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1.
J.L. Hough in 1962 recognized an erosional unconformity in the upper section of early postglacial lake sediments in northwestern Lake Huron. Low-level Lake Stanley was defined at 70 m below present water surface on the basis of this observation, and was inferred to follow the Main Algonquin highstand and Post-Algonquin lake phases about 10 14C ka, a seminal contribution to the understanding of Great Lakes history. Lake Stanley was thought to have overflowed from the Huron basin through the Georgian Bay basin and the glacio-isostatically depressed North Bay outlet to Ottawa and St. Lawrence rivers. For this overflow to have occurred, Hough assumed that post-Algonquin glacial rebound was delayed until after the Lake Stanley phase. A re-examination of sediment stratigraphy in northwestern Lake Huron using seismic reflection and new core data corroborates the sedimentological evidence of Hough’s Stanley unconformity, but not its inferred chronology or the level of the associated lowstand. Erosion of previously deposited sediment, causing the gap in the sediment sequence down to 70 m present depth, is attributed to wave erosion in the shoreface of the Lake Stanley lowstand. Allowing for non-deposition of muddy sediment in the upper 20 m approximately of water depth as occurs in the present Great Lakes, the inferred water level of the Stanley lowstand is repositioned at 50 m below present in northwestern Lake Huron. The age of this lowstand is about 7.9 ± 0.314C ka, determined from the inferred 14C age of the unconformity by radiocarbon-dated geomagnetic secular variation in six new cores. This relatively young age shows that the lowstand defined by Hough’s Stanley unconformity is the late Lake Stanley phase of the northern Huron basin, youngest of three lowstands following the Algonquin lake phases. Reconstruction of uplift histories for lake level and outlets shows that late Lake Stanley was about 25–30 m below the North Bay outlet, and about 10 m below the sill of the Huron basin. The late Stanley lowstand was hydrologically closed, consistent with independent evidence for dry regional climate at this time. A similar analysis of the Chippewa unconformity shows that the Lake Michigan basin also hosted a hydrologically closed lowstand, late Lake Chippewa. This phase of closed lowstands is new to the geological history of the Great Lakes. This is the ninth in a series of ten papers published in this special issue of Journal of Paleolimnology. These papers were presented at the 47th Annual Meeting of the International Association for Great Lakes Research (2004), held at the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. P.F. Karrow and C.F.M Lewis were guest editors of this special issue.  相似文献   

2.
Simulations (216) were undertaken to evaluate the impact of typical Lake Agassiz outbursts on the upper Great Lakes under plausible variations in lake surface areas and sill widths. Flows over sills out of lakes are modelled using the equation for a broad-crested weir, with the model time increment set to one day. The model was evaluated for Lake Agassiz outlet sill widths of 1, 4, and 10 km and with outbursts ranging from 100 000 m3 s–1 to 600 000 m3 s–1. The surface area of Lake Agassiz was evaluated for 182 000 km2 ±20%. The surface area of the upper Great Lakes were modelled as either Lake Algonquin (Superior, Huron and Michigan basins =200 000 km2) or Lake Minong (Superior basin 87 000 km2) with sill widths of 0.5, 1.5, and 3 km.Downstream peak discharge modelled at the outlet sill of the upper Great Lakes, was normally between 20 and 60% of the initial outburst, with a lagtime to peak usually between 80 and 280 days. Upper Great Lakes water level rises of between 2 and 20 m are calculated with rises to 36 m for some configurations. Rise magnitude is inversely related to the width of the outlet sills at both lake systems and to the surface area of the receiving lake.The modeling implies that measuring outflow from the upper Great Lakes, or water level rises, does not in itself determine peak or total outflow from Lake Agassiz unless the dimensions of the Lake Agassiz and upper Great Lakes outflow sills are also known.Lake level rises probably coincided on the upper Great Lakes with meltout from the winter freeze-up. Lake levels re-attain equilibrium values with respect to through flow within three years of an outburst. Substantial episodic lake level rises in the upper Great Lakes may have had severe impacts on the lake biota, for example via the affect on spawning grounds.  相似文献   

