Hostname: page-component-77f85d65b8-pkds5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-04-18T10:41:40.808Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Anomalous Roxana Silt and Mid-Wisconsinan Events in and Near Southern Michigan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Harold A. Winters ,
John J. Alford  and
Richard L. Rieck
Harold A. Winters
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824
John J. Alford
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Western Illinois University, Macomb, Illinois 61455
Richard L. Rieck
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Department of Geology, Western Illinois University, Macomb, Illinois 61455
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Thick deposits of Roxana Silt are recognized only along the Illinois River (downstream from the Woodfordian terminal moraine) and are generally interpreted as being mainly loess, with the bulk accumulating from about 40,000 to 30,000 yr ago in association with an Altonian-age glacier in northeastern Illinois. Yet 11 14C dates indicate that southern Michigan was not ice-covered during that interval; thus, any proximate ice must have, at best, been restricted to Great Lakes basins, an interpretation supported by the absence of late Altonian till at critically located Michigan, and nearby, sites. Late mid-Wisconsinan ice did, however, obstruct eastern drainage of the ancestral Great Lakes. Such glacial blockage, the distribution of many Michigan organic deposits within pre-Woodfordian lacustrine sediments, and radiocarbon dates suggest that, more than once, late Altonian lakes associated with the Lake Michigan basin drained into the Illinois River. Erosion of lake and spillway bluffs along with repeated river fluctuations provided a source for the thick, geographically restricted Roxana Silt. Meanwhile, along other nearby rivers the supply was meager and the loess thin.

Information

Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 29 , Issue 1 , January 1988 , pp. 25 - 35
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.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

