A late Wisconsinan Coleopterous assemblage from southern Ontario and its environmental significance

1977 ◽  
Vol 14 (7) ◽  
pp. 1625-1634 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allan C. Ashworth

A flood debris assemblage of fossil Coleoptera is described from a 10 600 year old terrace deposit in southern Ontario. It is a small sample of the fauna that had colonized the region after deglaciation and although the species are extant, the assemblage is a surprising mixture of faunistic elements for which there is no known modern analog. Species with wide-spread boreal, arctic-alpine, northwestern boreal, southern boreal, and eastern distributions are recorded. The present ecologic and geographic distributions of the species indicate a valley environment with similar habitat diversity and climate to those which characterize the tundra–forest transition zone of northern Canada. This interpretation is supported by macroscopic plant evidence but conflicts with pollen evidence which implies a climate with warmer summers. To resolve the problem it is proposed that the valley fauna and flora survived in an isolated cold microenvironment surrounded by regionally warmer conditions and for which analogies presently exist on the north and east shores of Lake Superior.

1983 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 388-399 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. J. Jackson

AbstractExamination of a sample of 150 fluted-point localities from southern Ontario, Canada in relation to datable features of Late Wisconsinan ice retreat discloses maximum possible ages for early Palaeo-Indian occupation and reveals selection of specific physiographic situations. General relationship to maximum ice-advance positions suggests occupation during the Two Creeks Interstade after Port Huron ice retreat about 12,300 yr B.P. Specific relationship to 14C-dated proglacial Great Lake strands favors occupation during the North Bay Interstade after Greatlakean ice retreat about 11,500 yr B.P. Locality frequency on Lake Algonquin strands suggests contemporaneity with the main stage of this lake about 11,500 to 10,400 yr B.P., with a small number of lake-plain localities indicating minor post-Algonquin persistence. Radiocarbon dates for fluted-point sites elsewhere in the glaciated northeast place occupation coeval with the southwestern Folsom fluted-point tradition of about 10,850 to 10,200 yr B.P. Locality situation in regions dominated by proglacial sediments, on lake-edge features adjacent to strand-dissecting tributaries, within major river valleys, implies selectivity reflecting primary adaptation. Fluted-point associations with caribou and elk remains suggest that “focal” adaptation to cervids, comparable to southwestern Folsom bison exploitation, might underlie the homogeneous nature and distribution of early Palaeo-Indian localities throughout the northeast.


1975 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 300-319 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matti Saarnisto

Shoreline displacement in the Lake Superior basin was followed, independently of morphological data, by studying sediments of small lake basins at different elevations in the vicinity of Sault Ste. Marie, Wawa, and Marathon, Ontario. Emergence of small lakes, resulting from water level changes in the main basin, is documented in bottom sediments, and can be dated by radiocarbon and pollen analyses. The new stratigraphical findings were correlated with the earlier established morphological shorelines, and thus the Late Wisconsinan and Holocene history of lake levels was worked out.High post-Main Algonquin glacial lakes formed the highest shorelines along the east shore from Sault Ste. Marie up to Alona Bay between approximately 11 000 and over 10 100 B.P. Contemporaneously a series of Post-Duluth glacial lakes occupied the western Superior basin, subsequent to Glacial Lake Duluth. As the ice retreated to the north shore at 9500 B.P., Lake Minong came into existence. Its level was apparently controlled by a threshold higher than the present at Sault Ste. Marie. The water level of Lake Superior fell to the low water Houghton stage by 8000 B.P. The transgression which resulted in the Nipissing Great Lakes reached the Superior basin about 7000 B.P. and culminated 5500 B.P. Land uplift on the east shore of Lake Superior was very rapid immediately after the deglaciation, followed by decreasing rates up to the present, and there are all indications that the process has been continuous.


Tectonics ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 305-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. F. Cannon ◽  
Alan G. Green ◽  
D. R. Hutchinson ◽  
Myung Lee ◽  
Bernd Milkereit ◽  
...  

1978 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 1025-1036 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. R. Cowan

Linear and quadratic trend surfaces were computed for textural, carbonate, clast, and heavy mineral properties of the Catfish Creek (Nissouri Stadial), Port Stanley (Port Bruce Stadial), Tavistock (Port Bruce Stadial), and Wentworth (Port Huron Stadial) tills.Catfish Creek Till pebble grade material provided trend surfaces reflecting the underlying bedrock. However, an overall lack of regional trends in Catfish Creek Till is consistent with field observations that indicate remarkable uniformity for this till over several hundred square kilometres, a phenomenon that is believed to reflect the high energy of this ice sheet. Carbonates in Port Stanley Till were found to increase from east to west as the Silurian–Devonian contact was crossed. Tavistock Till was found to have increasing sand content and decreasing silt content from northwest to southeast owing to incorporation of underlying glaciofluvial sediments; pebble trends reflect the underlying bedrock for the most part. Wentworth Till trend surfaces for carbonates and pebbles show high dolomite near the Niagara Escarpment to the east and northeast with a dilution of dolomite and influx of limestone to the southwest.The strong relationship of the trend surfaces to substrate materials indicates the basal nature of the tills and the local origin of most glacial deposits. Pebble lithologies provide much information about local bedrock and drift prospectors should give close consideration to coarse fragments.