3.
Lake Algonquin, the largest glacial lake of the Great Lakes area, ended prior to 10,000 years BP by drainage to the Ottawa Valley as the North Bay outlet was deglaciated. At that time, the outlet area was isostatically downwarped more than 100 m; resulting low water, river-linked lakes Chippewa, Stanley, and Hough, lowstands in the basins of lakes Michigan, Huron, and Georgian Bay respectively, were much below present lake level. While water levels were low, about half of the present lake area was dry land. The land above the lowstands was dissected by streams and became forested. Uplift of the North Bay outlet between 10,000 and 5,000 years BP raised lake level to above the present (the Nipissing transgression), submerging the forest and valley system. Submerged stumps from those forests have often been encountered on the present lake floor; some stumps have been dated. Four sites in Ontario (Parkhill, Owen Sound, St. Joseph Island, Meaford) provide on-land evidence of pre-Nipissing drainage and valley formation. Radiocarbon ages of valley fill organic materials range from 7,310 to 5,410 years BP. At three sites, present drainage is known to be displaced from the pre-Nipissing drainage. Geophysical methods (EM, GPR, resistivity) have been used to refine valley location and morphology at Parkhill and Meaford. There is the potential of tracing the valleys down slope to the low-water shorelines with shipboard geophysics, with implications for archaeology, hydrology and hydrogeology, paleogeography, and Great Lakes history. This is the eighth in a series of ten papers published in this special issue of Journal of Paleolimnology. These papers were presented at the 47th Annual Meeting of the International Association for Great Lakes Research (2004), held at the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. P.F. Karrow and C.F.M. Lewis were guest editors of this special issue.  相似文献   

4.
The evolution of the early Great Lakes was driven by changing ice sheet geometry, meltwater influx, variable climate, and isostatic rebound. Unfortunately none of these factors are fully understood. Sediment cores from Fenton Lake and other sites in the Lake Superior basin have been used to document constantly falling water levels in glacial Lake Minong between 9,000 and 10,600 cal (8.1–9.5 ka) BP. Over three meters of previously unrecovered sediment from Fenton Lake detail a more complex lake level history than formerly realized, and consists of an early regression, transgression, and final regression. The initial regression is documented by a transition from gray, clayey silt to black sapropelic silt. The transgression is recorded by an abrupt return to gray sand and silt, and dates between 9,000 and 9,500 cal (8.1–8.6 ka) BP. The transgression could be the result of increased discharge from Lake Agassiz overflow or the Laurentide Ice Sheet, and hydraulic damming at the Lake Minong outlet. Alternatively ice advance in northern Ontario may have blocked an unrecognized low level northern outlet to glacial Lake Ojibway, which switched Lake Minong overflow back to the Lake Huron basin and raised lake levels. Multiple sites in the Lake Huron and Michigan basins suggest increased meltwater discharges occurred around the time of the transgression in Lake Minong, suggesting a possible linkage. The final regression in Fenton Lake is documented by a return to black sapropelic silt, which coincides with varve cessation in the Superior basin when Lake Agassiz overflow and glacial meltwater was diverted to glacial Lake Ojibway in northern Ontario.  相似文献   

5.
The southern shore of Lake Michigan is the type area for many of ancestral Lake Michigan’s late Pleistocene lake phases, but coastal deposits and features of the Algonquin phase of northern Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, and Lake Superior are not recognized in the area. Isostatic rebound models suggest that Algonquin phase deposits should be 100 m or more below modern lake level. A relict shoreline, however, exists along the lakeward margin of the Calumet Beach that was erosional west of Deep River and depositional east of the river. For this post-Calumet shoreline, the elevation of basal foreshore deposits east of Deep River and the base of the scarp west of Deep River indicate a slightly westward dipping water plane that is centered at ∼184 m above mean sea level. Basal foreshore elevations also indicate that lake level fell ∼2 m during the development of the shoreline. The pooled mean of radiocarbon dates from the surface of the peat below post-Calumet shoreline foreshore deposits indicate that the lake transgressed over the peat at 10,560 ± 70 years B.P. Pollen assemblages from the peat are consistent with this age. The elevation and age of the post-Calumet shoreline are similar to the Main Algonquin phase of Lake Huron. Recent isostatic rebound models do not adequately address a high-elevation Algonquin-age shoreline along the southern shore of Lake Michigan, but the Goldthwait (1908) hinge-line model does.  相似文献   

