Geology topics

J.W. Attig

Publications and source records attributed to J.W. Attig.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

USGS2011

Optical ages indicate the southwestern margin of the Green Bay Lobe in Wisconsin, USA, was at its maximum extent until about 18,500 years ago

Samples for optical dating were collected to estimate the time of sediment deposition in small ice-marginal lakes in the Baraboo Hills of Wisconsin. These lakes formed high in the Baraboo Hills when drainage was blocked by the Green Bay Lobe when it was at or very near its maximum extent. Therefore, these optical ages provide control for the timing of the thinning and recession of the Green Bay Lobe from its maximum position. Sediment that accumulated in four small ice-marginal lakes was sampled and dated. Difficulties with field sampling and estimating dose rates made the interpretation of optical ages derived from samples from two of the lake basins problematic. Samples from the other two lake basins—South Bluff and Feltz basins—responded well during laboratory analysis and showed reasonably good agreement between the multiple ages produced at each site. These ages averaged 18.2 ka ( n = 6) and 18.6 ka ( n = 6), respectively. The optical ages from these two lake basins where we could carefully select sediment samples provide firm evidence that the Green Bay Lobe stood at or very near its maximum extent until about 18.5 ka. The persistence of ice-marginal lakes in these basins high in the Baraboo Hills indicates that the ice of the Green Bay Lobe had not experienced significant thinning near its margin prior to about 18.5 ka. These ages are the first to directly constrain the timing of the maximum extent of the Green Bay Lobe and the onset of deglaciation in the area for which the Wisconsin Glaciation was named.

Wisconsin↗

USGS2010

Arsenic Geochemistry and Hydrostratigraphy in Midwestern U.S. Glacial Deposits

Arsenic concentrations exceeding the U.S. EPA's 10 ??g/L standard are common in glacial aquifers in the midwestern United States. Previous studies have indicated that arsenic occurs naturally in these aquifers in association with metal-(hydr)oxides and is released to groundwater under reducing conditions generated by microbial oxidation of organic matter. Despite this delineation of the arsenic source and mechanism of arsenic mobilization, identification of arsenic-impacted aquifers is hindered by the heterogeneous and discontinuous nature of glacial sediments. In much of the Midwest, the hydrostratigraphy of glacial deposits is not sufficiently characterized to predict where elevated arsenic concentrations are likely to occur. This case study from southeast Wisconsin presents a detailed characterization of local stratigraphy, hydrostratigraphy, and geochemistry of the Pleistocene glacial deposits and underlying Silurian dolomite. Analyses of a single core, water chemistry data, and well construction reports enabled identification of two aquifers separated by an organic-rich aquitard. The upper, unconfined aquifer provides potable water, whereas arsenic generally exceeds 10 ??g/L in the deeper aquifer. Although coring and detailed hydrostratigraphic characterization are often considered impractical, our results demonstrate that a single core improved interpretation of the complex lithology and hydrostratigraphy. This detailed characterization of hydrostratigraphy facilitated development of well construction guidelines and lays the ground work for further studies of the complex interactions among aquifer sediments, hydrogeology, water chemistry, and microbiology that lead to elevated arsenic in groundwater. Copyright ?? 2009 The Author(s). Journal compilation ?? 2009 National Ground Water Association.

Ground Water↗

USGS2008

Ice-walled-lake plains: Implications for the origin of hummocky glacial topography in middle North America

Ice-walled-lake plains are prominent in many areas of hummocky-till topography left behind as the Laurentide Ice Sheet melted from middle North America. The formation of the hummocky-till topography has been explained by: (1) erosion by subglacial floods; (2) squeezing of subglacial till up into holes in stagnant glacial ice; or (3) slumping of supraglacial till. The geomorphology and stratigraphy of ice-walled-lake plains provide evidence that neither the lake plains nor the adjacent hummocks are of subglacial origin. These flat lake plains, up to a few kilometers in diameter, are perched as much as a few tens of meters above surrounding depressions. They typically are underlain by laminated, fine-grained suspended-load lake sediment. Many ice-walled-lake plains are surrounded by a low rim ridge of coarser-grained shore sediment or by a steeper rim ridge of debris that slumped off the surrounding ice slopes. The ice-walled lakes persisted for hundreds to thousands of years following glacial stagnation. Shells of aquatic molluscs from several deposits of ice-walled-lake sediment in south-central North Dakota have been dated from about 13 500 to 10 500??B.P. (calibrated radiocarbon ages), indicating a climate only slightly cooler than present. This is confirmed by recent palaeoecological studies in nearby non-glacial sites. To survive so long, the stagnant glacial ice had to be well-insulated by a thick cover of supraglacial sediment, and the associated till hummocks must be composed primarily of collapsed supraglacial till. ?? 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Geomorphology↗

USGS2008

Late Pleistocene dune construction in the Central Sand Plain of Wisconsin, USA

Wisconsin's Central Sand Plain east of the Wisconsin River is composed of eolian sand forming high-relief dunes surrounded by sand sheets and scattered low-relief dunes. To establish a maximum age for dune formation, three samples for optical dating were taken from glacial Lake Wisconsin lacustrine sediment that underlies eolian sand. These age estimates range from 19.3 to 13.6ka. Age estimates taken from within or at the base of the dunes range from 14.0 to 10.6ka. Samples taken from < 2m of the ground surface were slightly younger, indicating dunes were stabilized between 11.8 and 5.5ka. The younger ages near the surface of some dunes were most likely the result of pedoturbation or localized problems with applying the optical dating method. The majority of the optical age estimates from dunes (18 of 21) indicated that most of the dunes were active between 14 and 10ka and that most dune activity ended by 10ka. These ages suggest that localized activity on dune crests may have occurred in the Holocene but would have been limited to < 1m of sand accumulation. The timing of dune activity and the lack of any significant Holocene reactivation suggest that dune activation in this setting cannot be attributed solely to changes in aridity. Instead, we attribute dune formation to changes in sediment availability from either sand inputs from the Wisconsin River or the melting of permafrost. ?? 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Geomorphology↗

