Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T01:47:02.836Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Evidence at Lomax, Illinois, for Mid-Wisconsin (∼40,000 yr B.P.) Position of the Des Moines Lobe and for Diversion of the Mississippi River by the Lake Michigan Lobe (20,350 yr B.P.)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

B. Brandon Curry
B. Brandon Curry*
Affiliation:
Illinois State Geological Survey, 615 East Peabody Drive, Champaign, Illinois, 61820
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

An abrupt change in environment from a wetland to a deeper slackwater lake at 20,345 ± 85 yr B.P. occurred in a second-order valley tributary to the Mississippi River near Lomax, Illinois. The age of this shift is associated with the overflow of glacial Lake Milan and diversion of the Mississippi River from the Princeton Valley (Rock Island to Peoria) to its present course (Rock Island to St. Louis). The diversion occurred due to blockage of the Princeton Valley segment of the ancient Mississippi River by the Lake Michigan Lobe, impoundment of glacial Lake Milan, and eventual overflow of the lake southwest of Rock Island across a former drainage divide near Andalusia, Illinois. Fossil ostracode assemblages in the slackwater sediment at Lomax indicate changes in the post-diversion, full-glacial paleohydrology and based on multivariate analysis, hint at the area's paleoclimate. An older part of the succession at Lomax is consistent with glaciation in the upper Iowa River basin about 40,000 yr B.P. Aggradation of sediment rich in coarse silt is attributed to a response of the ancient Iowa River basin associated with deposition of the glacigenic Sheldon Creek Formation by the Des Moines Lobe.

