Geology topics

T.A. Thompson

Publications and source records attributed to T.A. Thompson.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

USGS2017

Paleoecology of a Northern Michigan Lake and the relationship among climate, vegetation, and Great Lakes water levels

We reconstructed Holocene water-level and vegetation dynamics based on pollen and plant macrofossils from a coastal lake in Upper Michigan. Our primary objective was to test the hypothesis that major fluctuations in Great Lakes water levels resulted in part from climatic changes. We also used our data to provide temporal constraints to the mid-Holocene dry period in Upper Michigan. From 9600 to 8600 cal yr B.P. a shallow, lacustrine environment characterized the Mud Lake basin. A Sphagnum -dominated wetland occupied the basin during the mid-Holocene dry period (∼8600 to 6600 cal yr B.P.). The basin flooded at 6600 cal yr B.P. as a result of rising water levels associated with the onset of the Nipissing I phase of ancestral Lake Superior. This flooding event occurred contemporaneously with a well-documented regional expansion of Tsuga . Betula pollen increased during the Nipissing II phase (4500 cal yr B.P.). Macrofossil evidence from Mud Lake suggests that Betula alleghaniensis expansion was primarily responsible for the rising Betula pollen percentages. Major regional and local vegetational changes were associated with all the major Holocene highstands of the western Great Lakes (Nipissing I, Nipissing II, and Algoma). Traditional interpretations of Great Lakes water-level history should be revised to include a major role of climate.

Quaternary Research↗

USGS2011

Mid Holocene lake level and shoreline behavior during the Nipissing phase of the upper Great Lakes at Alpena, Michigan, USA

The Nipissing phase was the last pre-modern high-water stage of the upper Great Lakes. Represented as either a one- or two-peak highstand, the Nipissing occurred following a long-term lake-level rise. This transgression was primarily an erosional event with only the final stage of the transgression preserved as barriers, spits, and strandplains of beach ridges. South of Alpena, Michigan, mid to late Holocene coastal deposits occur as a strandplain between Devils Lake and Lake Huron. The landward part of this strandplain is a higher elevation platform that formed during the final stage of lake-level rise to the Nipissing peak. The pre-Nipissing shoreline transgressed over Devils Lake lagoonal deposits from 6.4 to 6.1 ka. The first beach ridge formed ~ 6 ka, and then the shoreline advanced toward Lake Huron, producing beach ridges about every 70 years. This depositional regression produced a slightly thickening wedge of sediment during a lake-level rise that formed 20 beach ridges. The rise ended at 4.5 ka at the Nipissing peak. This peak was short-lived, as lake level fell > 4 m during the following 500 years. During this lake-level rise and subsequent fall, the shoreline underwent several forms of shoreline behavior, including erosional transgression, aggradation, depositional transgression, depositional regression, and forced regression. Other upper Great Lakes Nipissing platforms indicate that the lake-level change observed at Alpena of a rapid pre-Nipissing lake-level rise followed by a slower rise to the Nipissing peak, and a post-Nipissing rapid lake-level fall is representative of mid Holocene lake level in the upper Great Lakes.

Michigan↗

USGS2005

Stable isotope ratios in swale sequences of Lake Superior as indicators of climate and lake level fluctuations during the Late Holocene

Beach ridges along the coastline of Lake Superior provide a long-term and detailed record of lake level fluctuations for the past 4000 cal BP. Although climate change has been invoked to explain these fluctuations, its role is still in debate. Here, we reconstruct water balance by employing peat samples collected from swale deposits present between beach ridge sequences at two locations along the coastline of Lake Superior. Carbon isotope ratios for Sphagnum remains from these peat deposits are used as a proxy for water balance because the presence or absence of water films on Sphagnum controls the overall isotope discrimination effects. Consequently, increased average water content in Sphagnum produces elevated ??13C values. Two maxima of Sphagnum ??13C values interpreted to reflect wetter conditions prevailed from 3400 to 2400 cal BP and from about 1900 to 1400 cal BP. There are two relatively short drier periods as inferred from low Sphagnum ??13C values: one is centered at about 2300 cal BP, and one begins at 1400 cal BP. A good covariance was found between Sphagnum ??13C values and reconstructed lake-levels for Lake Michigan in which elevated carbon isotope values correlate well with higher lake levels. Based on this covariance, we conclude that climate exerts a strong influence on lake levels in Lake Superior for the past 4000 cal BP. ?? 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Quaternary Science Reviews↗

