THE ABAXDOXED SHORELIXES OF THE OBERLIX 

 QUADRAXGLE, OHIO' 



Frank Carney 



Many stiulenis have g-iven attention to the shifting series of 

 lakes that foHowed up the retreating Wisconsin ice sheet. The 

 broa !er questions involved in this history have been investigated 

 and the general outlines of the succeeding lake stages, and their 

 individual overflow channels, have been mapped.' In some parts 

 of die Great Lakes' basin more detailcvl mapping has been done.'"* 

 In the Maumee Valley of Ohio, G. K. Gilbert has studied in con- 

 siderable detail the raised beaches.* On the Oberlin sheet the only 

 work heretofore published is that ( i ) of E. E. Wright." who lo- 

 cated se\'eral beaches at scattered points, thus getting enough of evi- 

 dence to make a A'ery general map; and (2) of J. S. Xewberry, 

 who briefly explains Wright's map.'' 



The surface features of the Oberlin sheet (plate VII) have 

 not been altered much during post-glacial times. The area has a 

 general and quite uniform northward slope, declining from an alti- 

 tude of 850 feet to 573 feet, the level of Lake Erie. The drain- 

 age of practically the whole sheet focuses into one major stream, 

 the Black river. A narrow strip on the west side is controlled l)y 

 Eeaver creek. The course of Black ri\er, south of the \\'arren 

 shoreline, reflects preglacial topogra])hy. It follows the axis of a 

 deprtssion which was sufficiently deep and broad to form a hay in 

 each of the three lake stages: tl'.is irregularity of shoreline was least 

 in the ^^'arren stage and greatest in the Maumee stage. 



The stratigraphy of the sheet is obvious both in die topography 

 and in the resulting outline of the high-level lakes. Throughout 



1 Read at the meeting of the American Geological Society, Boston, December. 1009, 

 with the permission of the State Geologist of Ohio. The author is responsible for the 

 facts given. 



2 Whittlesey, Charles, Tlic American Journal of Science, vol. X (1S50). pji. Sl-39. 

 Taylor, F. C Bull. Geol. Soc. .4in.. vol. VII (1897), pp. 31-58. Leverett, F.. Monograph 

 XLI. U. S. Geological Survey (1902), pp. 710-775. 



3 Alden, W. C, The Chicago Folio. No. SI, U. S. Geol. Survey. 1902. The Milzc'aukee 

 Special Folio, No. 140, U. S. Geol. Survey, 1906. Goldthwait, J. W., "The Abandoned 

 Shorelines of Eastern Wisconsin," Wis. Geol. and Xat. Hist. Survey, (1907), pp. l.\-134. 

 .\twood, W. D., and Goldthwait, J. W., "Physical Geography of the Evarston-Waukegan 

 Region", Illinois State Geol. Survey. Bulletin No. 7, (1908), pp. 28-69. 



i Geological Survey of Ohio, vol. I, (1873), pp. 535-.56. 



;i Geological Survey of Ohio. vol. II, (1874), map opposite p. .58. 



6 Ibid, pp. 207-8. 



