THE ABANDONED SHORELINES OF THE ASHTABULA 
QUADRANGLE, OHIO^ 
Frank Carney 
The southern border of the pro-glacial lakes on the Ashtabula 
Quadrangle was limited by the Painesville moraine. In northern 
Ohio the distribution and direction of the moraines has also influ- 
enced the course taken by many rivers; the Grand River, for ex- 
ample, for several miles flows along the outer border of the Painesville 
moraine.2 In this quadrangle the lake plain is from three to five 
miles wide; the shorelines which cross it are roughly parallel; its 
surface is trenched by only one river, the Ashtabula, which rises 
south of the moraine; Wheeler, Cowles and Indian creeks, and Red 
Brook, have their sources in the moraine; except in their headwater 
sections, all these streams have low gradients. 
Lake Maumee 
One stage of Lake Maumee is registered across the Ashtabula 
Quadrangle by a disconnected series of gravel ridges and accumula- 
tions of sand. Commencing near the west border of the sheet (Fig. 1) 
where the north slope of the moraine is low, one notes, about two 
miles southwest of Geneva, a gravel ridge crossed by the first north- 
south highway on the sheet; laterally this ridge changes to a cut- 
bank; its strong development, however, appears to be responsible 
for the location of a house which stands many rods off the highway. 
The next two north-south roads to the east also cross slightly ridged 
gravel suggesting wave origin ; the easternmost of these two deposits, 
that is, the one directly south of Geneva, bears more gravel on its 
south slope, whereas its top and its north slope in no wise differ from 
the water-laid materials that frequently characterize moraines. 
Southeast of Geneva the top of the slope against which the 
Whittlesey shoreline is registered, frequently bears gravel belonging 
to Lake Maumee. A little farther east it seems probable that the 
dune sand, as shown in Fig. 2, is associated with this lake stage. 
Directly south of Saybrook, Maumee gravel lies immediately south of 
^Published by permission of the Geological Survey of Ohio. 
2Frank Leverett, Monograph XLI, U. S. Geol. Survey, 1902, p. 652. 
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