6.
The post-glacial history of the Great Lakes has involved changes in lake levels that are equivalent in vertical extent to the Pleistocene changes in global sea level and changes in sediment accumulation by at least two orders of magnitude. In the sediments of the northern Lake Michigan basin, these radical changes in base level and sediment supply are preserved in detailed records of changing depositional environment and the impact of these changes on depositional architecture. The seismic sequences of the sediment fill previously described in Lake Huron have been carried into northern Lake Michigan and used to map the history and architecture of basinal deposition. As the Laurentide Ice Sheet retreated northward in the early Holocene, it opened progressively deeper channels to the east that allowed the larger lakes to drain through the North Channel, Huron, and Georgian Bay basins. At the end of the Main Algonquin highstand, about 10,200 (radiocarbon) yrs ago, the eastern drainage passage deepened in a series of steps that defined four seismic sequences and lowered lake levels by over 100 m. Near the same time a new source of sediment and meltwaters poured across the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and into the northern Lake Michigan basin from the Superior basin ice lobe. A marked increase in deposition is seen first in the northern part of the study area, and slightly later in the Whitefish Fan area at the southern end of the study area. Accumulation rates in the area gradually decreased even as lake levels continued to fall. Drainage directly from the Superior basin ended before the beginning of the main Mattawa phase about 9,200 (radiocarbon) yrs ago.Although individual lowstand systems tracts are at the most a few hundred yrs in duration, their geometries and seismic character are comparable to marine systems tracts associated with sea level falls of similar magnitudes. In some of the thicker lowstand deposits a second order cyclicity in sedimentation can be detected in the high resolution seismic records.  相似文献   

7.
Lake Agassiz water oxygen isotopic compositions inferred from sediment core organics and pore waters provide some additional insight into the paleohydrology of the Great Lakes and their drainage into the North Atlantic during the late glacial and early Holocene. Isotopically enriched Lake Agassiz water supports the hypothesis that high Huron Basin lake (Mattawa) phases, during the early Holocene (9600–9300 and 9100–8100 years BP) resulted from an influx of Lake Agassiz water and suggests that low lake (Stanley) phases (9800–9600, 9300–9100, 8100–7400 years BP) were influenced more by regional influxes of isotopically depleted glacial melt water. Eastward drainage of enriched early Lake Agassiz water supports an active Port Huron outlet between 11000 and 10500 years BP and also helps to explain the absence of an 18O depleted interval in North Atlantic foram records. This may be the result of a balance between the opposing isotopic effects of depleted Lake Agassiz water and lower sea surface temperatures on carbonate precipitation between 11000 and 10000 years BP.  相似文献   

8.
New stratigraphic evidence from the Rossendale area, Manitoba, Canada, provides insight into the early postglacial evolution of the southeastern Assiniboine Delta. In this region, much of the upper 13+ m of sediment accumulation is characterized by multiple cycles of sandy rhythmites interbedded with massive to laminated silt. These sediments were deposited rapidly by traction or turbidity currents and record the construction of the Assiniboine fan-delta during the deep-water Lockhart Phase of glacial Lake Agassiz (>10.8 14C ka BP). Shortly before ∼10 14C ka BP, fluvial incision into deltaic deposits occurred locally at the Rossendale Gully site in response to the regression of glacial Lake Agassiz during the Moorhead Phase. Plant macrofossils deposited in the gully by 10 14C ka BP provide the first information on early postglacial plant colonization of the distal Assiniboine delta. These data suggest initial establishment of Scorpidium scorpioides, Potamogeton spp., Scirpus spp., and other wetland plants, followed by colonization of uplands by a Picea-Populus assemblage. Importantly, because the gully is located in a protected depression behind the Campbell beach, evidence of water table rise from aquatic macrophytes suggests that glacial Lake Agassiz transgressed to the Campbell level during the early Emerson Phase (∼10 14C ka BP). Furthermore, no evidence exists for a post-Lockhart rise in Lake Agassiz above the Upper Campbell beach. If Agassiz stood at the Campbell level during the early Emerson Phase, then drainage through the southern outlet may have been possible at this time. This scenario, if true, may suggest that the northwestern outlet was temporarily closed by a glacial advance shortly before 10 14C ka BP. This is the first in a series of ten papers published in this special issue of Journal of Paleolimnology. These papers were presented at the 47th Annual Meeting of the International Association for Great Lakes Research (2004), held at the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. P.F. Karrow and C.F.M. Lewis were guest editors of this special issue  相似文献   

