstock area. Carbonate content in this till is consistently high (Appendix A), averaging more than 50 percent in both the pebble grade (B to 32 mm (Map 4) and in the silt and clay fraction (Table 5). In contrast, both the clastic and Precambrian
Clastic refers to shale, sandstone, and siltstone lithologies. - 23 -
pebble content is low (avg. 11 and 3 percent) (Table 5) and the purple to red garnet ratio is 0.14. The distribution of pebble lithologies is remarkably consistent in Tavistock Till (Table 5, Map 4). The dominant lithology is dolostone (avg. 6? percent) with few exceptions (Appendix A). Limestone is the next most important constituent followed by clastic pebbles. The dolostone is derived primarily from the underlying Amabel and Guelph Formations and the elastics from the bedrock units in the face of the Escarpment and immediately east of it (Map 1). The limestone is derived from units still further to the east. The exceptions to this pattern are concentrated in the Shelburne-Primrose area (Samples, 37, 62, 63, 64, 65, and 67; Map 4). They are exceptional in that they contain more limestone and clastic pebbles than do other Tavistock Till samples. Such lithologies indicate ice flow from the east in this area. Tavistock Till is found throughout the area to the west of the Orangeville and Singhampton Moraines. Thus it underlies most of the outwash sands, ice-contact deposits, and recent deposits in Osprey, Artemesia, Proton, Melancthon, West Luther, East Luther, and Amaranth Townships. In two areas, however, ice contact deposits are partially buried by the till. On the west side of the map-area two bodies - 24 -
of ice-contact pebbley sand north and south of Kingscote are partially buried by Tavistock Till. Also, in Amaranth Township, part of the spur of the Orangeville Moraine north of Crombie Station is clearly buried by the till as is part of a second spur of the moraine directly east of Crombie Station in Mono Township. Tavistock Till was found in outcrop underlying ice-contact deposits of the main trunk of the Orangeville Moraine. Thus the till is both younger and older than different parts of the Orangeville Moraine. The relation of Tavistock Till to the Singhampton Moraine is not clear. The boundary drawn between them is based on surface morphology. It is realized that an end moraine does not necessarily demarcate the furthest extent of an ice advance, that the ice might extend beyond the moraine both before and after the landform is built. However, there is a complete absence of exposures which might reveal the relation between Tavistock Till and the till in the Singhampton Moraine, The till matrix in the moraine is slightly sandy silt to clayey silt till though it is noticeably stonier than Tavistock Till. In general textural and mineralogical parameters do not show marked and consistent differences. When described in the Guelph and in the Stratford- Conestogo areas (Karrow, 1963, p. 23; 1970, p, B) and in the Orangeville area (Cowan, 1974, p. 31), the till was - 25 -
considered to have been deposited by ice flowing from the northwest. Ice flow indicators in the west half of the present area support this though four drumlins north of Dundalk in Melancthon Township trend north northeast south southwest. Flutings and till pebble orientations in Tavistock Till in the vicinity of Conover and Honeywood have a strong northeast-southwest trend (Map 3). Thus, while in general Tavistock ice flowed southward local variation in flow directions are present. Flow directions are discussed in more detail below. Based on heavy mineral content, garnet colour ratio and garnet colour, and ice flow directions the Tavistock Till had its provenance in the Western Grenville area (Gwyn, 1971, p. #2) (Fig. 6). It was probably deposited by ice flowing out of Georgian Bay during the Port Bruce stadial (Karrow, 1974, p. 765). Cowan (1974, p. 34) reported Tavistock Till intercalated with Port Stanley Till, deposited during the Port Bruce stadial, in the Orangeville area.
Newmarket Till Newmarket Till was first described as a sandy lower till by Dreimanis (1953) and later as the "northern lower till" by White (1971, p. 1&2). It is named after the town of Newmarket (Gwyn, 1972, p. 145) where there are extensive areas of outcrop. White (1971, p. 1#5) described it as sandy till ranging in texture from sandy loam to loam till (loam to sandy silt till, Elson Classification). In the map- area it is sandy silt till containing 5 to 10 percent pebbles - 26 -
Paleozoic — Precambrian boundary — C Western Grenville — Eastei i Grenville Area boundary — Grenville Front Niagara Escarpment ~~
Figure 6. Schematic diagram of ice flow directions (Tavistock Till) and provenance areas* Scale: l inch to 100 miles. - 27 -
and has a marked fissile structure. In contrast to Tavistock Till, the till contains abundant limestone and clastic pebbles, and the Precambrian pebble content is higher. One sample (6l) contains 29 percent elastics and 7 percent Precambrian pebbles and the limestone- dolostone ratio is 6. These are typical values for tills below the Escarpment (Map 4). The garnet content in the heavy mineral suite is relatively high (10 percent), and combined with a purple to red garnet ratio of less than 1.0 and its pebble composition suggests a Western Grenville source area (Gwyn 1971, p. #2) for the ice sheet which deposited the till (Fig. 7). Newmarket Till is not easily traced in the Dundalk area. It is most extensive in the Singhampton Moraine north of Pine River and immediately east of the moraine. Its relation to the moraine will be further discussed below. It has also been identified in individual outcrops east of Black Banks in Mulmur Township and south of Mulmur in Mono Township. Glaciofluvial sand and gravel were the principal deposits found under Newmarket Till in the map-area and similarily in the Alliston and Newmarket map-areas to the east. No fine-grained lacustrine sediments have been found in any of the surrounding areas. The only other material found under Newmarket Till was the sandy silt Bogarttown Till (Gwyn 1972, p. 145), however, it was not identified in the present map-area. - 27a -
Relationship of Tavistock and Newmarket Tills
The question arises as to how far north the ice retreated after Tavistock Till had been deposited. It was assumed implicitly by White (1971, p. 217) that Newmarket ice advanced from some distant position to build the Singhampton Moraine, retreated and then readvanced to build the Gibraltar Moraine in the Bolton map-area. Earlier Chapman and Putnam (1949, p. 39) implied much the same history. Retreat of the ice margin north and east bf the Escarpment would seem to imply the development of proglacial lakes between the ice and the Escarpment and meltwater flowing either north or south in front of the Escarpment or over the Escarpment towards th? southwest. Whether such lacustrine episodes occur depends on the meltwater drainage pattern and the availability of outlets. However, as no evidence has been found of an extensive lacustrine period below the Escarpment following the retreat of Tavistock ice three explanations are possible. The first is that the ice retreated a considerable distance from the Escarpment and that no lakes formed owing to effective meltwater drainage. The second alternative is that Tavistock ice did not retreat from the Escarpment and therefore Tavistock and Newmarket Tills are correlative. Thirdly, it is possible, despite the absence of evidence for a post-Tavistock lacustrine phase, that Tavistock ice did retreat from the Escarpment and that Newmarket Till represents a separate advance. In which case, Paleozoic - Precambrian boundary Western Grenville - Eastern Grenville Area boundary Grenville Front Niagara Escarpment
Figure? . Schematic diagram of ice flow directions (Newmarket Till) and provenance areas. Scale: l inch to 100 miles. Tavistock Till might be correlated with Bogarttown Till. The first alternative is unlikely because at this time a continuous series of lakes occupies Lake Erie basin and the southern part of Lake Huron basin and if Georgian Bay had been ice free these lakes would have extended into it. The writer favours the second interpretation at this time, although it is supported by only negative evidence. The third alternative though tenable is tenuous in that there are other possible correlations with the Bogarttown Till. These alternatives will be discussed more fully at a later date.
Ablation Till
Ablation till has been mapped on the bases of its highly variable texture, its exceptional pebble lithology composition and its stratigraphic position. Ablation till can be defined as debris, formerly contained in a glacier, that has accumulated in place as the ice was ablated. - 29
In the Whitfield area the texture ranges from sand to sandy silt to silt till and the pebble content varies between 5 and 15 percent. The pebble lithologies in the till include abundant locally derived clastic types (average 41 percent) which are distinct from other tills in the area (Table 5)- The till also contains generally larger proportions of Precambrian lithologies than identifiable basal tills in the area. The most common property of the material is its reddish (red brown to brown) colour which makes it possible to outline the till as a separate unit. The colouring is due primarily to the incorporation of red shales of the Queenston Formation. It has been referred to informally as the Queenston-matrix till (Burwasser, 1974). Although its relation to other tills could not be determined within the map-area, Burwasser (1974) found it in outcrop overlying Newmarket Till. In the writer's view the till was probably deposited by Newmarket ice rather than Kettleby ice. To have deposited the till, ice would have had to override Niagara Escarpment. It has clearly over ridden the Escarpment in the Bolton area (White, 1971), the Orangeville area (Cowan, 1974) and in the Collingwood area (Burwasser, 1974) though it did not advance far beyond the Escarpment. In contrast Kettleby ice did not advance any further than part way up the face of the Escarpment. This suggests that the ice which deposited Newmarket Till was sufficiently vigorous to incorporate and comminute material - 30 -
to the extent that the resultant ablation till acquired a character distinctly different from associated tills.
Kettleby Till The third mappable till unit is the Kettleby Till. It was first recognized by Dreimanis (1954) in the Newmarket area and then in the Bolton map-area by White (1971, p.197) and informally designated "northern upper till". It has since been traced as an extensive unit through the Alliston and Newmarket areas (Gwyn and DiLabio, 1973; Gwyn and White, 1973) and into the Collingwood area to within a short distance of Georgian Bay (G.J. Burwasser, personal communication) and formally named the Kettleby Till by Gwyn (1972). The name is derived from the hamlet of Kettleby in King Township. The texture of the Kettleby Till is quite variable but it is predominantly a silt till and ranges to clayey silt, silty clay and clay till (Fig. 5). The range in texture appears to be directly related to the substrate. Thus, in the area of Kettleby in the Alliston map-area it is a clayey silt till and the substrate is interbedded clayey silt and silt lacustrine sediments, and in the area east of Relessey in Mono Township it is perceptably sandier where the substrate is ice-contact sand. The distribution of pebble lithologies is noticeably different in Kettleby Till than in Tavistock Till (Map 4). - 31 -
Limestone is much more abundant than dolostone (limestone/ dolostone average 23). Also there are distinctly more clastic (Paleozoic) and igneous and metamorphic (Precambrian) pebbles (average 10 and 14 respectively). The generally higher clastic content is most probably the result of the contribution from the underlying Ordovician and Silurian units present in the Escarpment face and in the area to the east of it. Although Tavistock ice traversed these same lithologies in the area of Georgian Bay, the pebbles have been comminuted during transport over a distance of 35 km (22 miles) or more, into the present area. Why Precambrian pebbles are more abundant in Kettleby Till than in Tavistock Till is not clear. A possible explanation is that material derived from the Shield was carried 65 km (40 miles) before being deposited by Kettleby ice whereas Precambrian material in Tavistock Till was transported a longer distance of 100 km (60 miles) and so more of it was comminuted than in Kettleby Till. There is evidence that two advances of Kettleby ice occurred in the map-area. Two similar till units are exposed in a section 7.2 km (4.5 miles) south of Mulmur in Mono Township (Table 6). They are both silt tills although the lower till is sandier. Pebble lithology, carbonate content, and heavy minerals are very similar which suggests a common origin (Appendix A. samples 25, 26). The fine grained sands - 32
TABLE 6. Measured section of Kettleby Tills, Mono Township.
Feet Metres 0 0 A A A A A weathered zone, till
A sandy silt till, few pebbles, A calcareous and unoxidized in "A""" 4 1.2 lower portion, not very compact. A A A A A A A A A A A 10 3.0 clean fine grained sand,, massive, white, very compact.
13 3.9 fine grained silty sand, laminated grey, very compact.
16 4.S interbedded sandy silt and silt, some pebbles. Id 5.5 A A sandy silt till, 10 percent A pebbles, compact; lenses and A A partings of coarse sand present A 22 6.7 A - 33 -
and silt separating the till units consist of interbedded sandy silt and silt grading up into even bedded fine sand. The sequence suggests an initial ponding in which the rythmic sediments were deposited ,and that developed into a more open environment that was probably glaciofluvial. Several similar sections have been found in the Alliston and Newmarket areas, some of which contain varved lake sediments between similar till units. Kettleby Till is restricted to the eastern border of the map-area. It forms the surface deposit east of Relessey and around Mulmur and Stanton. It is exposed elsewhere underlying stratified sands and gravels as at site 106 east of Mansfield and north of Nottawasaga River at sample site 23. In the area south of Mulmur, mapped as a till-bedrock complex, Kettleby Till was identified in individual road cuts as was Newmarket Till and Queenston-matrix till. However, none of these units are sufficiently extensive in that region to be mapped separately. The heavy mineral content in Kettleby Till probably had its source in the Western Grenville provenance area (Fig. B). The predominance of calcic material in both the pebble and silt grades further suggests a source to the east of the Escarpment. Finally, pebble orientations measured in both the Dundalk and Alliston areas point to a northeasterly source area (Fig. 3). It is likely, at this point in the - 34 - Paleozoic - Precambrian boundary c Western Grenville — Easteri. Grenville Area boundary Grenville Front Niagara Escarpment
Figure 3. Schematic diagram of ice flow directions (Kettleby Till) and provenance areas. Scale: l inch to 100 miles. - 35 -
history of the ice sheet that as the ice thinned its flow was more and more directed by local basins. However, the general direction of flow was southwestward into the map- area.
