A Thesis entitled Chronology and Sedimentology of the Imlay Channel, Lapeer County, Michigan by Jonathan Neil Luczak Submitted to the Graduate Faculty as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Science Degree in Geology ________________________________________ Dr. Timothy Fisher, Committee Chair ________________________________________ Dr. David Krantz, Committee Member ________________________________________ Dr. Donald Stierman, Committee Member ________________________________________ Dr. Cyndee Gruden, Interim Dean College of Graduate Studies The University of Toledo December 2018 Copyright 2018, Jonathan Neil Luczak This document is copyrighted material. Under copyright law, no parts of this document may be reproduced without the expressed permission of the author. An Abstract of Chronology and Sedimentology of the Imlay Channel, Lapeer County, Michigan by Jonathan Neil Luczak Submitted to the Graduate Faculty as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Science Degree in Geology The University of Toledo December 2018 The Imlay channel on the thumb of Michigan was one of two outlets for the Maumee stages (i.e. I–III or IV) of ancestral Lake Erie (ALE). The history and chronology of sediment within the channel is poorly understood, having been studied only sporadically over the last 100 years. Previous studies interpreted the floor of the channel to be the aerially exposed topographic divide near the intersection of Clear Lake and Van Dyke roads. However, geotechnical borings and water-well records along Clear Lake Road suggest that the bedrock sill that controlled drainage through the channel may be buried by more than 12 m of sediment that post-dates channel formation. A single radiocarbon age, i.e. ~16.7 calibrated ka BP, from ~6 km north of the Imlay channel was interpreted in most of the literature to mark the cessation of channel activity; an age from organic material found within colluvium replicates this age in this study. Radiocarbon and OSL ages from fill within the Imlay channel from this study reveal that much of the fill was deposited by ~14.9 ka, with the uppermost fans appearing to have stabilized sometime in the early Holocene. i A better understanding of the study area was gained through the mapping of surficial deposits in the Burnside 7.5’ USGS quadrangle, the creation of a bedrock topography and drift thickness map, and the use of LiDAR data for identifying previously unrecognized moraines and kettle lakes. A plot of rebound curves for highest Maumee, lowest Maumee, and Lake Whittlesey strandlines, as well as a geologic cross-section along Clear Lake road in Lapeer County, Michigan, indicate that waters from all stages of Lake Maumee could have drained over the bedrock sill of the Imlay channel, although other ALE stages (e.g. Lake Whittlesey and lower) could not. ii This thesis is dedicated to my wife, Nikki, who was supportive of me throughout this process. iii Acknowledgements I would like to thank everyone who helped me with this project, starting with my thesis committee: Dr. Timothy Fisher, Dr. David Krantz, and Dr. Donald Stierman. Your advice and time are very much appreciated. Also, thanks to Dr. Kenneth Lepper who processed the OSL data and offered advice on the interpretation of the results. Next, I would like to thank everyone else who has helped me with the project, whether in the field or as a sounding board for ideas: J.P. Finnegan, John Dilworth, Eric Armstrong, Tom Valachovics, Mitchell Dziekan, John Yellich, Everett Root, Dr. Harry Jol, Dr. Henry Loope, Dr. Thomas Lowell, Dr. James Martin-Hayden, Dr. James Harrell, Dr. Richard Becker, Dr. Carl Savage, Dr. Richard Freund, Dr. Thomas Modal, and soon- to-be Dr. Andrew Rankin. Thanks to my family who were supportive of this endeavor. I would like to extend a special thanks to Brian Samsen. I couldn’t have asked for a better undergraduate researcher/field assistant for this project. Thanks to all the property owners in Lapeer County who gave me permission to access their land and to the various organizations and municipal agencies who granted access as well. Funding for the project was provided by: The U.S. Geological Survey’s EDMAP Program through grant number G17AC00132 to Tim Fisher; the Geological Society of America’s Graduate Research Grant; and the Ohio Geological Survey’s License Plate Fund. iv Table of Contents Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ iv Table of Contents .................................................................................................................v List of Tables ................................................................................................................... vii List of Figures .................................................................................................................. viii 1 Introduction .........................................................................................................1 1.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................1 1.2 Regional Deglaciation .......................................................................................4 1.3 Cyclic Lake Level Model ..................................................................................8 1.4 Episodic Lake Level Model ............................................................................16 1.5 Study Area ......................................................................................................17 1.6 Spillways .......................................................................................................22 1.7 Summary .......................................................................................................22 1.8 Objectives and Hypothesis ...............................................................................23 2 Methods ........................................................................................................25 2.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................25 2.2 LiDAR Digital Elevation Model ......................................................................25 2.3 Sediment Collection .........................................................................................26 2.4 Core Logging and Sediment Description .........................................................26 2.5 Naming Scheme for Field Sites and Samples ..................................................26 2.6 Radiocarbon Dating .........................................................................................27 2.7 Optically Stimulated Luminescence Dating ....................................................28 v 2.8 Particle Size Analysis ......................................................................................28 2.9 Bathymetry Map of Clear Lake .......................................................................29 2.10 Surficial Geologic Map ..................................................................................30 2.11 Geologic Cross-Sections ................................................................................30 2.12 Ground Penetrating Radar..............................................................................31 2.13 Bedrock Topography and Drift Thickness Map ............................................31 2.14 Electrical Resistivity ......................................................................................32 2.15 Horizontal to Vertical Spectral Ratio Survey ................................................33 2.16 Rebound Data.................................................................................................33 3 Results and Interpretations .....................................................................................36 3.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................36 3.2 Geomorphology ...............................................................................................36 3.3 Imlay Channel and Clear Lake Sedimentary Sequences .................................43 3.4 Deanville Mountain, Weaver Drain, Soil Texture ..........................................56 3.5 Bedrock .......................................................................................................74 3.6 Geophysics .......................................................................................................77 3.7 Lake Maumee Water Levels and the Imlay Channel .......................................81 3.8 Surficial Geologic Map ....................................................................................99 3.9 Summary .....................................................................................................101 4 Discussion .....................................................................................................102 4.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................102 4.2 Deglaciation ..................................................................................................102 vi 4.3 Channel Fill and Chronology ........................................................................106 4.4 Water Drainage