9.
Geomorphology of a beach-ridge complex and adjacent lake basins along the northern shore of Lake Michigan records fluctuations in the level of Lake Michigan for the last 8000 to 10 000 14C yr B.P. (radiocarbon years Before Present). A storm berm at 204.7–206 m (671.6–675.9 ft) exposed in a sandpit provides evidence of a pre-Chippewa Low lake level that is correlated with dropping water levels of Glacial Lake Algonquin (c. 10 300–10 100 14C yr B.P.). Radiocarbon dates from organic material exposed in a river cutbank and basal sediments from Elbow Lake, Mackinac Co., Michigan, indicate a maximum age of a highstand of Lake Michigan at 6900 14C yr B.P., which reached as high as 196.7 m (645 ft), during the early-Nipissing transgression of Lake Michigan. Basal radiocarbon dates from beach swales and a second lake site (Beaverhouse Lake, Mackinac Co.) provide geomorphic evidence for a subsequent highstand which reached 192.6 m (632 ft) at 5390±70 14C yr B.P.Basal radiocarbon dates from a transect of sediment cores, along with tree-ring data, and General Land Office Surveyor notes of a shipwreck, c. A.D. 1846, reveal a late-Holocene rate for isostatic rebound of 22.6 cm/100 radiocarbon years (0.74 ft/100 radiocarbon years) for the northern shore of Lake Michigan, relative to the Lake Michigan-Lake Huron outlet at Port Huron, Michigan. Changes in sediment stratigraphy, inter-ridge distance, and sediment accumulation rates document a mid- to late-Holocene retreat of the shoreline due to isostatic rebound. This regression sequence was punctuated by brief, periodic highstands, resulting in progressive development over the past 5400 14C yr of 75 pairs of dune ridges and swales each formed over an interval of approximately 72 years. Times of lake-level fluctuation were identified at 3900, 3200, and 1000 14C yr B.P. based on changes in inter-ridge spacing, shifts in the course of Millecoquins River, and reorientation of beach-ridge lineation. Soil type, dune development, and selected pollen data provide supporting evidence for this chronology. Late-Holocene beach-ridge development and lake-level fluctuations are related to a retreat of the dominant Pacific airmass and the convergence of the Arctic and Tropical airmasses resulting in predominantly meridional rather than zonal air flow across the Great Lakes region.This is the 13th in a series of papers published in this special AMQUA issue. These papers were presented at the 1994 meeting of the American Quaternary Association held 19–22 June, 1994, at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. Dr Linda C. K. Shane served as guest editor for these papers.  相似文献   

10.
Over the last 12600 years, lake levels in the eastern Lake Erie basin have fluctuated dramatically, causing major changes in drainage patterns, flooding and draining ephemeral Lake Wainfleet several times and widening and narrowing the Niagara Gorge as the erosive effects of Niagara Falls waxed and waned. The control sill for Lake Erie levels was at first the Fort Erie/Buffalo sill, before the Lyell/Johnson sill in Niagara Falls took over due to isostatic rebound. This sill, in time, was eventually eroded by the recession of Niagara Falls and the Fort Erie/Buffalo sill regained control. The environmental picture is complicated by catastrophic outbursts from glacial Lake Agassiz and Lake Barlow-Ojibway, changes in outlet routes, isostatic rebound and climatic changes over the Great Lakes basins. Today, the flow of water into Lake Erie from the streams and rivers surrounding it only accounts for about 13% of the flow out of it, therefore, the importance of flow from the Upper Great Lakes, specifically the flow from Lake Huron, has a great effect on Lake Erie levels. While the changing control sills, Lyell/Johnson and Buffalo/Fort Erie would affect Lake Erie levels, overall they are mostly input driven by the amount of waters received from the Upper Great Lakes. Since Lake Erie's water level changes are so closely tied to Lake Huron's water level changes we have decided to use names assigned to Lake Huron such as the two Mattawa highstands and three Stanley lowstands rather than inflict a whole new set of names on the public. While the duration of each high and lowstand in Erie and Huron may not always be the same, they always happen within the same time frame. The datum elevations used for Lake Huron (175.8 m) and Lake Erie (173.3 m) are historically recorded averages. The Lake Erie levels proposed in this paper reflect Lake Hurons effects on Lake Erie and the levels occuring at the eastern end of the Erie Basin throughout the last 12600 years. All dates in this paper are uncorrected 14 C dates unless the date was obtained from shells, then the date has been corrected for hard-water effects. Also, all heights are given as modern day elevations and are not adjusted for isostatic rebound.  相似文献   