Stratigraphic Relation
The relation between Newmarket and Kettleby Tills is not evident in the Dundalk map-area. However, White (1971, p. 197) indicates that Kettleby Till ("northern upper till") overlies Newmarket Till ("northern lower till"), and many exposures in the Alliston and Newmarket areas reveal this relationship (Gwyn, 1972, p. 145). Further, White (1971, p. 217) has suggested that Kettleby Till ("northern upper till") is slightly younger than Halton Till, which was deposited by ice of the Ontario lobe. Although there is little evidence, mapping in the Alliston and Newmarket areas (Gwyn, 1972) tends to support this correlation.
Direction of Ice Flow
Mention has been made, when describing the tills in the map-area, of their probable areas of provenance. As well as lithologic indicators there are four other sources of information which indicate the direction of ice flow. These - 36 -
include drumlins, fluted till surfaces, striae on bedrock, and the trend of elongated pebbles and cobbles in till (till fabric). The trend of drumlins, flutings and striae give direct evidence of the direction of flow when they were formed. However, the significance of trends in till fabrics requires interpretation. The till fabrics are based on the measurement of the trend of the long axis of one sample of one hundred pebbles at each site. Thus each fabric can be interpreted in three ways: it is parallel to the direction of flow, it is transverse to the direction of flow, or it is a partially reoriented fabric. Because of the limitations imposed by the sampling method the fabrics are used only to corroborate other information.
Tavistock Ice
Drumlins and flutings west of the Niagara Escarpment suggest two directions of ice flow during the deposition of Tavistock Till. Drumlins in the area of Proton Station have a strong northerly and north northwesterly (350 0 - 335 0 ) orientation and south from Proton Station towards Ventry the drumlins take on a stronger northwesterly orientation (340 0 - 310 0 ) (Fig. 9). In contrast, the drumlins east of a line between Wareham, Dundalk, and Jessopville have a distinct north northeasterly trend (40 - 240 ). -37-
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Flutings have a similar pattern to the drumlins. South of Kingscote and west of Blacks Corners the flutings have a northwesterly orientation (310 a ), and those in the Redickville - Honeywood area a northeasterly trend (45 0 )* Striations were found at two sites within the area of Tavistock Till. Northeasterly striae were measured near Corbetton and northerly striae were found near Camilla. In general the till fabrics are parallel to the trends of the other features. The fabrics near Redickville, Conover, Kingscote, Ventry, and west of Blacks Corner are parallel to the drumlins and flutings. However, five of the fabrics are divergent from the pattern described. The fabric in the southwest corner of the map-area is transverse to the trend of drumlins, flutings and other fabrics in that area, as is the fabric west of Wareham. Fabrics at Shelburne, northeast of it, and at Camilla have strong north to north northwesterly trends, which is generally parallel to the edge of the Tavistock Till, are difficult to explain except that they may be transverse fabrics. There appear then to be two convergent flow directions for Tavistock ice, a dominant one from the north and north west and one from the northeast. Based on this one would expect mixing of pebble lithologies (in particular), derived from different provenance areas, to be present in Tavistock Till. Specifically, till deposited by ice flowing from the — 39 —
north and northwest would be very rich in dolostone and very poor in limestone and elastics, whereas till derived from the northeast and east would be rich in limestone and elastics. However, Tavistock Till has a rather homogeneous pebble lithology composition, as discussed above, including abundant dolostone, which indicates flow from the north and northwest. Further, as is discussed later, an interlobate moraine (Orangeville Moraine) was built at the margin of the Tavistock ice during both its advance and retreat phases. This suggests that the dominant flow direction was south eastward (west of the Escarpment) and west or southwestward (east of the Escarpment). However, the northeast trending indicators present an apparent conflict to this conclusion (Fig. 9). A possible explanation is that the flutings and fabrics in the Redickville-Honeywood area, which are the strongest indicators for flow from the northeast, are the result of a later advance by Newmarket ice. It is suggested that Newmarket ice advanced into the Redickville-Honeywood area fluting the Tavistock Till surface and reorienting its fabric but not depositing any Newmarket Till. This could have occurred either before or after its marginal moraine (the Singhampton Moraine) had been built. This moraine has clearly been overridden. It is suggested that Tavistock ice flowed in the general direction of sou.th and southeast within the Dundalk - 40 -
area west of the Escarpment. This appears to be the ~ resultant of two dominant regional flow directions as depicted in Figure 6. One direction was southwestward from the Western Grenville provenance area, across Georgian Bay and the Lake Simcoe lowland to the Escarpment. The second direction was the southeastward flow of the Lake Huron lobe. Part of the southwest flowing ice sheet stopped at the Escarpment or within a very short distance of its brow (the portion from Blue Mountain to Nottawasaga River), The remaining part, west of Blue Mountain, continued southwest up the Escarpment and was (l) partly redirected to a southerly flow by deep valleys in the Escarpment face (e.g. Beaver Valley), and (2) when south of the Escarpment was increasingly redirected to a south southeastward and then southeastward flow by the convergent southeast flow of the Lake Huron lobe. Chapman and Putnam (1949, Fig. 4) appear to have intended a similar scheme. The southwest flowing ice sheet was referred to as the "Georgian Bay ice lobe" as early as 1909 by Taylor and has been called this and other variations by many authors since then. However, in the writer's view this ice sheet should not be designated as a distinct lobe (e.g. Georgian Bay lobe, or Georgian Bay-Lake Simcoe lobe) because the ice does not appear, to have been influenced in its flow direction by these basins. Indeed, the ice flowed perpendicular to the axis of Georgian Bay. Thus, it is inappropriate to use the designation as equivalent to Lake Huron or Lake Ontario lobe, i.e. as indicating a separate ice river within the ice sheet. - 41 -
Newmarket and Kettleby Ice Both Newmarket and Kettleby ice advanced into the Dundalk area. All the direction indicators (Fig. 9) suggest that the ice flowed from the northeast. It is probable that the regional flow patterns discussed for Tavistock ice persisted during these two (or more) ice advances. Because the ice did not advance more than a short distance west and south of Niagara Escarpment, it is probable that it was thin and, therefore, strongly influenced by the incised valleys in the Escarpment face. Clearly Pine River valley and Nottawasaga River valley affected the direction of flow. Glacial L and forms
The origin and age of moraines in the map-area are discussed as glacial landforms because they were built at or between active ice margins. However, the moraines consist predominantly of glacio fluvial sediments and these are described more fully in the next section. Two types of moraines are present in the Dundalk area— an interlobate moraine and one or more recessional moraines. An interlobate moraine is one which forms between two adjacent glacial lobes which have pushed their margins together, and a recessional moraine is an end moraine formed during a pause or minor readvance of an ice front during general retreat of the ice (AGI 1972, pp. 366 and 592). Taylor (1913, pp. 70, 71, and Map l) had identified two moraines (4 morainic ridges) in the Dundalk map-area. He considered the westernmost ridge, that passing east of Primrose, to be the extension of the Paris Moraine and correlated it with the Seaforth Moraine (Table 7). The - 42
Paris Moraine had been drawn on a map of the Great Lakes area as early as 1&97 by Taylor (p,423) but had not been identified as such. The next moraine ridge to the east appears to have been the northern extension of the Galt Moraine, but Taylor (1913, p. 71) raises some doubt about this. The other moraine ridges were not discussed. Later Taylor (1939, p. 3#0) modified his definition of the Paris Moraine. He recognized that a morainic ridge that extended southwest from Orangeville had been overridden by the Paris Moraine, and he named this the Orangeville Moraine. Taylor (1939, p. 3^1) also identified the Galt Moraine more clearly in the Dundalk area and correlated it with the Port Huron Morainic system. Chapman and Putnam (1949, pp. 25 and 39) recognized the interlobate nature of the Orangeville Moraine as defined by Taylor (1939, p. 3&1)- They also renamed the northern extensions of the Paris Moraine calling it the Singhampton Moraine7 and the Galt Moraine naming it the Gibraltar Moraine (Chapman and Putnam, 1949 pp. 39 and 40, Fig. (Table 7). Chapman and Dell (1963, pp. 106 and 107) reinterpreted the section of the Singhampton Moraine, between Homing's Mills and Orangeville, as an interlobate moraine. As a result this section of the Singhampton Moraine was renamed as the northern extension of the Orangeville Moraine. - 43 -
Also the Gibraltar Moraine, immediately to the east, was recorrelated with the Paris Moraine and hence with the Port Huron Morainic system (Table 7), and was renamed the Singhampton Moraine. Thus, the Gibraltar Moraine remained unidentified as a separate moraine. White (1971, p.70) has identified both the Singhampton and Gibraltar Moraines in the Bolton area.
TABLE 7: Correlation of Moraines in the Dundalk Area.
Huron lobe Erie lobe Taylor, 1913 Seaforth Paris Wyoming ? ? Galt Taylor, 1939 Orangeville Wyoming Paris-Galt (Port Huron Morainic system)
Huron lobe Erie-Ontario Interlobate Georgian Bay lobe lobe Chapman and Orangeville Putnam, 1949 Wyoming Paris-Gait Singhampton Gibraltar
Chapman and Orangeville Dell, 1963 Port Huron Paris-Gait Gibraltar Morainic (renamed system Singhampton) - 44 -
Orangeville Moraine The Orangeville Moraine includes several elements in the Dundalk area. The main trunk of the moraine trends northwest east of Hwy. 10 (Fig. 10), and it rises 75 to 125 feet (23 to 3# m) above the plain to the west (Photo to be supplied). The ridge is l to 3 km wide (6 to 1.& miles). The proportions of the moraine are seen most dramatically where Boyne River has eroded through the moraine (Photo to be supplied). Two arcuate spurs extend from the west side of the moraine (Fig. 10). One trends westward from Elba and then southward to Crombie Station (Map 3) and a smaller one terminates at Camilla. The northern spur rises 50 to 100 feet (15 to 30 m) above surrounding areas and its crest is at the same elevation as the main trunk of the moraine. The spur is up to 3 km wide (1.3 miles) west of Hwy. 10 (Fig. 10). The southern spur is somewhat less massive. Its crest is at the same elevation as the main trunk and is 25 to 75 feet (B to 23 m) above adjacent areas. This spur has a maximum width of 1.5 km (l mile). That these spurs are integral parts of the moraine is evident from the geomorphic continuity (Map 3), and the similarity in the sediment properties (discussed below p. 53 ). There is one large morainic mass and two smaller units which are detached from the main trunk. The large area - 45 -
ke-eontacf Deposits Singhamfon Moraine
Singhamfon - Gibraltar Moraine Orangeville Moraine Till on moraines
Geologic Boundary
Geomorphic Sotwidary
Fig. 10 . Definition of the Singhampton, Singhampton - Gibraltar and Orangeville Moraines, Dundalk area. - 46 -
extends south from Horning's Mills toward Shelburne (Fig. 10)
The smaller areas appear to be part of the larger mass but are now separated from it by small meltwater channels. The topography is very hummocky with local relief 25 to 75 feet (B to 23 m). These deposits have been included as part of the Orangeville Moraine because Tavistock Till surrounds them on three sides, hence they could only have been formed during stagnation of Tavistock ice. The interlobate origin and age of the Orangeville Moraine are based on several factors. For the moraine to have been built at the brow of Niagara Escarpment there had to have been an ice margin to the east, butting up against the Escarpment. On the west side of the moraine several exposures have been found which contained horizontally bedded sediments which terminated abruptly at the ground surface. Such exposures have been found throughout the length of the moraine. Chapman and Dell (19&3, p. 106) referred to a very large section containing such structures exposed on Hwy. #9 east of Primrose. For the sediments to be deposited in such a position, that is with a contact face, there must have been ice to the west at the moraine, otherwise the bedding would have been conformable to the topography. Thus there is evidence for two ice margins; one to the east and one to the west. Chapman and Dell (1963, p. 106) have drawn a similar conclusion. Also it is concluded that the large area of - 47 -
morainic debris south of Homing's Mills was deposited within the ice west of the main moraine ridge. The age of the Orangeville moraine was determined by its relation to the surrounding till unit. In several exposures Tavistock Till was found overlying ice-contact deposits of the moraine such as along the western margin of the northern spur. Also Tavistock Till was found both east and west of the two spurs and the large detached area between Horning*s Mills and Shelburne. Finally, Tavistock Till was overlain, in one section north of Primrose, by ice-contact sediments which form part of the main trunk of the moraine. Thus, part of the main ridge was built after the advance of Tavistock ice and parts of it during the advance, and the spurs and other elements were built after the main advance. Also at least one section was overridden during retreat. This evidence is at variance with the hypothesis of Chapman and Putnam (1949, p. 2? and Fig. 3) who suggested that the Orangeville Moraine represented the line of separation of the ice during retreat from its maximum advance in the Late Wisconsinan Substage. They reasoned that since the moraine was interlobate it represented the oldest phase of retreat. To use recent stratigraphic nomenclature (Dreimanis and Karrow, 1972, p. #) they were referring to the ice advance which deposited Catfish Creek Till. However, there is at least one till unit separating Tavistock Till from Catfish Creek Till (Cowan, 1974, p. 29 and Table 4). Thus, the moraine is distinctly younger than postulated by Chapman and Putnam (1949). It is possible that the position of the moraine was the locus of separation of the ice sheet during earlier periods although no evidence of this has been found. Cowan (1974, p. 41) has drawn a similar conclusion.
