Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T08:12:26.416Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

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

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aitken, M.J., (1998). An Introduction to Optical Dating: the Dating of Quaternary Sediments by the Use of Photon-stimulated Luminescence.. Oxford University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Benninghoff, W.S., Brunett, F.V., (1984). A pre-Woodfordian Organic Deposit at Acme, Grand Traverse County, Michigan. Oral Presentation.. Michigan Academy of Science, Arts and Letters, March 23, 1984.Google Scholar
Berger, G.W., (1990). Effectiveness of natural zeroing of the thermoluminescence of sediments.. Journal of Geophysical Research 95, 12375–12397.Google Scholar
Blewett, W.L., (1991). Characteristics, correlations, and refinement of Leverett and Taylor's Port Huron Moraine in Michigan.. East Lakes Geographer 26, 52–60.Google Scholar
Blewett, W.L., Winters, H.A., (1995). The importance of glaciofluvial features within Michigan's Port Huron moraine.. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 85, 306–319.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blewett, W.L., Winters, H.A., Rieck, R.L., (1993). New age control on the Port Huron moraine in northern Michigan.. Physical Geography 14, 131–138.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Botter-Jensen, L., Bulur, E., Duller, G.A.T., Murray, A.S., (2000). Advances in luminescence instrument systems.. Radiation Measurements 32, 523–528.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clayton, L., Attig, J.W., Mickelson, D.M., (2001). Effects of late Pleistocene permafrost on the landscape of Wisconsin, USA.. Boreas 30, 173–188.Google Scholar
Crane, H.R., Griffin, J.B., (1961). University of Michigan radiocarbon dates VI.. Radiocarbon 3, 105–125.Google Scholar
Curry, B.B., Yansa, C.H., (2004). Stagnation of the Harvard sublobe (Lake Michigan lobe) in northeastern Illinois, USA, from 24,000 to 17,600 BP and subsequent tundra-like ice-marginal paleoenvironments from 17,600 to 15,700 BP.. Géographie Physique et Quaternaire 58, 305–321.Google Scholar
Curry, B.B., Grimley, D.A., Stravers, J.A., Grimm, E.C., Hibben, K.L., Barner, M., Guebert, M.D., Hansel, A.K., Ochsenschlager, M., Baker, R.G., (1999). Quaternary geology, geomorphology, and climatic history of Kane County, Illinois.. Illinois State Geological Survey Guidebook Series 28, 40 pp.Google Scholar
Davis, C.M., (1935). The High Plains of Michigan. Ph.D. Dissertation, Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Dyke, A.S., Andrews, J.T., Clark, P.U., England, J.H., Miller, G.H., Shaw, J., Veillette, J.J., (2002). The Laurentide and Innuitian ice sheets during the Last Glacial Maximum.. Quaternary Science Reviews 21, 9–31.Google Scholar
Eschman, D.F., (1980). Some evidence of mid-Wisconsinan events in Michigan.. Michigan Academician 12, 423–436.Google Scholar
Eschman, D.F., Mickelson, D.M., (1986). Correlation of glacial deposits of the Huron, Lake Michigan and Green Bay lobes in Michigan and Wisconsin.. Sibrava, V., D.Q., Bowen, G.M., Richmond Quaternary Glaciations in the Northern Hemisphere, Quaternary Science Reviews vol. 5, 53–57.Google Scholar
Eyles, N., Westgate, J.A., (1987). Restricted regional extent of the Laurentide ice sheet in the Great Lakes basin during early Wisconsin glaciation.. Geology 15, 537–540.Google Scholar
Fain, J., Soumana, S., Montret, M., Miallier, D., Pilleyre, T., Sanzelle, S., (1999). Luminescence and ESR dating—beta-dose attenuation for various grain shapes calculated by a Monte-Carlo method.. Quaternary Science Reviews 18, 231–234.Google Scholar
Fairbanks, R.G., Mortlock, R.A., Chiu, T.-C., Cao, L., Kaplan, A., Guilderson, T.P., Fairbanks, T.W., Bloom, A.L., (2005). Marine radiocarbon calibration curve spanning 0 to 50,000 years BP based on paired 230Th/234U and 14C dates on pristine corals.. Quaternary Science Reviews 24, 1781–1796.Google Scholar
Farrand, W.R., Eschman, D.F., (1974). Glaciation of the southern peninsula of Michigan: a review.. Michigan Academician 7, 31–56.Google Scholar