11.
Two distinct episodes of increased water flux imposed on the Great Lakes system by discharge from upstream proglacial lakes during the period from about 11.5 to 8 ka resulted in expanded outflows, raised lake levels and associated climate changes. The interpretation of these major hydrological and climatic effects, previously unrecognized, is mainly based on the evidence of former shorelines, radiocarbon-dated shallow-water sediment sequences, paleohydraulic estimates of discharge, and pollen diagrams of vegetation change within the basins of the present Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie and Nipissing. The concept of inflow from glacial Lake Agassiz adjacent to the retreating Laurentide Ice Sheet about 11–10 and 9.5–8.5 ka is generally supported, with inflow possibly augmented during the second period by backflooding of discharge from glacial Lake Barlow-Ojibway.Although greater dating control is needed, six distinct phases can be recognized which characterize the hydrological history of the Upper Great Lakes from about 12 to 5 ka; 1) an early ice-dammed Kirkfield phase until 11.0 ka which drained directly to Ontario basin; 2) an ice-dammed Main Algonquin phase (11.0–10.5 ka) of relatively colder surface temperature with an associated climate reversal caused by greater water flux from glacial Lake Agassiz; 3) a short Post Algonquin phase (about 10.5–10.1 ka) encompassing ice retreat and drawdown of Lake Algonquin; 4) an Ottawa-Marquette low phase (about 10.1–9.6 ka) characterized by drainage via the then isostatically depressed Mattawa-Ottawa Valley and by reduction in Agassiz inflow by the Marquette glacial advance in Superior basin; 5) a Mattawa phase of high and variable levels (about 9.6–8.3 ka) which induced a second climatic cooling in the Upper Great Lakes area. Lakes of the Mattawa phase were supported by large inflows from both Lakes Agassiz and Barlow-Ojibway and were controlled by hydraulic resistance at a common outlet — the Rankin Constriction in Ottawa Valley — with an estimated base-flow discharge in the order of 200000 m3s–1. 6) Lakes of the Nipissing phase (about 8.3–4.7 ka) existed below the base elevation of the previous Lake Mattawa, were nourished by local precipitation and runoff only, and drained by the classic North Bay outlet to Ottawa Valley.Geological Survey of Canada Contribution 42488.This is the twelfth of a series of papers to be published by this journal that was presented in the paleolimnology sessions organized by R. B. Davis and H. Löffler for the XIIth Congress of the International Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA), which took place in Ottawa, Canada in August 1987. Dr. Davis is serving as guest editor of this series.  相似文献   

12.
We reconstruct postglacial lake-level history within the Lake Michigan basin using soil stratigraphy, ground-penetrating radar (GPR), sedimentology and 14C data from the Silver Lake basin, which lies adjacent to Lake Michigan. Stratigraphy in nine vibracores recovered from the floor of Silver Lake appears to reflect fluctuation of water levels in the Lake Michigan basin. Aeolian activity within the study area from 3,000 years (cal yr. B.P.) to the present was inferred from analysis of buried soils, an aerial photograph sequence, and GPR. Sediments in and around Silver Lake appear to contain a paleoenvironmental record that spans the entire post-glacial history of the Lake Michigan basin. We suggest that (1) a pre-Nipissing rather than a Nipissing barrier separated Silver Lake basin from the Lake Michigan basin, (2) that the Nipissing transgression elevated the water table in the Silver Lake basin about 6,500 cal yr. B.P., resulting in reestablishment of a lake within the basin, and (3) that recent dune migration into Silver Lake is associated with levels of Lake Michigan. This is the fourth in a series of ten papers published in this special issue of Journal of Paleolimnology. These papers were presented at the 47th Annual Meeting of the International Association for Great Lakes Research (2004), held at the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. P.F. Karrow and C.F.M. Lewis were guest editors of this special issue.  相似文献   