Singhampton Moraine The Singhampton moraine occurs as a separate morphological unit along the brow of Niagara Escarpment northwest of Horning's Mills (Fig. 10). This is the southern end of a continuous moraine ridge that was traced to Singhampton. At Singhampton the moraine turns and trends toward the west- southwest. It is probable that the ice contact deposits in the extreme northwest corner of the map-area (Map 3) are part of the moraine, however, they are detached from the main trunk of the moraine as outlined by Burwasser (1974). It is suggested that the southern border of the Singhampton moraine in this area is at or slightly north of Saugeen River which crosses the northwest corner of the map-area. The section of the moraine east of Honeywood forms a ridge 50 to 75 feet (15 to 23 m) high and .5 to 2 km wide (.3 to 1.2 miles). Hummocky (knob and kettle) topography is very prominent along most of the ridge (Photo to be supplied). This section of the moraine can be divided into - 49
two parts. A southern part is composed primarily of bouldery and pebbly sand and a northern area consisting of very stoney sandy silt to silt till which overlies ice- contact stratified drift. White (1971, p. 191) attributed the building of the Singhampton Moraine to the ice advance which deposited the "northern lower till" (Newmarket Till) in the Bolton area. This till unit has now been identified in the Dundalk area as discussed above and in the Collingwood area (Burwasser, 1974). The till in the moraine east of Honeywood is contiguous with that found in the Collingwood area and is correlated with Newmarket Till. The position of the moraine at the brow of Niagara Escarpment necessitates the presence of an ice margin to the east of it. However, because a meltwater channel and delta were built immediately west of the moraine it is suggested that there was no ice west of the moraine.
Singhampton-Gibraltar Moraine The Singhampton-Gibraltar moraine is the massive ridge of hummocky terrain which extends southward from east of Kilgorie through Earnscliffe and Relessey to Nottawasaga River (Fig. 10 and Map 3). The name is an informal designation and is used to indicate that the moraine ridge is probably the coalescence of the Singhampton and Gibraltar moraines. Chapman and Dell (19&3, p. 103) have suggested this - 50 -
but renamed the ridge the Singhampton Moraine leaving the Gibraltar unidentified. Because the Gibraltar Moraine has been outlined in the Collingwood area to the north and in the Bolton area to the southeast, it is unlikely that it is not present in the Dundalk area. The ridge is up to 4 km (2.5 miles) wide and has a broad crest that is 50 to 150 feet (15 to 45 m) above the areas to the east and west. Ths sediments in the moraine consist predominantly of ice-contact stratified drift. The drift ranges in thickness between 75 and 200 feet (23 and 6l m) (Map 2). The western limit of the moraine is defined by the
Lavender-VioletV Hill Meltwater Channel which is discussed in greater detail below (p.7# ) (Map 3). The channel could only have formed at this locality when the ice margin was at the western edge of the Singhampton-Gibraltar moraine. The isolated area of ice-contact sediments east of Whitfield is included with this moraine because an older section of the Lavender-Violet Hill Channel lies immediately west of it, which implies that the ice margin formed the east bank of the channel.
Correlation of Singhampton and Singhampton- Gibraltar Moraines
Evidence in the Orangeville and Bolton areas permit the correlation of the Singhampton and Singhampton-Gibraltar Moraines in the Dundalk area with events in the Lake Ontario Basin. - 50a -
In the Orangeville map-area the Singhampton Moraine overlies part of the Orangeville Moraine (Cowan 1974, p- 42) and in the Bolton area it truncates the Guelph Drumlin Field. - These features were built by Port Stanley ice during the Port Bruce Stadial. Later the Singhampton Moraine was truncated by the Paris Moraine (White 1971, p. 69) which was built by Wentworth ice during the Port Huron Stadial. Following this-;, ^"hite concludes further (1971, p. 73), the Gibraltar Moraine was deposited at about the same time that the ice margin in the Ontario basin was standing at the Palgrave Moraine. Thus the section of the Singhampton Moraine in the Dundalk area was probably built at much the same time as the section in the Orangeville and Bolton areas. However, the Singhampton- Gibraltar moraine spans the period from the retreat of Port Stanley ice to the advance of Halton ice which built the Palgrave Moraine.
Banks Moraine Banks moraine was first identified by Chapman and Putnam (1949, Fig. 1) although it had appeared on an earlier diagram unlabelled (Chapman and Putnam, 1943, Fig. 4). It was named and described by Chapman and Putnam (1966, p. 65). The east limb of the moraine is considerably less distinct than the west limb (Burwasser, 1974 and personal communication, 1975). It occurs in the valley of Pretty River and north of Duntroon in the Collingwood area. Chapman and Putnam (1966, - 51 -
p. 69) suggested that the moraine lies immediately east of the Singhampton-Gibraltar moraine, which would include the thick sediments in Pine and Boyne River valleys in the northeast corner of the map-area. White (1971, p. 201) has suggested that the Banks moraine may have been built by "northern upper till" ice (Kettleby ice). Whether these * deposits are part of the Banks moraine has yet to be determined, however, there is clear evidence- that Kettleby Till underlies the ice-contact terrace deposits in Nottawasaga and Boyne River valleys. - 52 -
GLACIOFLUVIAL FEATURES AND DEPOSITS
Ice-Contact Stratified Drift
Glaciofluvial material deposited in contact with ice may consist of gravel, sand and finer sediments. In the Dundalk area the greater portion of glaciofluvial sediments were deposited as ice-contact drift in the Orangeville Moraine and Singhampton-Gibraltar moraines and in three eskers and several isolated kames west of the Orangeville Moraine. It is typical for ice-contact deposits to be highly variable in texture especially in moraines. This variability is found in both the moraines.
Orangeville Moraine
The sediments in the main trunk of the Orangeville Moraine range from finely laminated silt and silty sand, as in the Primrose area, to pebbly and coarse sand through Granger and west of Mono Centre and north of Boyne River (Map 3). In general, coarser sediments of pebbly sand, gravel and occasionally patches of till overly the finer grained sediments. Thus, in spite of the interlobate nature of the Moraine, extensive areas of coarse material were not found. This suggests a pervasive low energy environment during the period of deposition of the bulk of the Moraine. Textural - 53 -
analysis of the sands reveal that they are moderately to poorly sorted (Graphic Standard Deviation; Folk, 1965, p. 45), and they range from finely skewed to strong coarse skewness (Graphic Skewness) (Table #). The sediments in two spurs have a character similar to those in the main ridge (Fig. 10). In the northern spur, the sediments consist of medium silty sand and pebbly sand. Generally, gravel is not present, although it does form small patches overlying the finer sediments as does Tavistock Till which has overridden parts of the spur northwest of Crombie Station. The sediments in the southern spur are generally coarser than the northern spur and include predominantly pebbly sand and some gravel. Ths southern spur also is overlain by patches of Tavistock Till. The pebble lithologics in gravel from both spurs and the main ridge of the moraine are similar (Table 9 and Map 4). Limestone is more abundant than dolostone except for one sample (111) in the northern spur which is distinctly higher than in Tavistock Till (Table 5). The total carbonate lithologies are also consistently high (average 74 percent) which is comparable to that in the tills derived from east of the Orangeville Moraine (Map 4). Similarly, the Precambrian pebble content resembles that found in eastern-source tills (average 7 percent). The preponderance of limestone seen in the pebble fraction is paralleled by high calcite content in ^Q.
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the sand fraction. Chapman and Dell (1963, p. 106) report an average calcite-dolomite ratio of l.# from the Orangeville Moraine. Thus the pebble lithologies indicate a source from the east of the moraine and some mixing with a source from the west. The material in the section of the moraine north of Shelburne (Fig. 10) is quite variable in texture but is typically gravelly sand to sandy gravel including several areas of coarse gravel as at stations 90 and 91 (Table 10). Sand samples indicate that the material is poorly sorted and skewed toward coarser sizes (Table li). A pebble sample (Table li) from one exposure contains twice as many limestone as dolostone and 26 percent clastic content with a low Precambrian content. The higher limestone and clastic content suggest that the material was primarily derived from east of the Escarpment, i.e. a source similar to the material in the rest of the Orangeville Moraine. The thickness of the deposits in this part of the moraine though variable are typically 15 m (100 feet). ~ 57 -
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Singhampton Moraine The glaciofluvial deposits which constitute the southern portion of the Singhampton Moraine (Fig. 10) include a wide range of sediment types of which sand and pebbley sand predominate. In most of the exposures only minor amounts of gravel were found. This general absence of pebble sized clasts is similar to the deposits in the Orangeville Moraine, but is in sharp contrast to the stoney till which covers the northern half of this portion of the moraine. The large kame deposit 2 km (1.2 miles) north of Proton Station is considered part of the western arm of the Singhampton Moraine (Fig. li). It covers an area approximately 1.5 by 2.0 km (l by 1.2 miles) and straddles Hwy. 10; local relief is not more than 10 m (33 feet). The material consists of massive silty sandy gravel (Table 12, sample 21). The sand fraction is poorly sorted (Table 19) and slightly skewed towards the fine fractions.
Singhampton-Gibraltar Moraine Most of the exposures in the Singhampton-Gibraltar moraine reveal the predominance of pebbley to bouldery medium sand containing variable amounts but relatively little crushable material (Table 12). Further, the finer grained sediments are typically overlain by coarser material - pebbley sand, gravel and flow till. The thickness of the deposits in the morairB is quite variable ranging from less than ^ m (25 feet) to more than - 60 -
Fig 11. Kames, eskers and miscellaneous ice-contact deposits. ~ 61 -
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#0 m (220 feet). The pebble lithology of sample 103 (Table 12) consists of abundant limestone and clastic pebbles suggesting a source area to the east of Niagara Escarpment. Miscellaneous Ice-Contact Deposits Two large areas of ice-contact cannot be directly associated with any of the moraines that have been discussed (Fig. 11). One lies north of Pine River and West of Kilgorie and the other extends from Black Bank to 2.3 km (1.4 miles) east of Ruskview. The sediment in the Ruskview area are typically shallow deposits (less than 5 m (15 feet) of dirty (silty) sand and minor gravel which contain abundant deformation structures. The deposits at Ruskview consist of 2-3 m (7-10 feet) of dirty sand which overlies "Queenston Matrix" till that overlies Queenston shale. Water well records reveal that the sands and gravels thicken southward and overlie lacustrine silts and till. The area west of Kilgorie show a strong knob and kettle topography which has also been dissected by gullying. The sediments range between fine sand to sandy fine gravel. Deformation structures are found throughout the deposits. The sediments in both these areas could be described as ice-contact terraces laid down between the valley wall and ice occupying Pine River valley. It is possible that they were deposited in association with Newmarket ice, although no - 63 -
definite evidence was found.
Eskers and Kames There are three well developed eskers in the west half of the Dundalk area and one small esker in the east half of the area* All the eskers trend northwest-southeast and the flow in all of them was towards the southeast. The northernmost esker, referred to as the Shriglev Esker (Gwyn, 1971, p. 97), extends for 15 km (9 miles) from the northern edge of the area through Shrigley towards Shelburne. (Fig. 11) North of Shrigley the esker ridge can be traced northwards into three separate tributaries. Segments of two of these were traced into the Collingwood area and have been mapped by Burwasser (1974). The esker reaches a maximum width of l km (.6 miles) at Shrigley and along most of its length it is 15 - 20 m higher (50 - 65 feet) than the surrounding till plain. Size analyses of three sand samples show that the material consists of silty medium to coarse sand and includes between 40 and 70^ pebble sized material (Tables 13 and 14). Among the pebbles there is a predominance of dolostone (average 79 percent) over limestone, and limestone-dolostone ratio is 0.1. The combined clastic and Precambrian pebble content averages less than 10 percent. This lithologic composition is markedly different from the gravels in the - 64 -
Orangeville or Singhampton Moraines, and suggests a source to the northwest which is little affected by the Silurian clastic units in the Escarpment immediately to the east. Chapman and Putnam (1966, 1972) have interpreted this feature as being part of the interlobate Orangeville Moraine. This interpretation was arrived at on the basis of ice flow indicators to the east and west of the deposit. Strong northeast-southwest flutings are developed in the till plain in the Redickville area and the drumlins between Proton Station and Dundalk have a northwest-southeast trend (Fig. 9), thus suggesting that glacial ice flowed southwest and southeast toward the axis of the interlobate moraine. However, as discussed above, the till in the Redickville area is Tavistock Till and derived from a western or north western source rather than a northeastern source. Further, drumlins immediately west of Shrigley have a distinctly north-south orientation and are composed of Tavistock Till, and the flutings around Redickville may have been formed by Newmarket ice on Tavistock Till without the deposition of till. Thus deposition of this ice contact material post dates deposition of the Tavistock Till and the ice flow indicators are not conclusive. This, together with little influence from the east in the types of pebble lithologies suggest that the material was deposited as an esker flowing southeastward, and which no doubt fed meltwater and sediment to the Orangeville Moraine proper. - 65 -
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The Riverview Esker (Gwyn, 1971, p. 97) has been traced for 17 km (10 miles) from north of Riverview southeastward past Maple Grove to the north spur of the Orangeville Moraine south of Shelburne (Fig. li). This esker is distinctly smaller than the Shrigley Esker. It rises about a maximum of 5 - 7 m (17 to 23 feet) above the till plain and has a maximum width of 200 m (660 feet). The southeast end of the esker is clearly morphologically part of the north spur of the Orangeville Moraine. The esker has a well developed sinuosity and is marked by hummocky topography. The material consists of silty to very silty sandy gravel of which it is estimated that 35 ~ 60 percent is crushable (Table 15). A pebble count contained a predominance of dolostone and small amounts of elastics and Precambrian lithologics. This suggests a source to the northwest which is in keeping with indications of flow to the southeast. The third large esker crosses the southwest corner of the map-area (Fig. 11). It has been referred to as the Keldon esker (Gwyn, 1971, p. 97), however, it was earlier called the Briee Hill Esker by Chapman and Putnam (1951, p. 63). In that reference the esker was incorrectly described as being 4 or 5 miles (6.6 - #.3 km) west of the Egerton Esker 'which occurs in the Durham map area. In fact, it is this distance to the east of the Egerton Esker. The Brice Hill Esker takes its name from the former hamlet of Brice Hill 2 km (1.35 miles) - 63 -
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east of Hopeville in the Durham map-area* The esker heads at or near Ceylon in Artemesia Township on the south side of the Singhampton Moraine and extends southward through Brice Hill where it turns southeast towards Keldon in the Dundalk area, and past Campania in the Orangeville . area, a distance of 42 km (25 miles). The esker ridge is more massive than the Riverview Esker. It rises 15 - 25 m (50 - 82 feet) above the till plain for most of its length in the Dundalk area and attains its maximum width of #00 m (one half mile) near Keldon. The sediment consists of silty, medium to coarse sandy grave." (Table 16) including an average of 35 percent stone content. The material is generally poorly sorted and most of the exposures contain only crudely bedded material (Table 17). All but one pebble count contains a flood of dolostone in comparison to limestone. The average limestone-dolostone ratio is .21, clastic and Precambrian lithologies average 13 percent which may indicate some contribution of sediment from Niagara Escarpment to the north (Map 4).