USGS2004

Geochemistry of glacial sediments in the area of the Bend massive sulfide deposit, north-central Wisconsin

Geochemical exploration in northern Wisconsin has been problematic because of thick glacial overburden and complex stratigraphic record of glacial history. To assess till geochemical exploration in an area of thick glacial cover and complex stratigraphy samples of glacial materials were collected from cores from five rotasonic boreholes near a known massive sulfide deposit, the Bend deposit in north-central Wisconsin. Diamond drilling in the Bend area has defined a long, thin zone of mineralization at least partly intersected at the bedrock surface beneath 30-40 m of unconsolidated glacial sediments. The bedrock surface has remnant regolith and saprolite resulting from pre-Pleistocene weathering. Massive sulfide and mineralized rock collected from diamond drill core from the deposit contain high (10s to 10,000s ppm) concentrations of Ag, As, Au, Bi, Cu, Hg, Se, Te, and Tl. Geochemical properties of the glacial stratigraphic units helped clarify the sequence and source areas of several glacial ice advances preserved in the section. At least two till sheets are recognized. Over the zone of mineralization, saprolite and preglacial alluvial and lacustrine samples are preserved on the bedrock surface in a paleoriver valley. The overlying till sheet is a gray, silty carbonate till with a source hundreds of kilometers to the northwest of the study area. This gray till is overlain by red, sandy till with a source to the north in Proterozoic rocks of the Lake Superior area. The complex glacial stratigraphy confounds down-ice geochemical till exploration. The presence of remnant saprolite, preglacial sediment, and far-traveled carbonate till minimized glacial erosion of mineralized material. As a result, little evidence of down-ice glacial dispersion of lithologic or mineralogic indicators of Bend massive sulfide mineralization was found in the samples from the rotasonic cores. This study points out the importance of determining glacial stratigraphy and history, and identifying favorable lithologies required for geochemical exploration. Drift prospecting in Wisconsin and other areas near the outer limits of the Pleistocene ice sheets may not be unsuccessful, in part, because of complex stratigraphic sequences of multiple glaciations where deposition dominates over erosion. ?? 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Journal of Geochemical Exploration↗

USGS1993

Stratigraphy and origin of an area of hummocky glacial topography, northern Wisconsin, U.S.A.

The Winegar Phase of the Wisconsin Glaciation produced a band of hummocky glacial topography in northern Wisconsin. Some hummocks are composed of flow till and somewhat sorted till-like debris-flow sediment. These hummocks formed when ice melted beneath a cover of debris that flowed to its present position. Other hummocks contain interlayered lodgement and meltout till, flow till, debris-flow and slopewash sediment, lake, and meltwater-stream sediment. These hummocks formed where sediment was stacked near the ice margin. In other hummocks till and supraglacial debris-flow and slopewash sediment deposited during the Winegar Phase form a thin veneer over older meltwater-stream sediment. These hummocks formed when ice buried in pre-Winegar Phase stream sediment melted, and the overlying sediment collapsed. ?? 1993.

Quaternary International↗

USGS1989

Evidence against pervasively deformed bed material beneath rapidly moving lobes of the southern Laurentide Ice Sheet

During the Wisconsin Glaciation, the ice lobes of the southern part of the Laurentide Ice Sheet moved rapidly as the result of elevated subglacial water pressure. The rapid movement was probably not accompanied by wide-spread pervasive deformation of unfrozen material under the ice. The till stratigraphy of much of this area is well known, and it is clear that the stratigraphic sequence is generally intact. Therefore, such deformation, if it occurred, would have been restricted to the till sheet that was currently being deposited. However, this seems unlikely as well, because the till of the region commonly contains lenses and clasts of unlithified bedded sand that should have been destroyed by pervasive shearing. If unfrozen deformed-till layers were widely present, they must have been confined to the thin upper parts of till sheets.

Minnesota, Wisconsin↗

USGS1989

Late Wisconsin landform distribution and glacier-bed conditions in Wisconsin

The late Wisconsin Laurentide Ice Sheet advanced across permafrost and reached its maximum extent in Wisconsin between about 18,000 and 15,000 years ago. Deep permafrost persisted in southern Wisconsin until about 14,000 years ago and in northern Wisconsin until about 13,000 years ago. We suggest that during maximum glaciation a zone about 5 km wide in the south and 20 km wide in the north along the margin of the late Wisconsin glacier was frozen to its bed. Meltwater from farther behind the margin, where the bed was at least locally thawed, cut a series of closely spaced tunnel channels through the frozen-bed zone. These channels most likely formed episodically, and they were the source for much of the meltwater-stream sediment deposited in broad outwash plains beyond the ice margin. Frozen-bed conditions near the margin also likely contributed to increased upward shearing of sediment and the accumulation of thicl supraglacial sediment in northern areas. Up ice from the frozen-bed zone the glacier bed was at least locally thawed in a zone about 75 km wide. Extensive drumlin fields formed in the area of the bed that was thawed. By about 13,000 years ago permafrost melted in northern Wisconsin and thawed-bed conditions probably extended to the ice margin throughout Wisconsin and adjacent areas. After about 13,000 years ago in northern Wisconsin the glacier was sliding on its bed and forming drumlins out to the ice margin, and thick supraglacial sediment no longer accumulated.

Wisconsin↗