13.
Cockburn Island, Ontario (45°55′ N, 83°20′ W), holds at least six sets of elevated lake bluffs, scarps and bar deposits that mark distinctive water planes above the Nipissing Great Lakes water plane (∼198 m). These relict shoreline features occur at elevations that correspond closely with the elevations of others at nearby St. Joseph Island and in eastern upper Michigan. Together, the elevations and relative locations of steep relict bluffs suggest a proto-Cockburn Island once interrupted the surface of proglacial Lake Algonquin. The islet appears to have emerged and grown through a period of uplift and a sequence of lowering water levels. The highest relict shoreline (280.2 m) is correlated with the Main phase of Lake Algonquin. Lower shorelines at Cockburn Island cannot be correlated consistently, so additional work is required. This is the seventh in a series of ten papers published in this special issue of Journal of Paleolimnology. These papers were presented at the 47th Annual Meeting of the International Association for Great Lakes Research (2004), held at the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. P.F. Karrow and C.F.M. Lewis were guest editors of this special issue.  相似文献   

14.
Causal links that connect Holocene high stands of Lake Superior with dune building, stream damming and diversion and reservoir impoundment and infilling are inferred from a multidisciplinary investigation of a small watershed along the SE shore of Lake Superior. Radiocarbon ages of wood fragments from in-place stumps and soil O horizons, recovered from the bottom of 300-ha Grand Sable Lake, suggest that the near-shore inland lake was formed during multiple episodes of late Holocene dune damming of ancestral Sable Creek. Forest drownings at 3000, 1530, and 300 cal. years BP are highly correlated with local soil burial events that occurred during high stands of Lake Superior. During these and earlier events, Sable Creek was diverted onto eastward-graded late Pleistocene meltwater terraces. Ground penetrating radar (GPR) reveals the early Holocene valley of Sable Creek (now filled) and its constituent sedimentary structures. Near-planar paleosols, identified with GPR, suggest two repeating modes of landscape evolution mediated by levels of Lake Superior. High lake stands drove stream damming, reservoir impoundment, and eolian infilling of impoundments. Falling Lake Superior levels brought decreased sand supply to dune dams and lowered stream base level. These latter factors promoted stream piracy, breaching of dune dams, and aerial exposure and forestation of infilled lakebeds. The bathymetry of Grand Sable Lake suggests that its shoreline configuration and depth varied in response to events of dune damming and subsequent dam breaching. The interrelated late Holocene events apparent in this study area suggest that variations in lake level have imposed complex hydrologic and geomorphic signatures on upper Great Lakes coasts.  相似文献   

15.
The post-glacial history of the Great Lakes has involved several changes in lake levels throughout the latest Pleistocene and Holocene, resulting from the changing position of the retreating Laurentide ice sheet, outlet incision and isostatic rebound. The final lowering of lake levels occurred at approximately 7600 14C yr BP, after which lake levels began to rise again to the Nipissing highstand at approximately 4700 14C yr BP. During this time of rising lake levels, black bands of iron sulfide were being formed in the sediments of all five of the Great Lakes. These bands signify suboxic to anoxic conditions, at least within the sediments and possibly at the sediment-water interface, during the middle Holocene warm interval. During this interval, the climate was warmer and drier than present, possibly resulting in the occasional absence of seasonal turnover in the lakes. We examined a series of piston cores from northern Lakes Michigan and Huron and found that the black bands are correlatable among cores taken from within the same basin. The observation that the banding can be correlated suggests a basin-wide cause, near-bottom or sub-bottom anoxia in the northern Michigan and northern Huron sediments during the mid-Holocene warm period. The sedimentary and geochemical processes in the Great Lakes during the middle Holocene warm interval are good indicators of possible future scenarios for the lakes as a result of global warming, as 21st-century temperatures are predicted to reach similar levels due to increased concentrations of greenhouse gases.  相似文献   

