Glacial erosion of bedrock and preliminary Quaternary stratigraphy in the western Lake Erie coastal region

An analysis of 120 km of high-resolution seismic reflection profiles and onshore well records in the southwestern Lake Erie coastal zone shows a highly dissected bedrock surface. Regional subsurface data confirm extensive glacial modification of the preglacial landscape and the differential erosion of bedrock units. Areas of deep glacial scour coincide with shale and dolostone subcrop belts, in which bedrock strike direction was subparallel to glacial flow directions during early and late phases of glaciation. Locally, deep scouring also occurred over zones of fractured bedrock. In southeastern Michigan, large bedrock valleys, widened and deepened by glacial erosion, are preserved on the north side of the area of the Erie ice lobe. To the south in areas of axial flow of the Erie lobe and southerly ice flow during glacial maxima, traces of preglacial valleys have been more severely modified by glacial erosion in diverging directions. Striations in the region record three such diverging ice-flow directions of the last ice sheet. In one quarry, the position and cross-cutting erosional relationships of the three striation sets indicate their relative ages, from oldest to youngest: SSW, SW, and W. The SSW-trending set is overlain by a compact, loamy till containing abundant Canadian-shield crystallinemore » gravel clasts. The till and the striations record the initial Late Wisconsinan ice advance into the region. The younger striation sets are overlain by the clayey, shale-rich till of the Erie lobe. Onshore, glaciolacustrine massive silty clay overlies the clayey till and fills broad troughs between areas of till at the surface. Offshore, seismic profiles reveal stratification in the clay, which is overlain by late Holocene mud. A nearby test hole through the beach west of Turtle Creek suggests a valley-fill sequence consisting of Late Wisconsinan till overlain by 5 m of organic mud deposited during the late Holocene transgression of Late Erie.« less