USGS1999

Hydrogeomorphic factors and ecosystem responses in coastal wetlands of the Great Lakes

Gauging the impact of manipulative activities, such as rehabilitation or management, on wetlands requires having a notion of the unmanipulated condition as a reference. And understanding of the reference condition requires knowledge of dominant factors influencing ecosystem processes and biological communities. In this paper, we focus on natural physical factors (conditions and processes) that drive coastal wetland ecosystems of the Laurentian Great Lakes. Great Lakes coastal wetlands develop under conditions of large-lake hydrology and disturbance imposed at a hiearchy of spatial and temporal scales and contain biotic communities adapted to unstable and unpredictable conditions. Coastal wetlands are configured along a continuum of hydrogeomorphic types: open coastal wetlands, drowned river mouth and flooded delta wetlands, and protected wetlands, each developing distinct ecosystem propertics and biotic communities. Hydrogeomorphic factors associated with the lake and watershed operate at a hierarchy of scales: a) local and short-term (seiches and ice action), b) watershed / lakewide / annual (seasonal water-level change), and c) larger or year-to-year and longer (regional and/or greater than one-year). Other physical factors include the unique water quality features of each lake. The aim of this paper is to provide scientists and managers with a framework for considering regional and site-specific geomorphometry and a hierarchy of physical processes in planning management and conservation projects.

Great Lakes↗

USGS1997

Strand-plain evidence for late Holocene lake-level variations in Lake Michigan

Lake level is a primary control on shoreline behavior in Lake Michigan. The historical record from lake-level gauges is the most accurate source of information on past lake levels, but the short duration of the record does not permit the recognition of long-term patterns of lake-level change (longer than a decade or two). To extend the record of lake-level change, the internal architecture and timing of development of five strand plains of late Holocene beach ridges along the Lake Michigan coastline were studied. Relative lake-level curves for each site were constructed by determining the elevation of foreshore (swash zone) sediments in the beach ridges and by dating basal wetland sediments in the swales between ridges. These curves detect long-term (30+ yr) lake-level variations and differential isostatic adjustments over the past 4700 yr at a greater resolution than achieved by other studies.

Lake Michigan↗

USGS1997

Geomorphic response to tectonically-induced ground deformation in the Wabash Valley

Numerous low- to moderate-intensity earthquakes have been recorded in a zone of diffuse modern seismicity in southwest Indiana, southeast Illinois, and northernmost Kentucky. Structural elements within the zone include the Wabash Valley Fault System, the LaSalle Anticlinal Belt in western Illinois, and the Rough Creek-Shawneetown Fault System in northern Kentucky. The presence of seismically-induced liquefaction features in the near-surface alluvial sediments in the region indicates that strong ground motion has occurred in the recent geological past, but because the glacial and alluvial sediments in the Wabash Valley appear to be otherwise undisturbed, post-Paleozoic ground deformation resulting from movement on these structural elements has not yet been documented. Morphometric analysis of the land surface, detailed mapping of geomorphic elements in the valley, reconnaissance drilling of the Holocene and Pleistocene alluvium, and structural analysis of the bedrock underlying the valley were used to determine whether the geomorphology of the valley and the patterns of alluviation of the Wabash River were affected by surface deformation associated with the seismic zone during the late Pleistocene and Holocene. Among the observed features in the valley that can be attributed to deformation are: (1) tilting of the modern land surface to the west, (2) preferred channel migration toward the west side of the valley, with concomitant impact on patterns of soil development and sedimentation rate, (3) a convex longitudinal profile of the Wabash River where it crosses the LaSalle Anticlinal Belt, and (4) increased incision of the river into its floodplain downstream from the anticlinal belt.