16.
Multiple proxies record aridity in the northern Great Lakes basin ~8,800–8,000 cal (8,000–7,200) BP when water levels fell below outlets in the Michigan, Huron and Georgian Bay basins. Pollen-climate transfer function calculations on radiocarbon-dated pollen profiles from small lakes from Minnesota to eastern Ontario show that a drier climate was sufficient to lower the Great Lakes, in particular Georgian Bay, to closed basins. The best modern climate analog for the early Holocene late Lake Hough stage in the Georgian Bay basin is Black Bass Lake near Brainerd MN. Modern annual precipitation at Brainerd is ~35% lower than at Huntsville ON, in the Georgian Bay catchment; warmer summers and colder, less snowy winters make Brainerd drier than the Georgian Bay snow belt. These values parallel transfer function reconstructions for the early Holocene from pollen records at five small lakes in the Georgian Bay drainage basin. Higher evaporation and evapotranspiration due to greater seasonality during the early Holocene produced a deficit in effective moisture in Georgian Bay that is recorded by the jack/red pine pollen zone that spanned ~8,800–8,200 cal (8,000–7,500) BP. This deficit drove late Lake Hough ~5 m below Lake Stanley in the Huron basin, following diversion of Laurentide Ice sheet meltwater from the Great Lakes basin. The level of Georgian Bay largely depends not on fluvial input from its own drainage basin, but rather from Lake Superior, where the early Holocene moisture deficit was greater. Reconstruction of paleoclimates in Minnesota, northwestern Ontario and Wisconsin produced a closed lake in the Superior basin, which removed the main water input to Georgian Bay. Once the inflow through the St. Marys River was reduced and inflow from other tributary streams was adjusted for isostatic and climatic differences, input was <5% of modern values. Consequent high evaporation rates produced a significant fall in lake level in the Georgian Bay basin and a negative water budget. This reduction in basin supply, together with the high conductivity of stagnant water in late Lake Hough inferred from microfossils in lowstand sediments, peaked at the end of the jack/red pine zone, ~8,300–8,200 (7,450 ± 90) BP. These major hydrologic changes resulting from climate change in the recent geologic past draw attention to possible declines of the Great Lakes under future climates.  相似文献   

17.
Lake Simcoe is a large lake 45 km across and in places over 30 m deep, located between Lake Huron and Lake Ontario, in the glaciated terrain of southern Ontario, Canada. Seismostratigraphic analysis of high-resolution seismic reflection profiles, together with lakebed sediment sampling and pollen study, revealed distinctive sequences in the sediments beneath Lake Simcoe, Ontario. A surface unit (Blue Sequence) of soft Holocene mud (low-amplitude surface reflection, discontinuous parallel internal reflections) lies in the deeper basins of the lake. The underlying unit (Green Sequence) is characterized by high-amplitude parallel internal reflections; basal sediments of this sequence consist of clay rhythmites with dropstones. The Green Sequence was deposited by lacustrine sedimentation in proglacial Lake Algonquin; sedimentation persisted until the basin was isolated from other glacial lakes at about 10 14C ka at the Penetang post-Algonquin phase. Subsequent erosion of the uppermost portion of the Green Sequence is attributed to wave action in a low-level early Holocene lake, possibly closed hydrologically and coeval with closed lowstands in the Huron and Georgian Bay basins. Two sequences with high-amplitude surface reflections and chaotic internal reflections (Purple and Red Sequences) lie below the Green Sequence. Northeast-southwest trending ridges, tens of metres in height, on the Red Sequence (the lowermost of these two units) are interpreted to be drumlins. An erosion surface descends into narrow valleys 50–80 m deep beneath the lake in bays to the west and south of the main lake basin. These depressions are interpreted as subglacial tunnel channels cut by rapid flows of meltwater. The sediments of Purple Sequence are interpreted as channel-fill sediments rapidly deposited during waning stages of the meltwater drainage. The Red Sequence is correlated with the Newmarket Till of the last glacial maximum identified beneath the Oak Ridges Moraine to the south.  相似文献   