2007 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 229-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
James F. P. Cotter ◽  
James M. Bloomfield ◽  
Edward B. Evenson

ABSTRACT Glacial and glaciofluvial deposits are mapped and differentiated to develop new local, relative-age (RD) stratigraphies for the North Fork of the Big Lost River, Slate Creek and Pole Creek drainages in the White Cloud Peaks and Boulder Mountains, Idaho. This stratigraphic model expands the areal extent of the "Idaho glacial model". Volcanic ash samples collected from the study area are petrographically characterized and correlated, on the basis of mineralogy and glass geochemistry, to reference samples of identified Cascade Range tephras. Four distinct tephras are recognized including; Mount St. Helens-Set S (13,600-13,300 yr BP), Glacier Peak-Set B (11,250 yr BP), Mount Mazama (6600 yr BP) and Mount St. Helens-Set Ye (4350 yr BP). A core of lake sediments containing two tephra units was obtained from a site called "Pole Creek kettle". Pollen and sediment analyses indicate three intervals of late Pleistocene and Holocene climatic change. Cool and wet climatic conditions prevailed in the region shortly before and immediately following the deposition of the Glacier Peak-Set B ash (11,250 yr BP). Climatic warming occurred from approximately 10,500 to 6600 yr BP after which warm, dry conditions prevailed. Sediment accumulation in the kettle ceased by 4350 yr BP. The presence of Glacier Peak-Set B tephra in the base of the Pole Creek kettle core provides a minimum age of 11,250 yr BP for the retreat of valley glaciers from their Late Wisconsinan maximum position. A radiocarbon date of 8450 + 85 yr BP (SI-5181), and the presence of Mount Mazama ash (6600 yr BP) up-core support the Glacier Peak-Set B identification.


1983 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark A. Flock

The Savanna Terrace, composed of alternating red and gray clayey sediments of late Wisconsinan age, can be found in five states along the upper Mississippi valley from Pepin County, Wisconsin, to Jackson County, Illinois. The terrace is the highest glaciofluvial-lacustrine deposit without a loess cover in the upper Mississippi valley. Chemical, physical, and mineralogical data show that two different sources provided sediment. The red clay is believed to have come from Lake Superior sources, while the gray clay is believed to have come from sources farther west. Large-scale flood events from glacial Lakes Agassiz, Grantsburg, and Superior were probably the main contributors of the sediments. The red clay in the terrace is similar in composition to red glaciolacustrine sediment found in eastern and northern Wisconsin. It also is mineralogically similar to the Hinckley Sandstone and the Fond du Lac Formation, which occur under and around Lake Superior. Radiocarbon dates obtained from the lower Illinois valley indicate that the terrace sediments were deposited sometime between about 13,100 and 9500 yr ago. Soils developed on the terrace are variable in their physical, chemical, and mineralogical properties, which reflect the composition of the clayey sediments.


2021 ◽  
pp. e20200049
Author(s):  
Isabelle Gapp

This paper challenges the wilderness ideology with which the Group of Seven’s coastal landscapes of the north shore of Lake Superior are often associated. Focusing my analysis around key works by Lawren Harris, A.Y. Jackson, J.E.H. MacDonald, and Franklin Carmichael, I offer an alternative perspective on commonly-adopted national and wilderness narratives, and instead consider these works in line with an emergent ecocritical consciousness. While a conversation about wilderness in relation to the Group of Seven often ignores the colonial history and Indigenous communities that previously inhabited coastal Lake Superior, this paper identifies these within a discussion of the environmental history of the region. That the environment of the north shore of Lake Superior was a primordial space waiting to be discovered and conquered only seeks to ratify the landscape as a colonial space. Instead, by engaging with the ecological complexities and environmental aesthetics of Lake Superior and its surrounding shoreline, I challenge this colonial and ideological construct of the wilderness, accounting for the prevailing fur trade, fishing, and lumber industries that dominated during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A discussion of environmental history and landscape painting further allows for a consideration of both the exploitation and preservation of nature over the course of the twentieth century, and looks beyond the theosophical and mystical in relation to the Group’s Lake Superior works. As such, the timeliness of an ecocritical perspective on the Group of Seven’s landscapes represents an opportunity to consider how we might recontextualize these paintings in a time of unprecedented anthropogenic climate change, while recognizing the people and history to whom this land traditionally belongs.


2020 ◽  
Vol 231 ◽  
pp. 105717
Author(s):  
Adam Hestetune ◽  
Paul M. Jakus ◽  
Christopher Monz ◽  
Jordan W. Smith

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