Illinois, Indiana↗

USGS1994

Hydrogeology and hydrochemistry of dunes and wetlands along the southern shore of Lake Michigan, Indiana

The dunes and the wetlands along the southern shore of Lake Michigan are underlain by a complex aquifer system composed of unconsolidated glacial, lacustrine, and eolian deposits. Surficial dune, beach, and glacial lacustrine sands compose an extensive surficial aquifer. The underlying drift contains three major confined sand aquifers. Potentiometric and hydrochemical data are consistent with a conceptual model in which regional and intermediate flow systems, recharged in end moraines south of the dune-beach complexes, discharge into Lake Michigan and the Great Marsh by upward leakage through unconsolidated sediments. Local flow systems in the surficial aquifer, recharged in the major dune-beach complexes, discharge into streams, ditches, and ponded areas in the adjacent interdunal wetlands. Shallow ground water discharges directly into Lake Michigan only north of a water-table divide that underlies the dune-beach complex along the shoreline. The position of ground-water seepage faces is affected by transient water-table mounds observed in the dune-beach complexes at the margins of wetlands. Substantial recharge to the dune complexes probably occurs near these dune-wetland margins. In the dune-beach complexes and intradunal wetlands, the shallow ground and wetland waters are dilute calcium bicarbonate and calcium bicarbonate sulfate types. More mineralized bicarbonate water types having variable proportions of calcium, magnesium, and sodium are found in interior parts of the Great Marsh because this area is probably a discharge zone for the regional and intermediate flow systems.

Open-File Report↗

USGS1992

Beach-ridge development and lake-level variation in southern Lake Michigan

The most accurate source of information on lake-level fluctuations in the Great Lakes is the historical record from lake-level gauges. Although it can be semiquantitatively extended back into the late 1700's, the historical record is too short to recognize long-term patterns of lake-level behavior. To extend the historical record, information must be obtained from the Great Lakes geologic record. Such information includes the elevation and age of geomorphic features and stratigraphic sequences. One of the longest geologic records of late Holocene lake-level variation is preserved in a beach-ridge complex along the southern shore of Lake Michigan called the Toleston Beach. This strandplain contains over 150 beach ridges that arc across northwestern Indiana and fan out into northeastern Illinois. Each ridge was formed during the fall from a high lake level, and the elevation of the foreshore deposits in each ridge provides information on the upper physical limit of lake level over the past 4000 years. Three scales of quasi-periodic lake-level variation were determined by radiocarbon-dating basal peats of wetlands between the ridges and by measuring the elevation of foreshore (swash) deposits within ridges. These three scales are: (1) a short-term and small-scale fluctuation of 25 to 35 years with a range of about 0.5 to 0.6 m; (2) an intermediate-term and meso-scale fluctuation of 140 to 160 years and a range of about 0.8 to 0.9 m; and (3) a long-term and large-scale fluctuation of 500 to 600 years and a range of 1.8 to 3.7 m. The short-term and intermediate-term fluctuations are reflected in the historical record. An increase in the rate of shoreline progradation from east to west across Indiana's shoreline causes differential preservation of the lake-level fluctuations. That is, groups of four to six ridges in the western part of the strandplain that formed in response to the small-scale fluctuations combine eastward into single ridges and groups of ridges representing the meso-scale fluctuations. The large-scale fluctuations produced the most dramatic response in the western part of the Toleston Beach. Here, following each high stand, individual spits prograded southward off of a bedrock headland. The successive spit extensions created several small lakes landward of the spits and started the 20 km eastward stream-mouth deflection of the Grand Calumet River across Indiana's western lakeshore.

Illinois, Indiana↗