Small Kames and Eskers One small esker was found immediately south of the south spur of the Orangeville Moraine, 3 km (l.# miles) north of Camilla. The esker is 1.3 km (.8 miles) long and a maximum of 300 m (1000 feet) wide. It rises a maximum of 3 m (25 feet) above the surrounding area. Thr material consists of silty coarse sandy gravel (Table 13, sample 116) including approximately 50 percent stone. Among the pebbles dolostone and - 70 -
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limestone predominate with only a small amount of elastics and Precambrian lithologies. Three moderate sized kames occur along the west side of the map area. The largest one, at Kingscote, is 2.5 km (1.5 miles) in diameter and rises approximately 30 m (100 feet) above the till plain. A somewhat smaller one was found south of Kingscote. It is 1.3 km (.B mil.es) long and .6 km (.4 miles) wide, local relief is about 10 m (33 feet). The material consists of both bedded pebble gravel and medium grained sand and medium coarse grained sand (Table 13, sample 75)' The coarser material overlies the sand. The sand fractions are poorly sorted and consist of coarse to medium sand (Table 19, sample 75). Tavistock Till is both overlain by and overlies parts of these kames suggesting that they were built during the advance and retreat of Tavistock ice. - 73 -
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Glaciofluvial Outwash Deposits Outwash deposits are found throughout the Dundalk area. The deposits occur in two styles, either as thin discontinuous veneers of sand in shallow meltwater channels or as thick sand and gravel deposits filling pre-existing valleys and * along major meltwater channels. The first type of deposit is found predominantly west of the Singhampton and Orangeville Moraines on the Dundalk Plain. The material consists of silty, fine to medium sand containing sparse pebbles. The maximum thickness observed was 5 m (17 feet). In several exposures a lag deposit of pebbles was found at the base of the sand resting on Tavistock Till. There are no known coarse grained (e.g. sandy gravel) deposits in these small meltwater channels. The deposits show a strong relationship to the present drainage basins, particularly the Grand River basin (Fig. 12), which suggests a strong control by the Grand River watershed on the flow of meltwater. There is also the indication that the former direction of flow of Tavistock ice exercised some form of control. The northwest-southeast orientation of eskers, which is probably controlled by flow structures in the ice, are paralleled by the outwash deposits northwest of Keldon and southeast from Proton Station towards Riverview. However, the directional association of the outwash and esker deposits may be fortuitous. Outwash material is merely a fill in a negative land form, i.e. a meltwater channel and, therefore, does -76-
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not imply the close proximity of ice except to provide sediment laden meltwater. The opposite is true in the case of an esker. As a positive landform the esker material must have been deposited in an ice-walled channel. A probable explanation of the parallelism of these two deposits is that the drainage pattern which developed in the melting ice mass, and resulted in the deposition of the eskers, was transferred to the underlying plain. The ice walled channels now became the locus for meltwater channels. In contrast to this first style of outwash deposit major meltwater channels were formed in close association with the Orangeville and Singhampton Moraines (Fig. 12), in which large amounts of both sand and gravel were deposited. The meltwater flowed along (on top of and below) the Niagara Escarpment thus crossing the major river valleys and partially or completely filling them with sediments. The highest channel to be used is in front (west) of the Singhampton Moraine. Meltwater flowed southward past Honeywood towards Horning* s Mills where a delta was built as the meltwater flowed into a lake ponded in Pine River valley (Fig. 12). The evidence for this proglacial lake is the sequence of normal and massive silts and sandy silt found along the present Pine River and in the delta itself where the silts are overlain by several metres of gravel. The material in the delta at Horning*s Mills and in Pine River valley south of it consists of medium and coarse sand and pebbly sand grading up into sandy small pebble gravel. Lavender-Violet Hill Meltwater Channel The next channel to be used flowed in the gorge north of Black Bank where a delta was built. However, it appears that before the delta was built meltwater flowed in an ice walled channel, formed between the Escarpment and the ice margin, that was slightly west of the delta (Fig. 12). The channel floor is at the same elevation as the gorge (1450 feet, 440 m). It is not clear in what direction the meltwater flowed when this channel was in use, because the sediments in it contain no structures. Further, the topography at the south end of the channel is very hummocky as can be seen in the Photo (to be provided) which suggests stagnant ice topography. If the ice margin was at the south end of the channel then meltwater had to flow northward in the channel and the gorge. The flow would then have been reversed after the ice retreated further west and the delta at Black Bank built. Alternatively the flow in this earlier channel was southward and it flowed across buried ice at its south end, which when it melted out produced the hummocky topography. The Black Bank Delta is at an elevation of about 1425 feet (432 m). On the south wall of Pine valley, the channel continues immediately east of Kilgorie and 3 km (1.9 miles) south it divides and continues past Violet Hill. At Violet Hill two channel levels are present, one at 1400 feet above sea level (424 m) and a lower one at 1350 feet a.s.l. (409 m). The upper level continues southeast of Granger and past Mono Centre, while the lower level passes east of Elder and 1.5 km (.8 miles) east of Mono Centre (Map 3 and Fig. 12). The meltwater channel is truncated by Nottawasaga River valley but it continues south of Nottawasaga River as the valley of Credit River. This meltwater channel has been referred to as the Violet Hill Spillway (Chapman and Putnam, 1961, p. 65). However, the term spillway is misapplied and it is proposed to rename it the Lavender-Violet Hill Meltwater Channel. The place names are taken from Lavender in the Collingwood area at the head of the channel and Violet Hill in the present map area. The sediments in the delta consist of an upper unit of pebble to cobble gravel in topset beds truncating thick foreset interbedded pebble gravel and medium to coarse grained sand (Table 20, sample 9b and 21). These two units overly a unit of pebble and cobble gravel containing high convoluted - 79 -
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bedding probably representing a period of ice stagnation before the ice had retreated from the Escarpment. The material in the segment of the channel south of Kilgorie to Boyne River and the lower level past Violet Hill and south to Nottawasaga River consists of medium grained silty sand and pebbly sand with a thin veneer or small areas of sandy pebble gravel. The material in the upper level of tha channel south of Boyne River to Mono Centre consists predominantly of 3 to 4 m (10 to 13 feet) of pebble gravel overlying medium silty, pebbly sand (Table 20 and 21, samples 9#, 100, 125, 126, 127). In the section immediately north and south of Mono Centre the overlying gravels are absent and medium grained sand is the principal surface material. Size analyses of the sand fraction in the upper level of the channel indicate that the sand is poorly sorted and skewed towards the finer fraction (Table 21, samples 98, 100, 125, 126). The sediments throughout the channel in the map area range from 15 to 60 m (50 to 200 feet) thick based on water well records. Substantial thicknesses (30 m or more) of sediments were encountered in the delta at Black Banks and in the upper level of the channel west of Violet Hill. Q. -C C
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Pine and Boyne Rivers Outwash
The outwash deposits of these two valleys and their interfluvp^are discussed together because they are contiguous and because of their parallel lithology, stratigraphy and postdepositional history. The outwash in these two valleys was deposited as a plain presently at an elevation of about 1000 feet (300 m).(Fig. 12) The plain extends into the Alliston area to the east, and is found in the valleys of Pine, Boyne and Nottawasaga Rivers and the eastern edges of their interfluves. The surface material is consistently silty to slightly silty medium sand (Tables 20 and 21, samples 104-107) with occasional small areas of pebbley sand and sandy gravel. Several sections reveal that the sand is 2 to 10 m (6 to 9 feet) thick and it overlies interbedded sand and gravel, till, massive to stratified lacustrine silt, or massive gravel. This general sequence is also described in several water well logs. The maximum thickness of the drift in these valleys is about 120 m (400 feet) found in wells in Pine River valley, in the vicinity of sample site 10? (Map 2). The underlying gravel is typically sandy pebble gravel and flat bedded though deformation structures were found at several localities suggesting ice-contact deposition. Pebble imbrication and ripple marks indicate a variable flow pattern but generally westward. - 33 -
The lacustrine sediments include predominantly laminated sandy silt with fine sand partings. They indicate the presence of a proglacial lake or sequence of lakes in the river valleys into which the deltas in Pine River valley were built. The lake sediments were presumably the principle source material for the silt to clayey silt till which was found in a few sections and was reported in well logs. The till is interpreted as Kettleby Till which is widely distributed in the Alliston map area to the east. This same till was found underlying outwash terraces at 1000 feet elevation north of Nottawasaga River (Sample 2#). Thus, it is suggested that the outwash plain was deposited in front of melting Kettleby , ice as an outwash apron between the ice margin and the Escarpment. The massive deposits under the Oak Ridges, east of Singhampton- Gibraltar moraine in the Alliston area, and the fills in Nottawasaga River valley are the principle feature built by Kettleby ice. This may be the continuation of the Banks Moraine. Following retreat of Kettleby ice, Pine and Boyne Rivers began cutting into the outwash fill in their valleys. This seems to have occurred in stages as indicated by a series of paired terraces found in both valleys. The uppermost terrace is formed by the original outwash plain. The second terrace level occurs at 975 feet a.s.l. (2#5 m) north of Terra Nova - 84 -
and at gradual lower levels down stream. The third terrace occurs at 925 feet above sea level (2&0 m) in the Terra Nova area where it comprises the terrace immediately above the present flood plain. All the terraces have approximately the same slope as the present river about 3*# metres per kilometre (20 feet per mile) except the original outwash plain. However, accurate leveling has not been done. What the base .level was for the cutting of these terraces is not certain. However, the presence of the same terrace levels in Pine, Boyne, and Nottawasaga Rivers suggests that the control was a lake or series of lakes that were dammed between a retreating ice margin and the Escarpment. It is suggested that as Kettleby ice retreated northward meltwater was ponded in front of the ice forming the Schomberg Ponds and these were the controlling base level. Schomberg Ponds were first named by Chapman and Putnam (1949, p- 45) and are named after the village of Schomberg in the Alliston map-area. These lakes were lowered to successive levels ending finally at Lake Algonquin level (approximately 740 feet above sea level (225 m) in the vicinity of Alliston). The ponds must have maintained their levels sufficiently long for the terraces to be cut but not so long that shoreline features could be developed. Lacustrine Deposits
Lake and pond sediments form only a small part of the surficial deposits. West of the Escarpment very few areas of lacustrine material were found and..then as small ponds rather than in larger ice dammed lakes. However, east of the Escarpment and in the re-entrant valleys of Pine and Boyne Rivers proglacial lakes were dammed by the ice front as discussed above. The lake sediments are usually sandy clayey silt often with fine and very fine sand partings. Drop stones and gravel pods are rare. Varved sediments were found at only one exposure. Downstream from a dammed portion of Pine River west of Kilgorie 3-4 m (9-12 feet) of clayey silts and silt couplets were found. A minimum of 25 varves were present. The lacustrine sediments in the re-entrant valleys and east of the Escarpment were deposited in lakes formed by the damming of eastward drainage. When these sediments were deposited is not clear* However, in the absence of other evidence it is suggested that lakes persisted in Pine and Boyne valleys from the time of the retreat of Newmarket ice until the formation of glacial Lake Algonquin. This is suggested because there was no evidence found that the Kettleby ice advanced all the way up the Pine Valley. The evidence for this is that there is no till in the floor of the valley. The general succession - 36 -
in the valley is lacustrine silts overlain by progressively coarser outwash sand and silty gravel. This sequence is indicative of an advancing ice front but in the absence of till there is no indication that the ice advanced all the way into the valley.
Peat, Muck and Marl
Bog deposits are widespread throughout the map area particularly on the Dundalk Till Plain. The material includes silt and organic debris in varying proportions. Typically, the material grades upwards from a substrate of till or outwash sand into gyttia that becomes progressively more organic rich. Occasionally a zone of marl and shell remains is found within this transition zone. The transition occurs over a thickness of .5 m (1.5 feet) or less. Above this the material is principally organic in which tree remains predominate. The bog deposits are filling depressions on the till surface and the principal control of their distribution is the set of meltwater channels that developed on the plain. Thus, they are closely associated with the distribution of the outwash deposits in the channels. The bogs range in size from a few tens of metres in diameter to 5 km long (2.8 miles) and 2 km wide (1.2 miles). The greatest observed thickness for these deposits was 5 m (15 feet), although most range from 1-2 m (3 to 5 feet). Peat has been extracted in Amaranth Township in the - 37 -
Orangeville map area, however, no commercial development of the peat is known in the Dundalk map-area.
