GLACIAL WATERS IN THE LAKE ERIE BASIN 



7 > 



The multiple Warren bars probably represent only a single lake 

 or a lacustrine unit with some change of level due to land warping 

 and lowering of outlet, the lower bars having been formed as off- 

 shore ridges, in waters of long life, supplied with abundant detritus. 



Since the above was written Mr Frank B. Taylor has announced 

 the discovery of a complication in the glacial lake history, of which 

 a brief statement has been inserted on page 42. Quoting his 

 words from a letter: "The ice front on the "Thumb" of Michigan 

 retreated in an oscillating manner with marked readvances covering 

 a space of 20 to 25 miles in each readvance, and the Belmore (Whit- 

 tlesey) and Upper Forest (Warren) beaches each records such a 

 readvance, which raised the lake level." 



Taylor's theory is that with the draining down of Lake Maumee 

 the waters continued to fall to the Arkona level where they rested 

 a long time, until a readvance of the ice front again closed the Arkona 

 outlet and forced the lake waters up to the Whittlesey level. In 

 other words, a lake (Arkona) approaching the Warren level existed 

 in time between the Maumee and the Whittlesey, but lower than 

 either. 



The vertical intervals between these several lake beaches in 

 Michigan are given by Taylor as follows: Between Whittlesey and 

 upper Arkona, 30 to 31 feet; between upper and middle Arkona, 

 7 to 8 feet; between middle and lower Arkona, 8 feet, or a range 

 of Arkona bars of 15 to 16 feet; between lower Arkona and Upper 

 Forest, 14 to 17 feet. (It should be noted here that no such vertical 

 relation occurs between any beaches in New York.) 



The theory has been held by Taylor that the ice front in the 

 Erie basin oscillated synchronously with that in Michigan, and 

 that the retreat of the ice front was sufficient to allow Arkona 

 waters to extend into central New York. In order to test this 

 theory by the facts the following analysis is given. 



Assuming Taylor's interpretation of the glacio-lacustrine history 

 to involve the Erie basin, then one of the three following postulates 

 or some combination of them must apply to the district between 

 Cleveland and Crittenden. 



A The ice front stationary. Under this conception the waters 

 of the three lakes, Maumee, Arkona and Whittlesey, would have the 

 same limitation and the beaches would all terminate together at 

 the moraine, and be wanting eastward. The channels of ice border 

 drainage and their deltas would end at the Maumee level. 



B The ice front oscillating synchronously with the oscillations 

 on the "Thumb" of Michigan. The Arkona shore would form as 

 far beyond (eastward of ) the Maumee limit as the ice front receded 