Fisher, T.G., Loope, W.L., (2005). Aeolian sand preserved in Silver Lake: a new signal of Holocene high stands of Lake Michigan.. The Holocene 15, 1072–1078.Google Scholar
Fisher, T.G., Jol, H.M., Boudreau, A.M., (2005). Saginaw Lobe tunnel channels (Laurentide ice sheet) and their significance in south-central Michigan.. Quaternary Science Reviews 24, 2375–2391.Google Scholar
Follmer, L.R., McKay, E.D., Lineback, J.A., Gross, D.L., (1979). Wisconsinan, Sangamonian, and Illinoian stratigraphy in central Illinois. Midwest friends of the Pleistocene Field Conference Guidebook.. Illinois State Geol. Survey Guidebook 13, 139 pp.Google Scholar
Forman, S.L., (1990). Thermoluminescence properties of fiord sediments from Engelskbukta, western Spitsbergen, Svalbard: a new tool for deciphering depositional environment?. Sedimentology 37, 377–384.Google Scholar
Forman, S.L., Pierson, J., (2002). Late Pleistocene luminescence chronology of loess deposition in the Missouri and Mississippi river valleys, United States.. Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology 186, 25–46.Google Scholar
Fullerton, D.S., (1986). Stratigraphy and correlation of glacial deposits from Indiana to New York and New Jersey.. Sibrava, V., Bowen, D.Q., Richmond, G.M. Quaternary Glaciations in the Northern Hemisphere, Quaternary Science Reviews vol. 5, 23–36.Google Scholar
Gephart, G.D., Monaghan, G.W., Larson, G., (1982). A mid-Wisconsinan event in the Lake Michigan basin.. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 14, 260.Google Scholar
Holman, J.A., (1976). A 25,000year old duck, more evidence for a Michigan Wisconsinan-interstadial.. American Midlands Naturalist 96, 501–503.Google Scholar
Johnson, W.H., (1986). Stratigraphy and correlation of the glacial deposits of the Lake Michigan Lobe prior to 14 ka BP.. Sibrava, V., Bowen, D.Q., Richmond, G.M. Quaternary Glaciations in the Northern Hemisphere, Quaternary Science Reviews vol. 5, 17–22.Google Scholar
Kaiser, K.F., (1994). Two Creeks interstadial dated through dendrochronology and AMS.. Quaternary Research 42, 288–298.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kehew, A.E., Nicks, L.P., Straw, W.T., (1999). Palimpsest tunnel valleys: evidence for relative timing of advances in an interlobate area of the Laurentide ice sheet.. Annals of Glaciology 28, 47–52.Google Scholar
Lambeck, K., Yokoyama, Y., Purcell, T., (2002). Into and out of the last Glacial Maximum: sea-level change during Oxygen Isotope Stages 3 and 2.. Quaternary Science Reviews 21, 343–360.Google Scholar
Larson, G.J., Lowell, T.V., Ostrom, N.E., (1994). Evidence for the Two Creeks interstade in the Lake Huron basin.. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 31, 793–797.Google Scholar
Leigh, D.S., (1994). Roxana Silt of the upper Mississippi Valley: lithology, source and paleoenvironment.. Geological Society of America Bulletin 106, 430–442.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leigh, D.S., Knox, J.C., (1993). AMS radiocarbon age of the upper Mississippi Valley Roxana Silt.. Quaternary Research 39, 282–289.Google Scholar
Lepper, K., McKeever, S.W.S., (2002). An objective methodology for dose distribution analysis.. Radiation Protection Dosimetry 101, 349–352.Google Scholar
Leverett, F., Taylor, F.B., (1915). The Pleistocene of Indiana and Michigan and the history of the Great Lakes.. United States Geological Survey Monograph 53, 529 pp.Google Scholar
Lichter, J., (1995). Lake Michigan beach-ridge and dune development, lake level, and variability in regional water balance.. Quaternary Research 44, 181–189.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lowell, T.V., Savage, K.M., Brockman, C.S., Struckenrath, R., (1990). Radiocarbon analyses from Cincinnati, Ohio, and their implications for glacial stratigraphic interpretations.. Quaternary Research 34, 1–11.Google Scholar
Lowell, T.V., Hayward, R.K., Denton, G.H., (1999a). Role of climatic oscillations in determining ice-margin position: hypothesis, examples, and implications.. Geological Society of America Special Paper 337, 193–203.Google Scholar
Lowell, T.V., Larson, G.J., Hughes, J.D., Denton, G.H., (1999b). Age verification of the Lake Gribben forest bed and the Younger Dryas advance of the Laurentide ice sheet.. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 36, 383–393.Google Scholar