Alluvium
Alluvial deposits have been divided into two units: modern and older alluvium. Modern alluvium includes silt, silty sand, and sandy gravel and some organic debris that is being deposited within the flood plains of present rivers and streams. The distribution of the types of sediments depends on the competence of the stream as well as the source material. However, generally the small streams are transporting and depositing silt and silty sand. The predominant materials in the Pine and Boyne River valleys are sandy silt and pebbley silty sand. Separated from the present flood plain by a terrace scarp is older alluvium consisting predominantly of silty sand and sandy gravel. These deposits are distinctly less silty than modern alluvium and do not contain organic debris. In three instances underfit streams are flowing through alluvial deposits without having developed flood plains. These include the stream flowing in the gorge north of Black Bank, a tributary of Saugeen River north of Proton Station and a tributary of Nottawasaga River east of Camilla. The material consists of pebbley silty sand and ranges from l to 2 m (3-6 feet) thick. ~ S3 -
Aeolian Deposits
Recent wind blown sediment is found throughout the map area. The material consists of fine to very fine sand and coarse silt and is usually l to 2 m (3-6 feet) thick* Three stabilized dunes were found south of Shrigley oriented north-south. Based on the asymmetry of the slopes the prevailing wind was from the west. Similar wind blown sand occurs in the Singhampton- - Gibraltar moraine. Exposures east of Elder contain 1—2 m (3-6 feet) of very fine sand overlying a podzolic soil profile that had developed on bouldery fine sand. Cross lamination in the wind blown sand indicated winds from the west. The underlying sand contained abundant deformation structures. It is probable that these soils were buried in post settlement times. A unique deposit of probable loess was found in the Redickville-Honeywood-Conover area. The material consists of slightly sandy silt largely free of clay. The material was first described by Chapman and Putnam (1966, p. 205) who suggested an aeolian origin. It occurs mainly as a veneer over Tavistock Till and filling depressions. Not more than l m (3*3 feet) was encountered in exposures or numerous probe holes although Chapman and Putnam (1966, p. 205) report beds 4 to 5 feet (1.2-1.5 m). The material is generally too thin and - 39 -
discontinuous to be mapped as a separate unit. In continuous exposures in which the unit thickens and thins the silt is usually discernable in the soil profile, suggesting that the deposit occurs over a much wider area. Because the soil is well drained and stone free it makes excellent farmland, particularly suitable for potatoes. The wind blown origin of the silt is still problematic, however, the only alternative is that it is a lacustrine deposit. Such an origin, however, raises the problem of damming a lake on the highest part of the map-area which is improbable. Further, the material is nearly pure silt reflecting a highly selective transporting agent that is not found in a lacustrine environment. In view of the fact that the material is included in a well developed soil profile it is probable that it was deposited soon after retreat of ice from the area. - 90 -
QUATERNARY HISTORY
During the Late Wisconsinan Substage the Laurentide ice sheet reached its maximum extent approximately 1#,000 years ago. This major advance, occurring between 23,000 and 15,000 years B.P., has been called the Nissouri Stadial (Dreimanis and Karrow 1972, p. 3). The till deposited during this advance has been identified in the Orangeville area to the south. During retreat it is possible that part of the Orangeville Moraine was built, although no direct evidence has been found. The ice then readvanced from the northeast and northwest depositing Tavistock Till. A concurrent advance in Lake Ontario and Erie basins deposited Port Stanley Till, during the Port Bruce Stadial (Fig. 13)* During the advance and retreat of Tavistock ice the Orangeville Moraine was built. Also during retreat the three eskers and small kames were deposited and meltwater flowed south and southwestward probably down the Grand River system. Tavistock ice retreated completely from the Dundalk area above the Escarpment, however, it is not known how far east and north of the Escarpment it went. There is no evidence in the Dundalk area or in any of the surrounding map-areas of an extensive lacustrine period below th: Escarpment following retreat of Tavistock ice. Thus, it is suggested that Tavistock ice did not retreat from the Escarpment and that Newmarket Till is the correlative of Tavistock Till below the Escarpment, -91-
GEORGIAN BAY LAKE ONTARIO STADIAL AREA BASIN and INTERSTADIAL
LSP
.— *- o EH Port CO Huron PQ ^ CO 13
Mackinaw M CO o Port CO Bruce M e-iW
— ^ p Erie
•••" . . GC Nissouri
K - Kettleby Till B - Banks Moraine - Palgrave Moraine o H - Halton Till Pal wCO N - Newmarket Till S-G - Singhampton- Gibraltar moraine W - Wentworth Till P - Paris Moraine T - Tavistock Till S - Singhampton Moraine M PS - Port Stannley Till O - Orangeville Moraine GC - Catfish Creek Till LSP - Late Schomberg Ponds MSP - Middle Schomberg Ponds ESP ~ Early Schomberg Ponds
Figure 13 Schematic Diagram of Glacial and Nonglacial Episodes, Dundalk Area. - 92 -
representing the whole period from the inception of the Tavistock ice advance to the end of the Newmarket phase. It follows that Singhampton and Singhampton-Gibraltar Moraines which were built by Newmarket ice are truly recessional moraines except for local overriding of these features in the Dundalk area. If the correlation of the Paris Moraine with the Singhampton-Gibraltar moraine is valid, then Newmarket Till would be in part correlative with Wentworth Till and in part older than it (Fig. 13). Upon retreat of Newmarket ice Early Schomberg Ponds formed between the ice margin and the Escarpment. These eventually developed into an extensive proglacial lake. The ice readvanced over these sediments which gave the resultant Kettleby Till its characteristic silty texture. Kettleby ice retreated and a second episode of ponds resulted, which are here named Middle Schomberg Ponds. These in turn were overridden and a second phase of Kettleby Till deposited which cannot be distinguished from the first except in outcrop. Extensive outwash sediments were deposited at the margin of Kettleby ice which may form part of the Banks Moraine. Kettleby ice appears to have advanced somewhat later than the Halton ice advance during the late Port Huron Stadial (Fig. 13) (White 1971, p. 217). As Kettleby ice retreated Late Schomberg Ponds developed along the ice margin. -92A-
The Late Schomberg Ponds were lowered progressively as outlets were down cut or as lower ones became ice free. As the lowering progressed successive paired terraces were cut into the Kettleby-ice outwash apron by the eastward flowing rivers. With the cutting of these terraces glacial and related processes ceased in the Dundalk map-area. Since then infilling of depression with organic debris and wind-blown deposits has continued and the rivers have continued the process of developing equilibrium profiles* Most recently a period of renewed aelolian activity redistributed sands and in several areas buried soil profiles that had developed since the end of the glacial period. - 93 -
GRANULAR RESOURCES
Sand and gravel deposits form the surface material over approximately 50 percent of the Dundalk area. However, only a small percentage of this material is suitable as granular aggregate and most of it is concentrated in the eastern half of the map area, in particular Mono and Mulmur Townships. As a result of land use stress both of these townships have been designated under the "Pits and Quarries Control Act" of 1971. Suitable granular deposits are of two basic origins; ice-contact stratified drift and glaciofluvial outwash.
Ice-contact Stratified Drift Two moraine ridges, several miscellaneous features and three eskers constitute the principal ice-contact granular resources. Orangeville Moraine Although this prominent ridge (Fig. 14) was deposited by melt waters flowing between two glacial lobes most of the material in the main ridge are fine grained consisting of sand, silty sand and silt. When examined in 1971 only two of the fifteen deposits listed in Table 9 were producing, of these one was producing sand, Site 113 and one was producing gravel, Site 119. Of the remaining sites approximately half had produced sandfill in the past and the remainder coarse granular material. Of all pits in the - 94 -
T .A--.1 N G "i""-- •** *. ~ ^ *sr
Ice-contact Stratified Drift
Outwash Gravel
Monifiefd
Fig 14 . Ice-contact deposits in main sections of Orangeville, Singhampton and Singhampton- Gibraltar Moraines, and principal outwash gravel deposits. - 95 -
Orangeville Moraine only two have been licenced for extraction. These are Site 119 licenced to Greenwood Construction Co. Ltd. and Site 123 formerly licenced to Mr. M. A. Cullen, presently licenced to Mr. L. Patton. The material at Site 119 consists of ten feet of medium pebble gravel showing some horizontal bedding underlain by five feet of medium to coarse grained sand with beds dipping to the southwest. Underlying this are twenty feet of medium to small pebble gravel with a coarse grained sand matrix. Beds in this unit also dip to the southwest. The average textural composition of the face is approximately 1+Ofo stone, 60fo sand. The deposit extending between Morning's Mills and Shelburne contains abundant coarse granular material (Table 10). In this fairly restricted area eight gravel pits have been described. However, only one of these was operating in 1971, (Site #9). This pit, in Lot 13 Concession II of Melancthon Township, contains approximately fifteen feet of medium pebble gravel which is generally poorly sorted. The gravel is overlain by about three feet of medium grained sand which contain minor gravel lenses as in the Orangeville and Singhampton Moraines. The pebble grade in these pits appear to contain abundant clastic materials. However, since most of this material is used as road surfacing by the Township, it is felt that this does not present a serious problem. Some of the pits such as at Site 90 contain coarse - 96 -
material. At this site there are approximately 15 m (45 feet) of interbedded gravel, medium grained sand, and silt. The face is strongly faulted and shows sharp changes in grain size. It is estimated that approximately 10 percent of the pebble lithologies are composed of shale and crumbly sandstone. Similarly at Site 91 10 m (30 feet) of bouldery gravel, maximum size l m (3 feet), and approximately fifty percent of a crushable material, is greater than four inches in diameter. The other two miscellaneous deposits that are northeast of Horning's Mills and the one in the Ruskview area consists predominantly of pebbly sand and medium grained sand. No extraction has taken place in these two deposits. "
Singhampton-Gibraltar Moraine Although the Singhampton-Gibraltar moraine forms a massive ridge of ice-contact stratified drift (Fig. 14) most of the material in the moraine is fine grained granular material. Only three pits have been operated in this deposit. These include Site 103 and Site 12# which is immediately south of Violet Hill (Table 12, Map 3). A third gravel pit also operated to the south of Site 12&, but has now been abandoned. At Site 103 (Table 12) 5 m (15 feet) of large pebble, sandy gravel is exposed overlying 6 m (l# feet) of medium grained pebbly sand interbedded with medium grained sand layers and minor gravel lenses. Ttr face shows typical ice- - 97 -
contact structures including faulting and minor slump folding of the beds. Site 12& contains 2 m (6 feet) of medium pebble gravel with a very dirty matrix overlying ten feet of fine grained silty sand which overlies another 3 m (10 feet) of medium to fine grained pebble gravel also poorly sorted. The pit face shows strong ice-contact features including what appear to be slump folds and sheer faulting. In general the gravel in this pit is poorly sorted with apparently a high proportion of fines in the matrix. Pebble lithologies (Table 12, Map 4) contain a relatively high proportion of sandstone and siltstone These lithologies are derived principally from the Georgian Bay Formation at the base of the Escarpment. They are generally friable pebbles with the result that the deposits appear to be very dirty gravel. However, it is probable that during normal crushing operations some of this material could be removed. It would require an impact crusher to remove most if not all of these deleterious lithologies.
