On the origin of the Oak Ridges Moraine, southern Ontario

1985 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 300-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. J. Chapman
Keyword(s):  
Lake Ontario ◽  
Glacial Lake ◽  
Stream Channel ◽  
Outlet Channel ◽  
Southern Ontario ◽  
Oak Ridges Moraine ◽  
Standing Water ◽  
Niagara Escarpment

Widespread occurrences of stratified silt and clay have been found under the surface sands on the crest of the Oak Ridges Moraine between Stouffville and Pontypool, Ontario. It is suggested that the most likely explanation for the submergence of that part of the moraine is that the Lake Ontario ice lobe was still overriding the Niagara Escarpment at the time, holding standing water in the area between the southern and northern ice lobes and the escarpment. A stream channel over the escarpment, extending from northeast of Cheltenham to Acton and beyond, may have served as the outlet. This sill is high enough to have held water over the above-mentioned silts and clays. It is of interest that this outlet channel led eventually to glacial Lake Whittlesey, indicating a correlation.

scholarly journals Geological framework of the Laurentian trough aquifer system, southern Ontario

2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (7) ◽  
pp. 677-708 ◽  
Author(s):  
David R. Sharpe ◽  
André J.-M. Pugin ◽  
Hazen A.J. Russell
Keyword(s):  
Lake Ontario ◽  
Water Levels ◽  
Coarse Grained ◽  
Oak Ridges Moraine ◽  
Aquifer System ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Niagara Escarpment ◽  
Base Level ◽  
Glacial Periods ◽  
East West

The Laurentian trough (LT), a depression >100 km long, >3000 km2 in area, and 100 m deep at the base of the Niagara Escarpment, extends from within Georgian Bay to Lake Ontario. It has a complex erosional history and is filled and buried by up to 200 m of interglacial and glacial sediment. The primary depression fronts a cuesta landscape and is attributed to differential erosion by fluvial, glacial, and glaciofluvial processes, exposing Ordovician rocks along the Canadian Shield margin. The fill succession includes sediments from the last two glacial periods (Illinoian, Wisconsinan) and the intervening interglacial time (Sangamonian), a poorly dated succession with at least three regional unconformities. A subaerial (interglacial, Don Formation) unconformity relates to low base level mainly preserved in lows of the LT, succeeded by a long period of rising water levels and glaciolacustrine conditions as ice advanced into the Lake Ontario basin. A second unconformity, within the Thorncliffe Formation, is the result of rapid channel erosion to bedrock, forming an ∼north–south network filled with coarse-grained glaciofluvial, transitional to fine-grained glaciolacustrine subaqueous fan sediment. The overlying drumlinized Newmarket Till, up to 50 m thick, is a distinct regional unit with a planar to undulating base. A third unconformity event eroded Newmarket Till, locally truncating it and underlying sediment to bedrock. Three younger sediment packages, Oak Ridges Moraine (channel and ridge sediment), Halton, and glaciolacustrine overlie this erosion surface. Significant regional aquifers are hosted within the LT. Upper Thorncliffe Formation sediments, north–south glaciofluvial channel–fan aquifers, are protected by overlying mud and Newmarket Till aquitards. Similarly, Oak Ridges Moraine sediments comprise a north–south array of glaciofluvial channel–fans and east–west fan aquifers, locally covered by silt–clay rhythmite and till aquitards.

THE STATUS OF PARASITES OF THE APPLE MAGGOT, RHAGOLETIS POMONELLA (DIPTERA: TEPHRITIDAE), IN ONTARIO

1971 ◽  
Vol 103 (4) ◽  
pp. 507-512 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. G. Monteith
Keyword(s):  
Lake Ontario ◽  
Rhagoletis Pomonella ◽  
Southern Ontario ◽  
Niagara Escarpment ◽  
The Status

AbstractOpius melleus Gah. and O. lectus Gah. were the only parasites of Rhagoletis pomonella (Walsh) found in southern Ontario during a 4-year survey. The parasites were found only in the Niagara Region on the slope of the Niagara Escarpment and between it and Lake Ontario. The population of parasites was low though they appeared to be well adapted to attack R. pomonella. They were found in, or adjoining, unsprayed sites where there was shrubby growth under the trees infested by R. pomonella.

scholarly journals A revised depositional setting for Halton sediments in the Oak Ridges Moraine area, Ontario

2016 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 281-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
D.R. Sharpe ◽  
H.A.J. Russell
Keyword(s):  
Lake Ontario ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Ice Shelf ◽  
Oak Ridges Moraine ◽  
Subglacial Lake ◽  
Niagara Escarpment ◽  
Sedimentary Architecture ◽  
Sand And Gravel ◽  
Core Descriptions ◽  
Depositional Setting

