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OSL ages on glaciofluvial sediment in northern Lower Michigan constrain expansion of the Laurentide ice sheet

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Randall J. Schaetzl  and
Steven L. Forman
Randall J. Schaetzl*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, 128 Geography Building, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824-1117, USA
Steven L. Forman
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago, 845 West Taylor Street Chicago, IL 60607-7059, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Fax: +1 517 432 1671. E-mail address:soils@msu.edu (R.J. Schaetzl).
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Abstract

We report new ages on glaciofluvial (outwash) sediment from a large upland in northern Lower Michigan—the Grayling Fingers. The Fingers are cored with > 150 m of outwash, which is often overlain by the (informal) Blue Lake till of marine isotope stage (MIS) 2. They are part of an even larger, interlobate upland comprised of sandy drift, known locally as the High Plains. The ages, determined using optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) methods, indicate that subaerial deposition of this outwash occurred between 25.7 and 29.0 ka, probably associated with a stable MIS 2 ice margin, with mean ages of ca. 27 ka. These dates establish a maximum-limiting age of ca. 27 ka for the MIS 2 (late Wisconsin) advance into central northern Lower Michigan. We suggest that widespread ice sheet stabilization at the margins of the northern Lower Peninsula, during this advance and later during its episodic retreat, partly explains the thick assemblages of coarse-textured drift there. Our work also supports the general assumption of a highly lobate ice margin during the MIS 2 advance in the Great Lakes region, with the Fingers, an interlobate upland, remaining ice-free until ca. 27 ka.

Keywords

GlaciationOutwashMIS 2Great Lakes regionOSL datingLaurentide ice sheet
Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 70 , Issue 1 , July 2008 , pp. 81 - 90
Copyright
University of Washington

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