Eskers and Kames Gravel pits have been opened in all three eskers in the Dundalk area (Tables 13, 15 and 16). Four pits investigated in the Shrigley Esker reveal a similar type of deposit consisting of massive sand and gravel of which fifty to sixty-five percent is stone and fifty to thirty- five percent is sand. Total thickness of the deposit is not known, however, observed thicknesses range in the order of 6 to 10 m (20-30 feet). A typical pit in this esker is at Site #1 (Table 13) where approximately 10-12 m (30-35 feet of apparently unstratified sand and gravel is exposed. It consists of forty percent stone and sixty percent sand, and approximately twenty-five percent of the stone is greater than four inches. The maximum size in the pit was between .6 and l m (2-3 feet) in diameter. As with most of the pits in the west half of the Dundalk area, the material from this site was merely crushed and used as road surfacing on the township roads. Gravel pits in the Riverview Esker reveal 5-7 m (15-20 feet) of dirty sandy gravel containing variable amounts of stone and sand (Table 15). When visited none of the gravel pits in the Riverview Esker were being used. The stone lithology in the gravel of this esker contains abundant carbonates and relatively low percentage of clastic lithologies, constituting it generally sound granular material. In contrast to the Riverview Esker the Brice Hill Esker has been extensively developed for aggregate extraction, however, only one gravel pit was in operation. The gravel pit at Site 7# (Table 16), Lot 22, Concession X of Proton Township included a face 10 m (30 feet) high containing interbedded sand and gravel. The material consisted of twenty percent stone and eighty percent sand and was being - 99 -
used in road construction. Approximately ten percent of the stone was greater than four inches in diameter. The pebbles consisted od eighty to eighty-five percent carbonate lithologies and an average of eight percent clastic lithologies, In general, the stone appeared to be very sound. Of these three eskers the Brice Hill esker and the Shrigley Esker seemed to have the greatest potential for future development. One small esker, Site 116, occurs within one of the spurs of the Orangeville Moraine (Table 1&, Map 3). However, most of the gravel has been extracted from this esker. The site is now licenced under the Pits and Quarries Control Act where Greenwood Construction Ltd. has established an asphalt plant. Any future extraction from this site will be from surrounding outwash material. The kame at Kingscote (Site 75) consists of interbedded medium gravel and medium grained sand (Table 1&, Map 3 and 4)- There is approximately fifteen to twenty percent pebbles and the remainder is sand. Sand ranges from medium grained with coarse grained sand layers. A total of 12 m (40 feet) is exposed in the kame. A well dug near the gravel pit into bedrock went through 16 m (52 feet) of medium sand gravel overlying a further l6 m (52 feet) of medium sand. Other wells in the kame indicate approximately 15 to 30 m ( 50-100 feet) of gravel and sand. - 100 -
A second kame complex is found north of Proton Station (Site 21) and is part of the Singhampton Moraine. The pit contains 3 m (10 feet) of massive sand and gravel with a generally very dirty matrix. When visited, material was being crushed and used as road surfacing and fill. The deposit consisted of approximately half a million tons of granular A and granular B. While the face height ranged from 3-5 m (10-15 feet), it is thought that the deposit was no thicker than this. A substrate of till was found throughout the exposed part of the pit. However, fifteen to sixty feet (5 to 20 m) of sandy gravel are reported in well logs under the till just north of Saugeen River. In contrast, to the ice-contact deposits of the Orangeville and Singhampton Moraines and other miscellaneous deposits the stone in the eskers and kames is generally very sound. Typically, the gravel contains eighty to ninety percent carbonate lithologies (limestone, dolostone and very little chert - maximum 2 percent) (Table 13, 15, 16 and 1&). Further, the clastic content of these gravels is very low ranging from one percent to a maximum of about ten percent. As a result the material in these deposits is highly suitable for a variety of uses. However, the possible reserves in these deposits is definitely limited. - 101 -
Glaciofluvial Outwash Deposits Outwash deposits typically contain the most consistent quality of granular materials due to the manner of their origin. Although a large portion of the Dundalk area is underlain by outwash material, most of it consists of medium grained, silty sand and pebbly silty sand. Only three deposits have been developed for granular extraction. Th:se include the delta at Black Bank, the delta at Horning*s Mills and the deposits in the Lavender-Violet Hill Meltwater Channel (Fig. 14). All of the other deposits show fairly consistent properties (Table 20). Sand content ranges between thirty-five and eighty percent, however, most of the deposits contain between sixty and seventy percent sand and the remainder stone. The pit at Site 88 (Table 20) in the Homing's Mills Delta is typical in that it contains eighty percent sand and twenty percent stone, whereas the pit in the Black Bank Delta (Site 96) is a better deposit in that it contains approximately forty percent stone and sixty percent sand. The pebble lithologies in the gravel section of these two sites are entirley similar (Table 20, Map 4). They both contain approximately sixty-five percent carbonates with less than five percent chert, and a elastics content ranging between twenty-five and thirty-five percent. The deposit in the Black Bank Delta is thought to have greater - 102 -
potential than that at Horning*s Mills primarily because of the thickness of the deposit. The wells at Homing's Mills indicate not more than twenty to thirty feet (6-9 m) of overburden. At Black Bank at least forty feet (12 m) of material is present. Three deposits have been developed in the outwash of Pine and Boyne Rivers in the vicinity of Mansfield (Table 20, Sites 104-107)* These deposits are consistent in their properties. They have between thirty and forty percent stone content and the remainder consists of sand. They also have consistent lithologic content including about sixty percent carbonates, less than one percent chert, and twenty to thirty percent clastic lithologies. However, the thickness of the deposits is quite variable. Site 105 contains only 2 m (6 feet) of gravel while Site 106 contains up to 1& m (60 feet) of interbedded gravel and medium grained sand. The pit at Site 10? contains 3 m (10 feet) of fine grained sand overlying interbedded medium and fine grained sand and medium gravel, and is separated from underlying medium grained gravel by clay silt. Th? most important granular resources in the Dundalk area are exposed in pits in the upper level of the Lavender- Violet Hill Meltwater Channel. Four gravel pits have been developed in this deposit (Table 20, Site 100, 101, 125-127). Sites 100 and 101 reveal typical stratigraphy for this deposit. - 103 -
At Site 101 approximately 9 m (30 feet) of coarse pebble gravel with a dirty matrix overlies 6m (20 feet) medium to fine grained clean quartz sand. The sand is known to extend a further 5 m (15 feet) below the pit floor. Site 100 contains interbedded medium to coarse grained sand and the pebbly sand interbedded with medium to coarse gravel which is generally poorly sorted. The texture and lithology of this deposit appears very consistent throughout the deposit. Pebble lithologies in the gravel fraction are similar containing between fifty and eighty percent carbonates with less than one percent chert, and between seventeen and thirty-six percent clastic lithology. In general, it is poorly sorted in the matrix containing relatively high fine content and contains a high percentage of clastic materials. However, following crushing a large proportion of the clastic material is removed with the result that the material is suitable to be used in asphalt. The problem of abundant clastic lithologies in the pebble grade is common to all the deposits at or below the Niagara Escarpment in the Dundalk area. This presents a problem similar to that found in several deposits in southern Ontario and one of the principal means of beneficiating such material is through crushing which effectively removes rotten sandstone and friable shale and siltstone pebbles. 104 -
Estimates have been made of the possible reserves for the Black Bank Delta and the section of the Lavender- Violet Hill Meltwater Channel between Boyne River and Mono Centre (Table 22, Fig. 14). Table 22. Possible Reserves in Major Outwash Deposits, Dundalk Area.
U GO able Gross Estimate Net D-^it Acreage Thickness Tonnage Cultural Loss ^ x 106 x 10C Delta at rlack Bank 1152 25' 70 10 63 Lavondk-r-Violot Hill Kyltvator 1664 30' 121 10 109 Channel TOTAL 2316 172
The estimate of the thickness of the deposits is conservative in view of the known thickness of the sediments from water well data. However, the thickness can be considered to reflect loss during excavation due to unuseable material such as sand and silt. Estimate of possible reserves in other deposits have not been made because some of the deposits have been partially removed as in the eskers or the material is insufficiently consistent over large areas to permit realistic estimates as in the ice-contact deposits of the Orangeville and Singhampton Moraines.
- 105 -
REFERENCES
American Geological Institute 1972: Glossary of Geology; W. Garry, R. McAfee Jr. and C. L. Wolf, editors, American Geological Institute, Washington, D.C., #05 p. Bolton, T.E. 1953: Silurian Stratigraphy and Paleontology of the Niagara Escarpment in Ontario; Unpubl. Ph.D. Thesis, Univ. Toronto. 1957: Silurian Stratigraphy and Paleontology of the Niagara Escarpment in Ontario; Geol. Surv. Can. Mem. 2#9, 145 p. Burwasser, G.J. 1974: Quaternary Geology of the Collingwood-Nottawasaga Area, Southern Ontario; Ontario Div. Mines, Prelim. Map P.919, Geol. Ser., scale 1:50,000. Geology 1973- Chapman, L.J. and Dell, C.I. * : - 1963: Revisiions in the Early History of the Retreat of the Wisconsin Glacier in Ontario Based on the Calcite Content of Sands; Proc. Geol. Assoc. Can. v. 15, pp. 103-103. Chapman, L.J. and Putnam, D.F. 1966: The Physiography of Southern Ontario; University of Toronto Press, 2nd edition, 3#6 p. 1949: The Recession of the Wisconsin Glacier in Southern Ontario; Trans. Roy. Soc. Can., v. 43, ser. 3, sect. IV, pp. 23-52. 1972: The Physiography of the South Central Portion of Southern Ontario; Ontario Department of Mines and Northern Affairs, Map 2226, scale l inch to 4 miles. Cowan, W.R. and Sharpe, D.R. 1973: Quaternary Geology of the Orangeville Area, Southern Ontario; Ontario Div. Mines, Prelim. Map P84&, Geol. Ser., scale 1:50,000. Geology 1971, 1972. Cowan, W.R. 1974: Quaternary Geology of the Orangeville Area, Southern Ontario; Ontario Div. Mines, OFR5103, 173 p., 12 figs., 19 tables, 17 photos (Xerox copies), and Map P.#4#, scale 1:50,000. 1975: Quaternary Geology of the Woodstock Area, Southern Ontario; Ontario Div. Mines, GR119, 91 p. Accompanied by Maps 22&L and 22#2, scale l inch to l mile. - 106 -
Crombie, G,P. 1943: A Study of the Insoluble residues of the Paleozoic Rocks of Southwestern Ontario; Unpubl. Ph.D. Thesis, Univ. Toronto, 105 p. Deane, R.E. 1950: Pleistocene Geology of the Lake Simcoe District, Ontario; Geol. Surv. Canada, Memoir 256, 103 p. Accompanied by 4 maps. Dreimanis, A. 1953: Geology; in Upper Holland Valley Conservation Rept., Part IV, TJK. 4, p. 3-22, Ontario Dept. Planning and Development. Dreimanis, A., and Karrow, P.F. 1972: Glacial History of the Great Lakes - St. Lawrence Region, the Classification of the Wisconsin(an) Stage, and Its Correlatives; 24th International Geological Congress, Section 12, Quaternary Geology, pp. 5-15. Elson, J.A. 1961: The Geology of Tillsj p. 5-17, in Proc. 14th Canadian Soil Mechanics Conf. lT"and 14 October I960, Assoc. Committee on Snow and Ice Mechanics, N.R.C. Technical Memo., No. 69, 231 p. Folk, R.L. 19o5: Petrology of Sedimentary Rocks; Hemphill's, Austin, Texas, 159 p. Gillespie, J.E., and Richards, N.R. 1954: Soil Survey of Grey County, Ontario; Rept. No. 17 of the Ontario Soil Survey, 79 p* Accompanied by map, scale 1:63,360. Goudge, M. F. 1927: Preliminary Report on the Limestones of Quebec and Ontario; Canada Dept. of Mines, Mines Branch No. 632, 75 p. 1933: Canadian Limestones, for Building Purposes; Canada Dept. of Mines, Mines Branch No. 733, 196 p. 1933: Limestones of Canada, Part IV, Ontario; Canada Dept. of Mines and Resources, Bureau of Mines, No. 731, 362 p. Gwyn, H. 1971: Heavy mineral assemblages in tills and their use in distinguishing glacial lobes in the Great Lakes Region, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, 192 p. - 10? -
Gwyn, Q.H.J. 1971: Quaternary Geology, Dundalk Area, Southern Ontario; pp. 97-93 in Summary of Field Work, 1971 by the Geological Branch, E.G. Pye editor, Ontario Dept. Mines and Northern Affairs,- MP49, 109 p. 1972: Quaternary Geology of the Alliston-Newmarket area, Southern Ontario; pp. 144-197 in Summary of Field Work, 1972, by the Geological branch, edited by V.G. Milne and D.F. Hewitt, Ontario Div. Mines, MP53, 165 p. Gwyn, Q.H.J., and DiLabio R.N.W. 1973: Quaternary Geology of the Newmarket Area, Southern Ontario; Ontario Div. Mines, Prelim. Map P#36, Geol. Ser., scale 1:50,000. Geology 1972. Gwyn, Q.H.J., and Fraser, J. Z. 1975a: Bedrock Topography of the Dundalk Area, Southern Ontario; Ontario Div. Mines, Prelim. Map P306 revised, Bedrock Topography Ser., scale 1:50,000. Gwyn, Q.H.J., and Fraser, J. Z. 1975b: Drift Thickness of the Dundalk Area, Southern Ontario; Ontario Div. Mines, Prelim. Map P1023, Drift Thickness Ser., scale 1:50,000. Gwyn, Q.H.J., and White, S. 1973: Quaternary Geology of the Alliston Area, Southern Ontario; Ontario Div. Mines, Prelim. Map P&35, Geol. Ser., scale 1:50,000. Geology 1972. Hewitt, D.F. 1964: Building Stones of Ontario, Part II, Limestone; Ontario Dept. of Mines Industrial Mineral Report No. 15, 41 p. Hewitt, D.F., and Cowan, W.R. 1969: Sand and Gravel in Southern Ontario; Ontario Dept. Mines, OFR 5029, 149 p. Accompanied by map, scale 1:1,013,760. Hewitt, D.F. 1971: The Niagara Escarpment; Ontario Dept. Mines and Northern Affairs, IMR 35, 71 p. 1972: Paleozoic Geology of Southern Ontario; Ontario Div. Mines, GR 105, lo p. Accompanied by Map 2254, scale l inch to 16 miles. Hoffman, D.W., Mathews, B.C., and Wicklund, R.E. 1963: Soil Survey of Wellington County, Ontario; Rept. No. 35 of the Ontario Soil Survey, 69 p. Accompanied by map, scale 1:63,360. - 103 -
Hoffman, D.W., Mathews, B.C., and Wicklund, R.E. 1964: Soil Survey of Dufferin County, Ontario, Rept, No. 38 of the Ontario Soil Survey, 75 p- Accompanied by map, seals 1:63,360. Hoffman, D.W., Wicklund, R.E., and Richards, N.R. 1962: Soil Survey of Simcoe County, Ontario; Rept. No. 29 of the Ontario Soil Survey, 109 p. Accompanied by map, scale 1:63,360. Holstein, A. 1936: Heavy Minerals in Silurian Rocks of the Niagara Escarpment, Ontario; Unpubl. Ph.D. Thesis, Univ. Toronto, 147 p. Karrow, P.F. 1968: Pleistocene Geology of the Guelph Area, Southern Ontario; Ontario Dept. Mines, GR 6l, 33 P-, accompanied by map, scale l:63,360. 1971: Quaternary Geology of the Stratford-Conestogo Area, Ontario; Geol. Surv. Canada Paper 70-34, 11 p. accompanied by 4 maps, scale 1:50,000. 1974a: Till Stratigraphy in Parts of Southwestern Ontario; Geol. Soc. Amer. Bull. v. #5, pp. 761-763, 4 figs. 1974b: Quaternary Geology of the St, Marys Area, Southern Ontario; Ontario Div. Mines, OFR 5116, 130 p., 6 tables, 19 figs, and Maps P.913 and P.956, scale 1:50,000. Leverett, F., and Taylor, F.B. 1915: The Pleistocene of Indiana and Michigan and the History of the Great Lakes; U.S.G.S. Mono LIII, 52o p. Liberty, B.A. 1969: Paleozoic Geology of the Lake Simcoe Area, Ontario; Geol. Surv. Canada, Mem. 355, 201 p. Sibul U. and Choo-Ying, A.V. 1971: Water Resources of the Upper Nottawasaga River, Drainage Basin; Ontario Water Resources Commission, Water Resource Report 3, 123 p. Spencer, J.W. 1333: The Drift north of Lake Ontario; abstract, Science, v. ii, pp. 133-139. Taylor, F.B. 1397: Moraines of Recession and their significance in glacial theory; Jour, of Geol. v. 5, p. 421-465. - 109 -
Taylor, F.B. 1909: Field Work on the Pleistocene Deposits of South western Ontario; pp. 103-111 in Summary Report of the Geological Survey Branch oT the (Canada) Department of Mines for 190#, Sessional Paper No. 26, 220 p. 1913: The Moraine Systems of Southwestern Ontario; Royal Canadian Institute Trans., v. 10, pp. 57-79. 1939: Correlatives of the Port Huron Moraine System of Michigan in Ontario and Western New York; Amer. J. Sci. v. 237, pp. 375-333. Telford, P.G., Bond, I.J., and Liberty, B.A. 1974: Paleozoic Geology of the Dundalk Area, Southern Ontario; Ontario Div. Mines, Prelim. Map P946, Geol. Ser., scale 1:50,000. Geology 1972, 1973. White, O.L. 1971: Pleistocene Geology of the Bolton Area (30M-13) Southern Ontario; Ontario Dept. Mines and Northern Affairs, OFR 5067, 249 p. Accompanied by 2 maps. -110-
APPENDIX A Till Analyses Notes 1- Except for pebble counts and heavy mineral analyses all laboratory analyses were carried out by the Mineral ftesearch Branch of the Ontario Division of Mines. 2- Sand - silt boundary is 0.062 mm; silt - clay boundary is 0.002 mm; Md is median diameter in mm. 3- Pebble counts on S to 32 mm grade. 4- Carbonate analysis on minus 200 mesh fraction using Chittick apparatus. 5- Heavy mineral separations from -60 to +120 mesh fraction using tetrabromoethane (S.G. 2.96). 6- Till identification T Tavistock Till N Newmarket Till K Kettleby Till Abl Ablation till 7- Till samples marked with ? were not used in calculation of means. tf p •ir* if- rv r -111- o 13 a S
r /"A i vj- J Vft O C3 •H -y rt. 0 M 00 o s xy- -K n c/ •H O ^ *r > e) G c -H to w rv rv.
