524 GLACIAL FORMATIONS OF ERIE AND OHIO BASINS. 



SECTION II. MI]SrOR MORAINES OF THE SCIOTO IjOBE. 



POWELL MORAINE. 



This moraine is the outermost (and southern) of a series which crosses 

 the Scioto Basin north of Columbus. It lies entirely within the drainage 

 basin of the Scioto, bordering a lobe 3.5 or 40 miles in width and nearly 40 

 miles in length. There are in the shoulder east of the Scioto Basin only 

 occasional local developments of morainic topography, but some of them 

 may constitute the equivalent of this moraine. The cause of the lobatioii 

 is readily found in the low altitude of the Scioto Basin compared with 

 tracts either side of it; the axis of the basin being 200 to 300 feet lower 

 than the eastern and western borders. It is thought to be a continuation 

 of the Mississinawa moraine of the Maumee-Miami lobe since in position, 

 structure, and topography it strikingly resembles that moraine. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



For several miles in the nortliwest portion of the lobe, on the high tracts 

 in Logan County, this moraine is scarcely separable from the earlier ones, 

 as it is pressed closely against them, and being of comparatively feeble 

 expression can not be easily distinguished. It is therefore not practicable 

 to trace completely a connection between it and the Mississinawa moraine. 

 From the east side of Rush Creek, opposite Big Springs, it is traceable 

 southward past West Mansfield to Mill Creek, being combined with a later 

 moraine, the Broadway. The later moraine, which is probably a contin- 

 uation of the Salamonie, bears eastward from West Mansfield along the 

 north side of Mill Creek, while the moraine under discussion continues 

 southward past East Liberty to the head of Darby Creek. It there swings 

 eastward and follows the north side of Darby Creek to the- bend north of 

 Plain City. It continues eastward, crossing the Scioto immediately west of 

 the village of Powell (from which its name is taken) and the Olentangy 

 north of Westerville. Upon reaching Big Walnut Creek, near Sunbury, it 

 turns abruptly northward and follows the west side of that stream to its 

 source near Mount Gilead. From Mount Gilead northward to Shelby it 

 apparently lies along the west border of the main morainic system, but can 

 scarcely be recognized because of its feeble expression. For the same 

 reason it has not been traced farther east into the shoulder east of the Scioto 

 lobe. 