1977 Benninghoff, W.S., Eschman, D.F., Sherzer, H.J., An inter-ice flurule from Mill Creek, St. Clair County, Michigan. Ecological Society of American Bulletin. 58 54.Google Scholar
1985 Berg, R.C., Kempton, J.P., Follmer, L.R., McKenna, D.P., Illinoian and Wisconsinan stratigraphy and environments in northern Illinois: The Altonian revised. Illinois State Geological Survey Guidebook. Vol. 19 1-177, “Midwest Friends of the Pleistocene 32nd Field Conference”.Google Scholar
1983 Buckler, W.R., Winters, H.A., Lake Michigan bluff recession. Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 73 89-110.Google Scholar
1970 Dreezen, V.H., The stratigraphic framework of Pleistocene glacial and periglacial deposits in the Central Plains. Dort, W. Jr., Jones, J.K. Jr., Pleistocene and Recent Environments of the Central Great Plains. Univ. of Kansas Press, Lawrence, 9-22.Google Scholar
1982 Dreimanis, A., Middle Wisconsin Substage in its type region, the eastern Great Lakes, and Ohio River basin, North America. Quaternary Studies in Poland. 3 2 21-28.Google Scholar
1973 Dreimanis, A., Goldthwait, R.P., Wisconsin glaciation in the Huron, Erie, and Ontario Lobes. Geological Society of America Memoir. 136 71-106.Google Scholar
1972 Dreimanis, A., Karrow, P.F., Glacial History of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Region: A classification of the Wisconsinan Stage and its correlatives. Proceedings 24th International Geological Congress Section. 12 5-12.Google Scholar
1978 Eschman, D.F., Pleistocene geology of the Thumb area of Michigan. Kesling, R.V., Field Excursions from the University of Michigan. Geological Society of America North-Central Section, Boulder, CO, 35-62.Google Scholar
1979 Eschman, D.F., Glacial stratigraphy of the Black River drainage, southeastern Michigan. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. 11 229.Google Scholar
1980 Eschman, D.F., Some evidence of Mid-Wisconsinan events in Michigan. Michigan Academician. 12 424-436.Google Scholar
1987 Eyles, N., Westgate, J.A., Restricted regional extent of the Laurentide Ice Sheet in the Great Lakes basins during early Wisconsin glaciation. Geology. 15 537-540.Google Scholar
1960 Frye, J.C., Willman, H.B., Classification of the Wisconsinan Stage in the Lake Michigan glacial lobe. Illinois State Geological Survey Circular. 285 1-16.Google Scholar
1982 Gephart, G.P., Monaghan, G.W., Larson, G., A Mid-Wisconsinan event in the Lake Michigan basin. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. 14 260.Google Scholar
1983 Gephart, G.P., Monaghan, G.W., Larson, G., Stratigraphic evidence for a significant readvance of the Michigan Ice Lobe to the Kalamazoo Moraine, Southwestern Michigan. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. 15 261.Google Scholar
1968 Glass, H.D., Frye, J.C., Willman, H.B., Clay mineral composition, a source indicator of Midwest loess. Bergstrom, R.E., The Quaternary of Illinois. University of Illinois, Urbana, 35-40.Google Scholar
1982 Hopkins, D.M., Aspects of the paleogeography of Beringia during the Late Pleistocene. Hopkins, D.M., Matthews, J.V. Jr., Schweger, C.E., Young, S.B., Paleoecology of Beringia. Academic Press, New York, 3-28.Google Scholar
1956 Horberg, L., Anderson, R.C., Bedrock topography and Pleistocene glacial lobes in central United States. Journal of Geology. 64 101-116.Google Scholar
1984 Karrow, P.F., Quaternary stratigraphy and history, Great Lakes-St. Lawrence region. Fulton, R.J., Quaternary Stratigraphy of Canada: A Canadian Contribution to IGCP Project 24. Geological Survey of Canada Paper 84-10. 137-153.Google Scholar
1982 Knox, J.C., Quaternary History of the Kickapoo and Lower Wisconsin River valleys, Wisconsin. Quaternary History of the Driftless Area. Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey Field Trip Guidebook 5, 29th Annual Meeting Midwest Friends of the Pleistocene. 1-65.Google Scholar
1926 Leighton, M.M., A notable Pleistocene section. The Farm Creek exposure near Peoria, Illinois. Journal of Geology. 34 167-174.Google Scholar
1950 Leighton, M.M., Willman, H.B., Loess formations of the Mississippi Valley. Journal of Geology. 58 599-623.Google Scholar
1899 Leverett, F., The Illinois glacial lobe. U.S. Geological Survey Monograph. 38 1-817.Google Scholar
1974 Lineback, J.A., Erosion of till bluffs: Willmette to Waukegan. Coastal Geology, Sedimentology and Management. Illinois State Geological Survey Guidebook Series. 12 37-45.Google Scholar
1979 McKay, E.D., Wisconsinan loess stratigraphy of Illinois: Wisconsinan, Sangamonian, and Illinoian stratigraphy in Central Illinois. Illinois State Geological Survey Guidebook. 13 95-108.Google Scholar
1984 Mickelson, D.M., Clayton, L., Baker, R.W., Mode, W.N., Schneider, A.F., Pleistocene stratigraphic units of Wisconsin. Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey Miscellaneous Paper 84-1. 1-97.Google Scholar
1985 Miller, B.J., Lewis, G.C., Alford, J.J., Day, W.J., Loesses in Louisiana and at Vicksburg, Mississippi. Field Trip Guidebook Southeastern Friends of the Pleistocene Annual Meeting. 1-126.Google Scholar
1986 Monaghan, G.W., Larson, G.J., Gephart, G.D., Late Wisconsinan drift stratigraphy of the Lake Michigan Lobe in southwestern Michigan. Geological Society of America Bulletin. 97 329-334.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1980 Rieck, R.L., Winters, H.A., Distribution and significance of glacially buried organic matter in Michigan's Southern Peninsula. Physical Geography. 1 74-89.Google Scholar
1982 Rieck, R.L., Winters, H.A., Low-altitude organic deposits in Michigan: Evidence for pre-Woodfordian Great Lakes and paleosurfaces. Geological Society of America Bulletin. 93 726-734.Google Scholar
1952 Rubey, W.W., Geology and mineral resources of the Hardin and Brussels quadrangles. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper. 218 1-179.Google Scholar
1976 Ruhe, R.V., Stratigraphy of mid-continent loess, U.S.A.. Mahaney, W.C., Quaternary Stratigraphy of North America. Dowd, Hutchinson and Ross, Stroudsberg, PA, 197-211.Google Scholar
1978 Ruhe, R.V., Olson, C.G., Loess stratigraphy and paleosols in southwestern Indiana. Midwest Friends of the Pleistocene 25th Field Conference Guidebook. 1-72.Google Scholar
1981 Saucier, R.T., Current thinking on riverine processes and geologic history as related to human settlement in the Southeast. Geoscience and Man. 22 7-18.Google Scholar
1973 Shackleton, N.J., Opdyke, N.D., Oxygen isotope and palaeomagnetic stratigraphy of Equatorial Pacific Core V28-238. Quaternary Research. 3 39-55.Google Scholar
1970 Willman, H.B., Frye, J.C., Pleistocene stratigraphy of Illinois. Illinois State Geological Survey Bulletin. 94 1-204.Google Scholar
1986 Winters, H.A., Rieck, R.L., Kapp, R.O., Significance and ages of Mid-Wisconsinan organic deposits in southern Michigan. Physical Geography. 7 292-305.Google Scholar