Carbonates -V
V Ni
0 0 •H ft C} W fi
O O suoq.sq.iTs O O Vi -S* "t 0
01103. s Qnmj TT
OC
Texture OC OC V) 0 m 03 (N
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V) O vC rH O V \
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4)
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ea o
J '**. Q "
33-10130
0 A- Q m \ ' o 0 o \^ /s. fn O 6o O C
p^ 01103.390171 00
OF /k crl VIc~ ^ •Q a O O
t* g rsi -p 02 V, /v. i? r x o t* rK o VQ -S
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CO Sf fV\ 00 'CC -H Vi ?1 O oc O P4 oo o
4) rH *
4 P V! x* rk CO V 0 •M IX 0 R-. vr W J H -113- u f i
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8 c/
ea o •go cj c/ s O
rH O 0 •H Q •CT •o t?
Vo 6 O Vi io ^ o 3110^.30X0(7, ,0 p-l
o ^ p •i-* CO ?s o
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- 115 -
APPENDIX C
Descriptive Data on Sand and Gravel Pits
Notes: l- Estimated or inferred reserves: Small less than 1,500*OOOcubic Yards Medium 1,500,000 to 5,000,000 cubic yards Large more than 5,000,000 cubic yards percent H -116-
tn ebbletithology auo^spueg
ri. "X
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N
PebbleLithology
V) auorjsaurt'i s 3-tsodap go ircST I aapinoq umurtxBui N. c o 1-1 UBq:j axioms ^ -U •H W auorjs ex.O 6 o o (pa:jBurj:jsa) PUBS M l SL
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Y Location t d 3 A l M m M i!
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Location UOTSSaOUOQ h bl H H-J^ M
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V) V3 iJ c S^DOO. - a ^ S r o ( ^ a ai*qS -~ M o. 1 \ •* s X suoqsiHTS W) 5 ^ M N. i t-io j 0 o JC auoqspueg * N. •S V u j •ri . ^ v. ^iaqQ 1 ^ \ o i T-4 JQ " : JO 3Uo3SoToa 4. * a N * pL, auoqsaurpi S 5 i i ~ k S 1 ^ i ^TSOdap go UTSTJtQ 2 1 3 l i 1 t i a k 1'J*1 •li 4 \j •V" i 1V) V) i 3 V . ,aPInoq ,™m- •' S.
•s. j O u^7 ueqq .zaqBajiS auo^s '^ 5 o O ,,T; UBqq jta^BaaS auo^s ^ 5 cuo - j i . 0 (pa^BuiT^sa) puss ^ o lv •3 o .i * S s f o o i (pa^FiuTqisa) auoq.s*^ * e 5 •51 s (u^\ou^un-fi c aSae "[-i e t "[Bins — g ) t. i saAJcasa^j paijBurtijsg V, V} * V) -n V) j
- ? daa jo ssau^o-tqx paqaoda^ i •Q . c V, V r daQ 30 ssainpTqx paAJLasqo 5 N V) Ci uapanqaaAQ 30 ssainp-pqx •O V 's. Y l ^ ^ N l
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1
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rsi . •-rv* *^x v r~± "A •| ^* 1? i j -"~ ^v --~*\r^ , . ... ^ •^rl ^ ^i 3V r^ -. .—i- ^ . i . ' ..'.' ;;-i * - M V5 DUNDALK CAN ADA SHEET 41 Vi WEST HALF DUNDALK CANADA SHEET 41 Vi EAST HALF •5 77 73
Uilndalk ,
INDEX TO ADJOINING SHEETS
, .^-•f.t"fWI _ 7i *~ Tv **4- .J^. G WV'M ~ "~ ~ ~
DUNDALK
-r *rrr.. Survvy ESI . P C E 1341 ••r;ai i :io*raotty by R C A.F.. l J IB .T/ef?*') from rti* f;r*t. **t'C-n of th* l 63360 -~JD to i 5'JCOO ,, f* -,S.E i fZ^ /52.
BEDROCK TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY DUNDALK A&SA SGi"n-::-:RN ONTARIO
Scale- 1:1,0,000 1.23 i ne h -' s t. d l riilc- ci nproxi nvi le l y
0^ ^ l MILE
O 1000 METRtS
N.i'S ki-i'ci-.-nc-:: M A/1
LEGKMD
PALEOZOIC SILURIAN
9 l Salina Forr-a;. ion*: dolomite, gypsum, anhydrite
Guvloh Formation: brown or tan dolostone
7 A.-^b~l Formation: grey or blue-grey dolostone Lra-.osa Mc~ber*: 7e dark brown or black bituminous dolostone j 6 Fossil Hill Forr-a t ion and Cataract Group unsubdivided
Fossil Hill Formation:
6fh HOC t led grey or brown, crystalline dolostone CATA?J-.CT CRCi'P
C a : .- 1 Ho r.-i F o r-~. t i on : ich rot: led green and red shale
gr*1/ or noc t led brown, fine to medium crystalline dolostone
tv whiev or t*n quaicz sandstone (Unit** ircictcti oth*ruis*. all bedrock outcrops of ur.it i *rc X*p.iso-jlln For.-?acion.)
• 'S s (c~i^~*'z~ Formation: red shale
-ir i-.ir ?..iv Formation : grey-green and grey-blue shale, si lti.conc, li.r.estonc
.:o. For-::on : riy-brown and bla.k shale
LJ. r, c ^ f. v Jj: r - ' -;. i oj i : grey -ubl i chograp'iic lir.-.estont-, ri nor cloloscouo
\'-:rjK-.- :z: --j.- i. n^: gi'cy lirri-scone, r-ir-.ur shale
SYMBOLS Geological boundary, approximate ,...'| Geological boundary, interpreted Contour line of bedrock topography (interval 25 feet) EXPLANATION This map is adapted from the bedrock topography map by Gwyn and Fraser (I975a) and the Paleozoic geology map by Telford et al. (1974). T"ir•T-*'-.-/- l ''; -if^'V/^X vv.f--o*'
OV-KI
XL;^^•^wtv-.'..- -'i-^~4*. 4 y7 f^^^^Vj-^r:" X TlS!S**Sii/ ' J oFR .S/32-
ONTARIO DEPARTMENT OF MINES AND NORTHERN AFFAIRS
PRELIMINARY MAP P.727 GEOLOGICAL SERIES
DUNDALK First Edition- CANADA SHEET 41 Vi EAST HALF 1:50,000 First Edition CANADA SHEET 41 Vi WEST HALF ONTARIO 1:50,000 44*15' ONTARIO DUNDALK 20' 65 Scale 1:50,000 1.25 Inches' to l Mile approximately
NTS Reference: 41 A/1 GSC Aeromagnetic Map: 8396G
LEGEND
CENOZOIC QUATERNARY Recent Wind-blown deposits. Fine sand in sand dunes.
Modern alluvium, unsubdivided. Silt, sand, and gravel.
Bog deposits. Peat, muck, and marl.
Older alluvium. Sand and gravel.
Pleistocene Glacial-lake or pond deposits. Very fine sand, silt, :—***'s^ 2* W —s*' . and clay. Glacial-outwash sand. Glacial-outwash gravel. Ice-contact stratified drift. Sand and gravel, includes some till and silt. a) Mainly gravel. b) Mainly sand. Till. Mainly sandy silty till with some pebbly silty sandy till.
lam Amabel Formation Ice Clinton and Cataract Groups
Iqu Queenston Formation Igb Georgian Bay Formation Note: Deposits less than 3 feet thick are not shown as separate units. SYMBOLS
3H1 Geological boundary (actual Glacial meltwater channel or interpreted). with inferred direction of flow. Small bedrock outcrop. Esker (arrowheads show Sand or gravel pit. *^^J current direction). Vl Rock quarry. Terrace scarp. Glacial striae (ice- movement direction inferred).
Glacial fluting in till.
Drumlin.
MARGINAL NOTES
Mapping was done during the summer of 1971 by the writer with the assistance of B.D. Cairns who mapped the western half of the area, G.B. Eggertson, and A.G. Higgins. Field techniques included the examination of road exposures, foundation excavations, and soil augering. Air photographs on a scale, l inch to 3,000 feet were used. Bedrock Geology: There are numerous outcrops, most of which are in the vicinity of the Niagara Escarpment. The Escarpment trends north-south through the middle of the eastern half of the map-area. East of the Escarpment, outcrops of Georgian Bay and Queenston Formations, both of the Ordovician period, are mainly - in the Whitfield-Mansfield-Ruskview region. Silurian formations of the Cataract and Clinton Groups are not well exposed but are best at Hornings Mills and in .Boyne River north of Primrose. The youngest formation in the area, the Silurian Amabel Formation, is exposed extensively at the Niagara Escarpment and in the area west of it. Glacial Deposits: Till: Till covers 40 to 50 percent of the map-area and only one mappable till unit was found. However, exposures were examined in which there were two and three tills. The surface till has a sandy silty texture and contains generally less than 10 percent pebbles. It is compact, massive, and olive coloured (5Y5/4, Munsell System). In some areas, particularly in the hummocky topography north and east of Honeywood, the till is bouldery and has slightly more sandy matrix. Two other till units underlie the surface till in foundation excavations at Shelburne. The lowermost till is a sandy pebbly till, compact, and light yellow- brown (10YR5/3). The middle till is silty with few pebbles and red-brown (5YR5/3). The three tills are separated by l to 2 feet of silt, sand, and minor pebbly sand. The two lower tills are at the surface at only two other locations, and are not found in section elsewhere. Ice-Contact Stratified Drift: In the western half of the map-area, ice- contact drift is restricted to three eskers and two kame complexes. The eskers trend northwest-southeast, with southeast flow directions indicated. The gravel in both the esker s and kame s is typically coarse gravel to pebbly sand. Ice-contact drift covers approximately 35 percent of the eastern half of the area. Texturally, it is mainly medium-grained sand wich some gravel, pebbly sand and bouldery sand. This material is in two morainic ridges: the Orangeville Moraine and a second hummocky ridge which is parallel Co and east of the Orangeville Moraine. It is not known whether the eastern ridge is a separate moraine (Singhampton Moraine?) or part of the Orangeville Moraine. It is suggested that it marks the location of the ice margin during the period when the Violet Hill Spillway was in use. Outwash Gravel and Sand: In the map-area, the Violet Hill Spillway extends from Black Bank through a gorge, thence across a delta south of Black Bank, and on southward to Kilgorie and Violet Hill and south past Mono Centre. Abundant sedimentary structures indicate that meltwater flowed southward'in the Spillway. However, both preglacial and present drainage is to the east, thus the ice evidently dammed the east-flowing rivers. There are two distinct parallel channel levels within the spillway; one at 1,425 feet and one at 1,350 feet. The higher channel is closer to the Escarpment and was used first. As the ice retreated, and with the normal eastward drainage still ice-dammed, the lower channel to the east of the higher one was formed. At the higher channel level, gravel predominates although it is underlain by medium- to fine-grained sand in several gravel pit exposures. At the lower level sand is the main deposit with minor amounts of pebbly sand and gravel. In the western part of the map-area, medium- to fine-grained sand and silty sand was deposited in numerous small meltwater channels. Most of these seem to have drained southward into the Grand River system. Wind-Blown Sand and Silt; Aeolian silt forms a thin veneer covering a large area of till in the Conover-Honeywood-Redickville region. Although it is not a mappable unit it covers a wide area and fills hollows and small depressions. South of Shrigley, there are three sand dunes. Based on the orientation of lee slopes, the transporting wind was from the west. Economic Geology: Only one stone quarry has been operaCed in the Dundalk area. The Ritchie Cut Stone Co. Ltd. quarried-dolostone of the Amabel Formation 1.5 miles east of Shelburne in the late 1920s. The gravel in the esker s in the western and central parts of the map-area are the main source of this material presently being developed. The esker s contain sufficient amounts for local requirements. The gravel contains less than 5 percent of deleterious pebble lithologics such as silcy sandstone, shale, and chert. Very large reserves of sand and gravel are found principally in outwash and ice-contact deposits in Mono, Mulmur, and in the southeastern part of Melancthon Townships. The outwash gravel in the Violet Hill Spillway has a very consistent texture. However it has 15 to 20 percent combined silty sandstone, siltstone, shale, and chert. The gravel in the ice-contact deposiCs is irregularly distributed and has a pebble lithology similar to the gravel outwash. There is a sufficient supply to support several commercial o per ac ions.
