THE OHIO DIVIS!ON GEOlnBIGlil SU?.VEY f3>oo k 117 3 cf STATE OF OHIO HANK J. LAUSCHE. 6oftrnor I DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES A. W. MARION, Director DIVISION OF GEOLOGICAL SURVEY JOHN H. MELVIN, Chief .. 1 Report of Investigations No. 12 ILLINOIAN AND WISCONSIN DRIFT OF THE SOUTHERN PART OF THE GRAND RIVER LOBE IN EASTERN OHIO BY G:zo:acm W. Wmn REMOVED FROM ODNR DIV. OF GEOLOGICAL SURVEY LIBRARY Reprinted from BULLETIN OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA VOL. 112. PP. 807-1178 2 Fuaa •• 1 PL. SEPTEMBER 111111 BULLETIN OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA VOL. 62. PP. 967-978 2 FIBS., 1 PL. SEPTEMBER 1861 ILLINOIAN AND WISCONSIN DRIFT OF THE SOUTHERN PART OF THE GRAND RIVER LOBE IN EASTERN OHIO BY GEORGE W. WmTE ABSTRACT Glacial drifts of Wisconsin and Illinoian age occur in the southern part of the Grand River lobe in eastern Ohio. The Illinoian, which occupies a belt only 2 to 5 miles wide, extends eastward from Canton across Stark and Columbiana counties. This is mainly till, now discontinuous and thin. Oxidation reaches a depth of 12 , feet or more, and leaching 11 feet or more. Small areas of Illinoian kames and kame terraces remain. In the Wisconsin till, which covers the area north of the Illinoian, oxidation reaches depths of 8 to 11 feet, and leaching 5 to 7 feet. A partially discontinuous end moraine lies 1 to 2 miles inside the southern limit of this drift, and a very strong end moraine lies along the west side of the lobe. Within the Wisconsin area relatively minor kame terraces occupy some of the valleys. The Wisconsin ice disappeared mainly by northward retreat of an ice edge, but stagnated to a limited extent in small areas. CONTENTS Page Page Abstract .. ... .... .... ...... .. .. .. .. .. 967 Morainic areas . 97 3 Introduction. 967 Kame terraces . 97 3 Location. .. .. 967 East Palestine area . 97 3 Acknowledgment . 968 Washingtonville-Franklin Square area .. .. 974 Earlier work. 968 North Georgetown area . .... .......... 974 Illinoian drift . 969 Valley trains. 97 5 Introduction . 969 Little Beaver Creek basin. 97 5 Illinoian boundary. 969 Sandy Creek basin . 97 5 Illinoian till. 969 Nimishillen valley . 97 5 Ground moraine ... .......... ...... ... 969 Drift of Killbuck lobe. .. 97 5 Karnes . .. .... ... .. ............ .. .... .. 970 Age of Wisconsin drift ..... ...... ..... 976 Valley trains . .. .. ............... ..... 970 Summary of glacial history . ......... .. ..... 976 Age assignment as Illinoian . ...... .. .. ... 971 Pre-Illinoian ..... ..... .... ... ........ 976 Wisconsin drift of Grand River lobe . .... ... .. 971 Illinoian . 97 6 Boundary . 971 Wisconsin .. .. .. .... ........ .. ... .. 976 Till .. ..... ... ...... .. ..... ... .. .. ... 971 References cited. 977 Ground moraine .. .. .. ...... ........ ... 973 ILLUSTRATIONS ' Figure Page Plate Facing page 1. Index map of Ohio . 968 1. Map of glacial deposits in southern part 2. Columnar sections of Illinoian and Wis- of Grand River lobe . 967 consin till . 97 2 INTRODUCTION LOCATION This paper reports (1) the position of the The area studied, in central-eastern Ohio outer margin of the drift across the Grand (Fig. 1), is covered by topographic maps of the River lobe in eastern Ohio, (2) the margin of Canton, Alliance, Lisbon, Columbiana, Dover, ' the Wisconsin "terminal moraine" supposed Carrollton, Salineville, and Wellsville quad- to lie a very few miles north of the outer drift rangles. All of the first four and the northern margin, (3) the age of the "extramorainal" halves of the last four were used in the con- drift or "fringe", and (4) the mode of retreat of struction of the base map for Plate 1. the Wisconsin ice of the Grand River lobe. The area is within the Allegheny plateau 967 968 G. W. WHITE-GLACIAL DRIFT, EASTERN OHIO "' i .:: i.... 0 ~ .... ..\ ,.. 'I. ".> Scale Miles ~ Of' .. .. .. IO .. '° .. K E N l1 c 02 .. FIGURE 1.-INDEX MAP OF Omo Showing Wi~onsin glacial lobes, Wisconsin drift border (solid line), Illinoian drift border (broken line) • and area shown rn Plate 1. province. The Ohio River crosses the extreme logical Society of America, for which apprecia- southeastern corner, but most of the area is tion is here expressed. drained by streams tributary to the Tuscara- was River, by the Mahoning River, or by the EARLIER WORK tributaries of Little Beaver Creek (Pl. 1). The Early observations on drift in Ohio were tops of hills range between 1200 and 1300 feet made by Volney (1804, p. 83, Fig. 3), Drake in elevation. The relief is of the order of 200 (1815, p. 74), and Mather and others (1838). feet, but is as much as 300 feet in a few places General observations in northeastern Ohio were and less than 100 feet north of Alliance. made by Whittlesey (1866), Newberry (1874; 1878a; 1878b; 1878c), Chamberlin (1883, p. ACKNOWLEDGMENT 313), Lewis (1884, p. 200), and Wright (1884a; The :field work was principally :financed by a 1884b; 1884c; 1890). Wright emphasized the grant from the Penrose Bequest of The Geo- "fringe" of attenuated drift in Columbiana EARLIER WORK 969 and Stark counties. Leverett (1902, p. 351) in- only a few feet of strongly altered material be- terpreted the "extramorainic drift", the tween the soil and the bedrock. The rare out- "fringe" of Wright, as early Wisconsin and crops of unaltered till exhibit the character- again referred this drift in western Pennsyl- istic five zones or horizons of weathering vania (1934, p. 108) "to the Wisconsin stage." (Leighton and MacClintock, 1930, p. 31, Fig. 1) White (1942; Flint and others, 1945) inter- similar to those of the eastern side of the Scioto preted the outer marginal drift as Illinoian; lobe in eastern central Ohio (White, 1939). the present paper sets forth the supporting Only rarely is the Illinoian drift of the Grand data. Stout and others (1943, p. 23) referred River lobe thick enough to preserve unaltered the "fringe" to a Kansan or pre-Kansan age. till. Unaltered till of Horizon 5 is exposed in a MacClintock and Apfel (1944) interpreted the strip mine at the southeast corner of the cor- border drift adjacent to the Ohio line in eastern poration limit of Rogers, in Middleton Town- Pennsylvania as Illinoian. ship, Columbiana County, as a bluish-gray, moderately calcareous, tough, silty, pebbly to lLLINOIAN DRIFT cobbly boulder clay (Fig. 2, A). The top of Introduction Horizon 5 is 12 feet below the surface. Drift interpreted as Illinoian extends from Horizon 4 is calcareous till similar to Horizon east to west across the area in a belt 2 to 5 5, except for oxidation to a brown color. At Rogers, Horizon 4 is only 8 inches thick (Fig. miles wide. It lies south of the Wisconsin drift and consists of more or less discontinuous de- 2, A), and the depth of oxidation compares posits of deeply weathered till, except for three well with that in the Illinoian till of the eastern part of the Scioto lobe (White, 1939, p. 165, small tracts of kames. It is the marginal drift Fig. 3). of an Illinoian Grand River lobe, which came Horizon 3 is quite similar to Horizon 4, ex- from the same direction and under the same cept that the carbonates have been leached. topographic controls as the later Wisconsin ice. The depth of leaching at Rogers is 11 feet, 4 Illinoian Boundary inches. In SW Section 22, Center Township, Columbiana County, the depth of leaching is The boundary of the Illinoian drift extends more than 11 feet, but the base of Horizon 3 generally west from the Pennsylvania-Ohio is not exposed (Fig. 2, B). State line across Columbiana and eastern Stark Horizon 2 is the zone of decomposed till counties to a point 3 miles south of Canton, underlying the true soil. is not only oxi- where the Illinoian is overlapped by the Wiscon- It dized and leached but also thoroughly weath- • sin drift of the Killbuck lobe (Pl. 1). This is ered, and contains fewer pebbles and cobbles approximately the southern margin of the than the lower horizons. The upper part of the "fringe" of Lewis (1884, p. 200) and of Wright horizon is mottled buff to gray to brown. The (1884a, Pls. 8, 9) from the State line to Roberts- lower part is more uniformly brown and has ville in eastern Stark County, but differs from dark stains along the joints. Horizon 2 has not it west of that village. Across Columbiana been weathered to gumbotil, because of the County the drift margin as drawn on Plate 1 agrees with that of Stout and Lamborn (1924, excellent drainage of the region, although in a similar region in New York Illinoian gumbotil map 3). The boundary is marked by a moraine only has been reported (MacClintock and Apfel, near Bayard in western Columbiana County 1944, p. 1147). and must be drawn through the locations of Horizon 1 is the soil, divided into A and B horizons of pedologists. the southernmost erratics. At places these are widely spaced and so sparse that the boundary Ground Moraine has been shown by a dashed line. The region, underlain by almost horizontal lllinoian Till Pennsylvanian strata, was maturely dissected The Illinoian till is, in general, so thin that in pre-Illinoian time. It was thinly covered by most of even the thicker outcrops consist of Illinoian till which at most places only slightly 970 G. W. WHITE-GLACIAL DRIFI', EASTERN OHIO modified the pre-existing topography. Since feet thick overlies the bedrock. The surface is Illinoian time the till has been deeply weathered undulating rather than hummocky and has and largely removed. Constructional topog- been much modified by erosion. raphy is rarely preserved. The difference in The largest area of kames lies along the aspect between the area glaciated by Illinoian Illinoian boundary on the south valley wall of ice and the unglaciated region to the south is Sandy Creek, south of Bayard, just east of the very slight.