Mejdahl, V., Christiansen, H.H., (1994). Procedures used for luminescence dating of sediments.. Boreas 13, 403–406.Google Scholar
Mikesell, L.R., Schaetzl, R.J., Velbel, M.A., (2004). Hornblende etching and quartz/feldspar ratios as weathering and soil development indicators in some Michigan soils.. Quaternary Research 62, 162–171.Google Scholar
Miller, N.G., (1973). Pollen analysis of deeply buried Quaternary sediments from southern Michigan.. American Midlands Naturalist 89, 217–223.Google Scholar
Mix, A.C., (1987). The oxygen-isotope record of glaciation.. Ruddiman, W.R., Wright, H. North America and Adjacent Oceans during the last Deglaciation Geol. Soc. Am. Geology of North America K3, Boulder, CO.111–135.Google Scholar
Murray, A.S., Wintle, A.G., (2000). Luminescence dating of quartz using an improved single-aliquot regenerative-dose protocol.. Radiation Measurements 32, 57–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murray, A.S., Wintle, A.G., (2003). The single aliquot regenerative dose protocol: potential for improvements in reliability.. Radiation Measurements 37, 377–381.Google Scholar
Olley, J.M., Pietsch, T., Roberts, R.G., (2004). Optical dating of Holocene sediments from a variety of geomorphic settings using single grains of quartz.. Geomorphology 60, 337–358.Google Scholar
Prescott, J.R., Hutton, J.T., (1994). Cosmic ray contributions to dose rates for luminescence and ESR dating: large depths and long-term time variations.. Radiation Measurements 23, 497–500.Google Scholar
Rieck, R.L., Winters, H.A., (1993). Drift volume in the southern peninsula of Michigan—a prodigious Pleistocene endowment.. Physical Geography 14, 478–493.Google Scholar
Rieck, R.L., Klasner, J.S., Winters, H.A., Marlette, P.A., (1991). Glaciotectonic effects on a Middle-Wisconsin boreal fenland peat in Michigan, USA.. Boreas 20, 155–167.Google Scholar
Schaetzl, R.J., (2001). Late Pleistocene ice flow directions and the age of glacial landscapes in northern lower Michigan.. Physical Geography 22, 28–41.Google Scholar
Schaetzl, R.J., Drzyzga, S.A., Weisenborn, B.N., Kincare, K.A., Lepczyk, X.C., Shein, K.A., Dowd, C.M., Linker, J., (2002). Measurement, correlation, and mapping of Glacial Lake Algonquin shorelines in northern Michigan.. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 92, 399–415.Google Scholar
Schaetzl, R.J., Weisenborn, B.N., (2004). The Grayling Fingers geomorphic region of Michigan: soils, sedimentology, stratigraphy and geomorphic development.. Geomorphology 61, 251–274.Google Scholar
Shackleton, N.J., Pisias, N.G., (1985). Atmospheric carbon dioxide, orbital forcing, and climate.. Sundquist, E.T., Broecker, W.S. The Carbon Cycle and Atmospheric CO2: Natural Variations Archean to Present American Geophysical Union Geophysics Monograph vol 32, 303–318.Google Scholar
Singarayer, J.S., Bailey, R.M., Ward, S., Stokes, S., (2005). Assessing the completeness of optical resetting of quartz in the natural environment.. Radiation Measurements 40, 13–25.Google Scholar
Smith, B.W., Rhodes, E.J., (1994). Charge movements in quartz and their relevance to optical dating.. Radiation Measurements 23, 329–333.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M., Huesser, C.J., Yang, I.C., (1978). North American glacial history extended to 75,000 years ago.. Science 200, 16–21.Google Scholar
Taylor, R.E., (1987). Radiocarbon Dating: an Archaeological Perspective.. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Winters, H.A., Rieck, R.L., Kapp, R.O., (1986). Significance and ages of Mid-Wisconsinan organic deposits in southern Michigan.. Physical Geography 7, 292–305.Google Scholar
Winters, H.A., Alford, J.J., Rieck, R.L., (1988). The anomalous Roxana Silt and Mid-Wisconsinan events in and near southern Michigan.. Quaternary Research 29, 25–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wintle, A.G., Murray, A.S., (2006). A review of quartz optically stimulated luminescence characteristics and their relevance in single aliquot regeneration dating protocols.. Radiation Measurements 41, 369–391.Google Scholar
Zumberge, J.H., Benninghoff, W.S., (1970). A mid-Wisconsin peat in Michigan, USA.. Pollen et Spores 11, 585–601.Google Scholar