Selected References; Bedrock Geology and Topography: Karrow, P.F. 1965: Dundalk Sheet, Bedrock Topography Series; Ontario Dept. Mines, Prelim. Map P.306, scale 1:50,000, 1.25 inches to l mile approximately. Geology 1964. Liberty, B.A. 1969: Paleozoic geology of the Lake Simcoe area, Ontario; Geol. Surv. Canada, Mem.355, 20lp. Accompanied by Map 1228A, scale l inch to 4 miles. Pedology: Hoffman, D.W., Mathews, B.C., and Wicklund, R.E. 1964: Soil survey of Dufferin County; Research Branch, Ontario Dept. Agriculture, Report No.38 of the Ontario Soil Survey, 75p. Physiography: Chapman, L.J., and Putnam, D.F. 1966: The physiography of southern Ontario; University of Toronto Press, 2nd ed., 386p.
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
Geology by Q.H.J. Gwyn and assistants, 1971. Topography from Map 41 A/1 of the National Topographic Series. Aerial Photography: Ontario Department of Lands and Forests; National Air Photo Library, Ottawa. 44*00* 78 79 Issued 1972. 44*00' 541,000m E Parts of this publication may be quoted if credit is given to the Surveyed, compiled, drawn and printed bv Scale l 50.000 the Army Survey Est , R C E. 1941 Ontario Department of Mines and Northern Affairs. It is recommended Aerial photography by R.C.A.F.. 1938 . that reference to this map be made in the following form: . Converted from the first edition of the l 63360 map to 1:50000 by the A.S.E. 1950. 1000 1000 2000 3000 4000 Metres Gwyn, Q.H.J. 1972: The Quaternary geology of the Dundalk area, Southern 4000 Yards Ontario; Ontario Dept. Mines and Northern Affairs, Prelim. Map P.727, Geol. Ser. , scale 1:50,000. Geology 1971. ODMNA 4836 MAP 4
PEBBLE LITHOLOGIES IN GRAVEL AND TILL
/oo- 90-
80- fo-
.p 60- o fa - o 0)
io -—— r -p (D (P (D CDTl (D C ™* 1 rt JH S S C '—1 l^i •H a) o o o o rt ^ x! -P -P -P -P X! ,Q U 0*3 CO Cij CO CO S O d) -P Td -H rt rH fiH S-H o O -H -H rt 0) O i-} CO CO Jn O,
Gravel. Till. 66* Sample site, ONTARIO DEPARTMENT OF MINES AND NORTHERN AFFAIRS
PRELIMINARY MAP P.727 GEOLOGICAL SERIES QUATERNARY GEOLOGY OF THE DUNDALK First Edition CANADA SHEET 41 M EAST HALF DUNDALK AREA DUNDALK CANADA SHEET 41 Vi WEST HALF SOUTHERN ONTARIO
Scale 1:50,000 1.25 Inches to l Mile approximately
NTS Reference: 41 A/1 GSC Aeromagnetic Map: 8I396C
LEGEND
CENOZOIC QUATERNARY Recent Wind-blown deposits. Fine sand in sand dunes.
Modern alluvium, unsubdivided. Silt, sand, and gravel.
Bug deposits. Peat, muck, and marl.
Older alluvium. Sand and gravel.
Pleistocene
Glacial-lake or pond deposits. Very fine sand, silt, and clay.
Glacial-outwash sand. x* ' / ^ '- Glacial-outwash gravel. Ice-contact stratified drift. Sand and gravel, Includes some till and silt. a) Mainly gravel. b) Mainly sand. Till. Mainly sandy silty till with some pebbly silty sandy till.
PALEOZOIC SILURIAN lam Amabel Formation Ice Clinton and Cataract Groups
ORDOVICIAN
Iqu Queenston Formation Igb Georgian Bay Formation Note: Deposits leas than 3 feet thick are not shown as separate units.
SYMBOLS
ecological boundary (actual Glacial meltwater channel or interpreted). with Inferred direction of flow. ' l Snail bedrock outcrop. *x--rO-P——?!l, Y c? Esker (arrowheads show ^j Sand or gravel pit. current direction). Rock quarry. Terrace scarp. Diagram 'showing orientation movement direction inferred). of Long axes of till pebbles in two dimensions; j0r Glacial fluting in till. iOU pebbles were measured at each site. DrumLin.
MARGINAL NOTES
Happing was done during the summer of 1971 by the writer with the assistance of B, D. Cairns who mapped the western half of the area, G. B. Egger*-son, and A. G. Higgins. Field techniques included the examination of road exposures, foundation excavations, and soil augering. Air photographs on a scale, l inch to 3,000 feet were used. Bedrock Geology: There are numerous outcrops, most of which are in thfe vicinity of the Niagara Escarpment. The Escarpment trends north-soutt, through the middle of the eastern half of the map-area. East of the Escarpment, outcrops of Georgian Bay and Queens t on Formations, boch of the Ordovician period, are mainly in the Whitf ield-Mansf ield-Ruskview region. Silurian formations of the Cataract and Clinton Groups are not well exposed but are best at Hornings Hills and tn Boyne River north of Primrose. The youngest formation in the axe*, the Silurian Amabel Formation, is exposed extensively at the Niagara Escarpment and in the area west of It. Glacial Deposits: Till: Till covers 40 to 50 percent of the map-area and only one mappable till unit was found. However, exposures were examined in which there were two and three tills. The surface till has a sandy silty texture and contains generally less than 10 percent pebbles. It is compact, massive, and olive coloured (5V5/4, Munsell System). In some areas, particularly in the hummocky topography north and oast of Honeywood, the till is bouldery and has slightly more sandy matrix. Two other till units underlie the surface till in foundation excavations at Shelburne. The lowermost till is a sandy pebbly till, compact, and light yellow- brown (IOYR5/3). The middle till is silty with few pebbles and red-brown (5YR5/3). The three tills are separated by l to 2 feet of silt, sand,, flnd minor pebbly sand. The two Lower tills are at the surface at only two other locations, and are not found in section elsewhere.
Ice-Contact Stratified Drift: In the western half of the map-area, ice- contact drift is restricted to three eskers and two kame complexes. The eskers trend northwest-southeast, with southeast flow directions indicated. The gravel in both the eskers and kames ia typically coarse gravel to pebbly sand.
Ice-contact drift covers approximately 35 percent of the eastern half of the area Textural ly it is mainly medium-grained sand with some gravel, pebbly sind and bouldery sand! This material is in two morainic ridges: the Orangeville Moraine and a second hummocky ridge which is parallel to and east of the Orangeville Moraine. It Is not known whether the eastern ridge is a separate moraine (Singhampton Moraine?) or part of the Orangeville Moraine. It Is suggested that it marks the location of the ice margin during the period when the Violet Hill Spillway was in use. V^0 ,-"^ y, ^~-" fc-rS Outwash Gravel and Sand: In the map-area, the Violet Htll Spillway .expends from Black Bank through a gorge, thence across a delta south of Bldck Bank, and on southward to Kilgorie and Violet Hill and south past Mono Centre. Abundant sedimentary structures indicate that meltwater flowed southward in the Spillway. However, both preglacial and present drainage is to the east, thus the ice evidently dammed the east-flowing rivers. There are two distinct parallel channel levels within the spillway; one at l 425 feet and one at 1,350 feet. The higher channel Is closer to the Escarpment and was used first. As the ice retreated, and with the uc-rmal eastward drainage still ice-dammed, the lower channel to the east of the higher one was. formed,
At the higher channel level, gravel predominates although it is underlain by medium- to fine-grained sand in several gravel pit exposures. At the lower level sand is the main deposit with minor amounts of pebbly sand and gravel. In the western part of the map-area, medium- to fine-grained sand and silty sand was deposited in numerous small meltwater channels. Most of these accm to havP drained southward into the Grand River system, Hind-Blown Sand and Silt: Aeolian silt forms a thin veneer covering a large area of till in the Conover-Honeywood-Redickville region. Although it is not a mappable unit it covers a wide area and fills hollows and small depressions. South of Shrigley, there are three sand dunes. Based on the orientation of lee slopes, the transporting wind was from the west. Economic Geology: Only one stone quarry has been operated in the Dundalk area. The Ritchie Cut Stone Co. Ltd. quarried dolostone- of the Amabel Formation 1.5 miles east of Shelburne in the late 1920s. The gravel in the eskers in the western and central parts of the map-area are the main source of this material presently being developed. The eskers contain sufficient amounts for local requirements. The gravel contains less than 5 percent of deleterious pebble lithologles such as silty sandstone; shale, and chert. Verv large reserves of sand and gravel are found principally in outwash and ice-contact deposits in Mono, Mulmur, and in the southeastern part of Melancthon Townships. The outwash gravel in the Violet Hill Spillway has a very consistent texture However it has l 5 to 20 percent combined silty sandstone, siltstone, shale and chert. The gravel in the ice-contact depositB is irregularly distributed and has a pebble lithology similar to the gravel outwash. There is a sufficient supply to support several commercial operations.
Selected References: Bedrock Geology and Topography: Karruw, P.P. 1965- Ihindalk Sheet, Bedrock Topography Series; Ontario Dept. Mines, Prelim. Map P. 306, scale 1:50,000, 1.25 inches to l mile approximately. Geology 1964. Liberty, B. A. 1969- Paleozoic geology of the Lake Simcoe area, Ontario; Geol. burv. Canada, Mem. 355, 201p. Accompanied by Map 1228A, scale l Inch to 4 miles. Pedology: Hoffman D. W. , Mathews , B.C., and Wicklund, R. E. 1964:' Soil survey of Dufferin County; Research Branch, Ontario Dept. Agriculture, Report No. 38 of the Ontario Soil Survey^ 75p. Physiography: Chapman, L. J., and Putnam, D. F. . 1966: The physiography of southern Ontario; University of Toronto Press, 2nd ed*, 386p.
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
Geology by Q, H. J. Gwyn and assistants, 1971. Topography from Map 41 A/1 of the National Topographic Series. ' Aerial Photography: Ontario Department of Lands and Forests; National Air Photo Library, Ottawa.
Issued 1972. 44"00' 541 Parts of this publication may be quoted if credit ia given to the Surveyed, compiled, drawn and printed b Ontario Department of Mines and Northern Affairs. It is recommended thi Army Survey Est., R.C.E. 1941 Aerial photography by R.C.A.F . that reference to this map be made in the following form: Converted from The first edition of the 1:63360 man to 1-50000 by the A.S.E. 1950. Gwyn, Q. . 1972: The Ojuaternary geology of the Dundalk area, Southern- Ontario; Ontario Dept. Mines and Northern Affairs, Prelim. Map P. 727, Geol. Ser. , scale 1:50,000. Geology 1971. ir Ontario Division of Mines
HONOURABLE LEO BERNIER, Minister of Natural Resources DR. J. K. REYNOLDS, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources G. A. Jewett, Executive Director, Division of Mines E. G. Pye, Director, Geological Branch
PRELIMINARY MAP E 1023
SOUTHERN ONTARIO
Scale: 1:50,000 1.25 inches to l mile approximately
1 Mile l !——l l——l l——l t——l 1000 1000 Metres
NTS Reference: 41 A/1
ODM 1975
Parts of this publication may be quoted if credit is given to the Ontario Division of Mines and the material is properly referenced.
SYMBOLS
Water well which reaches bedrock with 56 drift thickness in feet. ^-^
Water well which does not reach bedrock A 328 with minimum drift thickness in feet.
Small bedrock outcrop.
50 Contour line of drift thickness (interval 25 ft.).
EXPLANATION
This map is based on data supplied by the Division of Water Resources, Ministry of the Environment. Field checks of some of the data were made, however, possible errors in the records may remain. The drift thickness contours are interpretive and approximate.
Issued 1975.
Parts of this publication may be quoted if credit is given to the Ontario Division of Mines. It is recommended that reference to this map be made in the following form:
Gwyn, Q.H.J., and Frazer, J.Z. 1975: Drift Thickness of the Dundalk Area, Southern Ontario; Ontario Div. Mines, Prelim. Map P.1023, Drift Thickness Ser., Scale 1:50,000. Geological compila tion, 1975.