Outcrop and continuous core descriptions, high-resolution seismic profiling, and downhole geophysical data are integrated with detailed mapping to update sedimentary and stratigraphic frameworks for Halton sediment, a complex mud-rich lithofacies succession. Halton sediment has a gradational transition from underlying Oak Ridges Moraine (ORM) sediment and can abruptly overlie Newmarket Till. Halton strata thin and fine upwards from ORM sand and gravel to graded sand, silt, and clay rhythmites, with muddy diamicton and sand and gravel interbeds. These strata fill basin lows and drape ORM sediment lobes and Newmarket Till drumlins. These distinct sedimentary units are here informally referred to as Halton formation. Formal Halton Till is a proposed subunit of Halton formation, a clay-rich diamicton mapped from Niagara Peninsula to ORM and eastward. Halton Till has traditionally been inferred to represent a late, climatically induced readvance of grounded ice from Lake Ontario basin, which deposited drumlinized till. Halton sedimentary architecture and facies are interpreted as deposition in an ice-marginal or subglacial lake bounded by Niagara Escarpment, ORM, and grounding line oscillation of a semi-buoyant ice shelf or ice lid over Lake Ontario. Large volumes of transported mud are distal equivalents of ORM high-energy gravelly sand deposits to the east. Glaciolacustrine sedimentation is indicated by mud-rich texture and laminations. Clay–silt rhythmites, diamicton interbeds, and intraclasts indicate ponding, debris flow, and periodic ice loading. Halton depositional model may apply to other muddy diamictons in Great Lakes basins. Halton formation facies are not compatible with proposed grounded ice stream events in Lake Ontario basin.

Late Wisconsin white spruce (Picea glauca (Moench) Voss) at Brampton, Ontario

1980 ◽  
Vol 17 (8) ◽  
pp. 1087-1095 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Terasmae ◽  
H. L. Matthews
Keyword(s):  
Picea Glauca ◽  
Lower Boundary ◽  
Lake Ontario ◽  
White Spruce ◽  
Glacial Lake ◽  
Silty Clay ◽  
Southern Ontario ◽  
Pollen Zone ◽  
Minimum Age ◽  
Shrub Tundra

Study of late Wisconsin deposits in a small bog on the crest of Brampton esker (mantled by the Halton Till), about 30 km west of Toronto, Ontario, yielded a radiocarbon date of 12 320 ± 360 years BP (BGS-551) for a sample of white spruce cones that contained fully-developed seeds. This date on cones (in gyttja) provides an estimate of minimum age for the lower boundary of the spruce pollen zone in southern Ontario. Silty clay beneath the gyttja yielded leaves of Dryas integrifolia and pollen assemblages (a herb pollen zone) that indicate presence of a dwarf-shrub tundra (essentially treeless) type of vegetation.This study supports the Port Huron Stadial age (about 13 000 years BP) of the Halton Till that underlies the silty clay, and suggests an age of between 12 500 – 13 000 years BP for glacial Lake Peel in the Brampton area that preceded the glacial Lake Iroquois phase in the Lake Ontario basin.

scholarly journals Stratigraphic Architecture and Sediment Facies of the Western Oak Ridges Moraine, Humber River Watershed, Southern Ontario*

2006 ◽  
Vol 58 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 241-267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hazen A.J. Russell ◽  
Robert W.C. Arnott ◽  
David R. Sharpe
Keyword(s):  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Lake Ontario ◽  
Late Glacial ◽  
Southern Ontario ◽  
Oak Ridges Moraine ◽  
River Watershed ◽  
Subglacial Lake ◽  
Humber River ◽  
Sand And Gravel ◽  
Subglacial Meltwater

Abstract The Oak Ridges Moraine in southern Ontario is a ca. 160 km long east-west trending ridge of sand and gravel situated north of Lake Ontario. Study of the Oak Ridges Moraine in the Humber River watershed was undertaken to assess its role in the groundwater system of the buried Laurentian Valley. The Oak Ridges Moraine is interpreted to have been deposited in three stages. Stage I records rapid deposition from hyperconcentrated flows where tunnel channels discharged into a subglacial lake in the Lake Ontario basin. Low-energy basin sedimentation of Stage II was in a subglacial and ice-contact setting of a highly crevassed ice sheet. Stage III sedimentation is characterized by rapid facies changes associated with esker, subaqueous fan, and basinal sedimentation. Detailed sediment analysis challenges the concept that the Oak Ridges Moraine was deposited principally from seasonal meltwater discharges, climatic modulated ice-marginal fluctuations, or in an interlobate position. Instead it is interpreted to have formed in response to late-glacial ice sheet events associated with subglacial meltwater ponding, episodic and catastrophic subglacial meltwater discharge, and subsequent seasonal meltwater discharge. The moraine probably formed as the glacial-hydraulic system re-equilibrated to the presence of a thinned, grounded ice shelf and a subglacial lake in the Lake Ontario basin.

Trend surface analysis of major late Wisconsinan till sheets, Brantford–Woodstock area, southern Ontario

1978 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 1025-1036 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. R. Cowan
Keyword(s):  
Strong Relationship ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Field Observations ◽  
Trend Surface Analysis ◽  
Southern Ontario ◽  
Niagara Escarpment ◽  
Regional Trends ◽  
Grade Material ◽  
Late Wisconsinan ◽  
Relationship Of

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.

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