18.
A high water phase in the Lake Erie basin is identified from a variety of evidence for the period 11.0 ka to 10.5 ka. It is believed to correspond to the first Agassiz inflow to the upper Great Lakes (Main Lake Algonquin phase) when Agassiz waters discharged in both catastrophic and equilibrium modes to Lake Superior. After allowing for differential isostatic rebound, a computational model is used to estimate the lake levels in the Erie basin needed to generate Agassiz-equivalent discharges out of the basin into Lake Ontario. Computations suggest that Lake Tonawanda spillways would be re-activated by the high lake levels needed to sustain Agassiz-equivalent discharges. Existing published evidence from the Erie basin, Niagara River, and western New York (including 14C dates), is consistent with this interpretation. Additional evidence from the Niagara Peninsula (pollen spectra and geomorphology) supports the inference that extensive flooding of the southern Niagara Peninsula (Lake Wainfleet) occurred due to high water levels in the Erie basin. In the Niagara Peninsula, very shallow washover spillways would only operate when standard hydrologic variations of lake level in the Erie basin coincided with short term high levels driven by catastrophic inflows to the Great Lakes from Lake Agassiz. We support the view of Lewis & Anderson (1992) that a meltwater flux from Agassiz inflows reached Lake Erie.  相似文献   

19.
Serpent River Bog lies north of North Channel, 10 m above Lake Huron and 15 m below the Nipissing Great Lake level. A 2.3 m Holocene sequence contains distinct alternating beds of inorganic clastic clay and organic peat that are interpreted as evidence of successive inundation and isolation by highstands and lowstands of the large Huron-Basin lake. Lowstand phases are confirmed by the presence of shallow-water pollen and plant macrofossil remains in peat units. Twelve 14C dates on peat, wood and plant macrofossils combined with previously published 14C ages of lake-level indicators confirm much of the known early Holocene lake-level history with one notable exception. A new Late Mattawa highstand (8,390 [9,400 cal]–8,220 [9,200 cal] BP) evidenced by a sticky blue-grey clay bed is tied to outburst floods of glacial Lake Minong during erosion of the Nadoway drift barrier in the eastern Lake Superior basin. A subsequent Late Mattawa highstand (8,110 [9,040 cal]–8,060 [8,970 cal] BP) is attributed to enhanced meltwater inflows that first had deposited thick varves throughout Superior Basin. Inundation by the Nadoway floods and possibly the last Mattawa flood were likely responsible for termination of the Olson Forest (southern Lake Michigan). A pollen diagram supports the recognized progression of Holocene vegetation, and defines a subzone implying a very dry, cool climate about 7.8–7.5 (8.6–8.3 cal) ka BP based on the Alnus crispa profile during the Late Stanley lowstand. A new date of 9,470 ± 25 (10,680–10,750 cal) BP on basal peat over lacustrine clay at Espanola West Bog supports the previous interpretation of the Early Mattawa highstand at ca. 9,500 (10,740 cal) BP. The organic and clastic sediment units at these two bogs are correlated with other records showing coherent evidence of Holocene repeated inundation and isolation around northern Lake Huron. Taken together the previous and new lake-level data suggest that the Huron and Georgian basin lakes were mainly closed lowstands throughout early Holocene time except for short-lived highstands. Three of the lowstands were exceptionally low, and likely caused three episodes of offshore sediment erosion which had been previously identified as seismo-stratigraphic sequence boundaries.  相似文献   

20.
An extensive seismic reflection profile survey conducted concurrently with a sediment coring program in northern Lake Huron, Georgian Bay, and the North Channel revealed a detailed Holocene lake level history. Seven acoustic sequences were identified in the seismic stratigraphy, and these sequences show great variation in both the character and the spatial distribution of sediment deposition through time. The depths to the acoustically-defined sequence boundaries were digitized from the analog seismic records and merged with Loran-C navigation records from the cruise, yielding a three-dimensional record of the location of each sequence boundary. Thicknesses of the sequences were calculated from these depths, and a minimum-curvature spline surface was fit to the thickness data. These surfaces were used to construct isopach maps which show the trends in thickness of sediment accumulation throughout the lake basins for each of the sequences. 14C-AMS dates of materials from the cores fixed the dates of the sediment sequence boundaries, allowing sediment accumulation rates to be calculated. The distribution of sedimentation in the basins as shown on the isopach maps allowed assessment of sediment transport and water flow through the basins over time, which when combined with the work of Lewis & Anderson (1989), provides a detailed record of the transport and drainage of water through these basins as the Wisconsinan ice sheet retreated and isostatic rebound opened and closed outlets. Reversals of flow direction through the Straits of Mackinac and through the channels connecting Lake Huron and Georgian Bay and the North Channel are indicated by changes in sediment thickness distributions.  相似文献   

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