Keywords

upper Mississippi Riverfull glacial paleohydrologyostracodespaleoclimate
Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 50 , Issue 2 , September 1998 , pp. 128 - 138
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, R. C (1997). Surficial Geology of Henry County. Illinois.Google Scholar
Anderson, R.C. (1980). Drainage evolution in the Rock Island area, Western Illinois, and Eastern Iowa. The Quaternary of Illinois University of Illinois College of Agriculture Special Publication 14, p. 11–18Google Scholar
Baker, R.G., Sullivan, A.E., Hallberg, G.R., and Horton, D.G. (1989). Vegetational changes in western Illinois during the onset of late Wisconsinan glaciation. Ecology 70, 1363–1376.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bettis, E.A. III(1988). Quaternary history, stratigraphy, geomophology, and pedology.Benn, D.W., Bettis, E.A. III, Vogel, R.C. Archeology and Geomorphology in Pools 17 & 18, Upper Mississippi River Southwest Missouri State UniversityCenter for Archeological Research, Springfield.18–91.Google Scholar
Bettis, E.A. III(1997). Late-Middle and Early Wisconsin glaciation in north-central Iowa. Geological Society of America Abstracts With Programs 29, 5 Google Scholar
Bryson, R.A., and Wendland, W.M. (1969). Tentative climate patterns for some late-glacial and post glacial episodes in central North America.Mayer-Oakes, W.J. Life, Land, and Water University of Manitoba Press, Winnipeg.271–298.Google Scholar
Science 241, (1988). 1043–1052.Google Scholar
Colman, S.M., Jones, G.A., Forester, R.M., and Foster, D.S. (1990). Holocene paleoclimatic evidence and sedimentation rates from a core in southwestern Lake Michigan. Journal of Paleolimnology 4, 269–284.Google Scholar
Curry, B.B. (1989). Absence of Altonian glaciation in Illinois. Quaternary Research 31, 1–13.Google Scholar
Curry, B.B. (1990). Fossiliferous Farmdalian and Woodfordian sediments at Lomax, Illinois.Hammer, W., Hess, D.F. Geology Field Guidebook Western Illinois UniversityGeological Society of America, North-Central Section Meeting, Macomb.F12–F17.Google Scholar
Curry, B.B. (1995). Lithofacies, paleolimnology and ostracode fauna from kettle basins on the Illinoian till plain, Illinois, U.S.A..Google Scholar
Curry, B. B. An environmental tolerance index for ostracodes as indicators of physical and chemical factors in aquatic habitats. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, and PalaeoecologyCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Curry, B.B., and Follmer, L.R. (1992). The last interglacial–glacial transition in Illinois: 123–25 ka.Clark, P.U., Lea, P.D. The Last Interglacial–Glacial Transition in North America 68–71.Google Scholar
De Deckker, P., and Forester, R.M. (1988). The use of ostracods to reconstruct continental palaeoenvironmental records.De Deckker, P., Colin, J.P., Peypouquet, J.P. Ostracoda in the Earth Sciences Elsevier, New York.175–199.Google Scholar
Delorme, L.D. (1970). Freshwater ostracodes of Canada. Part II. Subfamily Cypridopsinae and Herpetocypridinae, and family Cyclocyprididae. Canadian Journal of Zoology 48, 253–266.Google Scholar
Delorme, L.D. (1970). Freshwater ostracodes of Canada. Part III. Subfamily Candonidae. Canadian Journal of Zoology 48, 1099–1127.Google Scholar
Delorme, L.D. (1971). Freshwater ostracodes of Canada. Part V. Families Limnocytherdae, Loxoconchidae. Canadian Journal of Zoology 49, 43–64.Google Scholar
Delorme, L.D. (1989). Methods in Quaternary ecology, number 7: Freshwater ostracodes. Geoscience Canada 16, 85–90.Google Scholar
Fehrenbacher, J.B., Jansen, I.J., and Olsen, K.R. (1986). Loess thickness and its effect on soils in Illinois. University of Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin 782, 14 Google Scholar
Follmer, L.R. (1982). The geomorphology of the Sangamon surface: Its spatial and temporal attributes.Thorn, C. Space and Time in Geomorphology Allen & Unwin, London.117–146.Google Scholar
Follmer, L.R., and Kempton, J.P. (1985). A review of the Esmond Till Member. Illinois State Geological Survey Guidebook 19, 139–155.Google Scholar
Forester, R.M. (1986). Determination of the dissolved anion composition of ancient lakes from fossil ostracodes. Geology 14, 796–798.Google Scholar
Forester, R.M. (1987). Late Quaternary paleoclimate records from lacustrine ostracodes.Ruddiman, W., Wright, H.E. Jr. North America and Adjacent Oceans During the Last Deglaciation Geological Society of America, Boulder.261–276.Google Scholar
Forester, R.M., Delorme, L.D., and Bradbury, J.P. (1987). Mid-Holocene climate in northern Minnesota. Quaternary Research 28, 263–273.Google Scholar
Forester, R.M., and Smith, A.J. (1992). Microfossils as indicators of paleohydrology and paleoclimate. Disposal of Radioactive Waste, Paleohydrological Methods and Their Applications, Proceedings of the Nuclear Energy Agency Workshop, Paris, France, November 9–10, 1992 p. 39–57Google Scholar
Forester, R.M., Colman, S.M., Reynolds, R.L., and Keigwin, L.D. (1994). Lake Michigan's Late Quaternary limnological and climate history from ostracode, oxygen isotope and magnetic susceptibility. Journal of Great Lakes Research 20, 93–107.Google Scholar
Glass, H.D., Frye, J.C., and Willman, H.B. (1964). Record of Mississippi River diversion in the Morton Loess of Illinois. Transactions, Illinois Academy of Sciences 57, 24–27.Google Scholar
Grimley, D.A., Follmer, L.R., McKay, E.D. III(1998). Magnetic susceptibility and mineral zonations controlled by provenance in loess along the Illinois and central Mississippi River valleys. Quaternary Research 49, 24–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grüger, E. (1972). Pollen and seed studies of Wisconsinan vegetation in Illinois. Geological Society of America Bulletin 85, 2715–2734.Google Scholar
Grüger, E. (1972). Late Quaternary vegetational development in south-central Illinois. Quaternary Research 2, 217–231.Google Scholar
Hajic, E.R. (1990). Late Pleistocene and Holocene landscape evolution, depositional subsystems, and stratigraphy in the lower Illinois River Valley and adjacent central Mississippi River Valley..Google Scholar
Hajic, E.R., Johnson, W.H., and Follmer, L.R. (1991). Quaternary deposits and landforms, confluence region of the Mississippi, Missouri, and Illinois Rivers: Terraces and terrace problems. Midwest Friends of the Pleistocene, 38th Field Conference, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign p. 106Google Scholar
Hallberg, G.R., and Kemmis, T.J. (1986). Stratigraphy and correlation of the glacial deposits of the Des Moines and James Lobes and adjacent areas in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Iowa. Quaternary Science Reviews 5, 65–68.Google Scholar
Hansel, A.K., and Johnson, W.H. (1992). Fluctuations of the Lake Michigan lobe during the late Wisconsin subepisode. Sveriges Geologiska Undersökning 81, 133–144.Google Scholar
Hansel, A.K., and Johnson, W.H. (1996). Wedron and Mason Groups: Lithostratigraphic reclassification of deposits of the Wisconsin Episode, Lake Michigan Lobe area. Illinois State Geological Survey Bulletin 104, 116 Google Scholar
Hoff, C.C. (1942). The Ostracods of Illinois, their Biology and Taxonomy. Illinois Biological Monographs 1–2, 1–196.Google Scholar
Horberg, C.L. (1950). Bedrock topography of Illinois. Illinois Geological Survey Bulletin 73, 111 Google Scholar
Johnson, W.H. (1990). Ice-wedge casts and relict patterned ground in central Illinois and their environmental significance. Quaternary Research 33, 51–72.Google Scholar
King, J.E. (1973). Late Pleistocene palynology and biogeography of the western Missouri Ozarks. Ecological Monographs 43, 539–565.Google Scholar
King, J.E. (1979). Pollen analysis of some Farmdalian and Woodfordian deposits, central Illinois. Illinois State Geological Survey Guidebook 13, 109–113.Google Scholar
Kitchell, J.A., and Clark, D.L. (1979). Distribution, Ecology and Taxonomy of Recent Freshwater Ostracoda of Lake Mendota, Wisconsin. University of Wisconsin-MadisonNatural History Council, Google Scholar
Kutzbach, J.E., and Guetter, P.J. (1986). The influence of changing orbital parameters and surface boundary conditions on climate simulations for the past 18,000 years. Journal of Atmospheric Sciences 43, 1726–1759.Google Scholar
Leigh, D.S. (1994). Roxana silt of the Upper Mississippi Valley: Lithology, source and paleoenvironment. Geological Society of America Bulletin 106, 430–442.Google Scholar
Leverett, F. (1899). The Illinois Glacial Lobe..Google Scholar
Maher, L.J. Jr., Miller, N., Baker, R.G., Curry, B.B., and Mickelson, D.M. (1998). Paleobiology of the sand beneath the Valders diamicton at Valders, Wisconsin. Quaternary Research 49, 208–221.Google Scholar
McKay, E.D. III(1979). Wisconsinan loess stratigraphy of Illinois. Illinois State Geological Survey Guidebook 13, 95–108.Google Scholar
Meyers, R.L., and King, J.E. (1985). Wisconsinan interstadial vegetation of northern Illinois. Illinois State Geological Survey Guidebook 19, 75–86.Google Scholar
Oches, E.A., McCoy, W.D., and Clark, P.U. (1996). Amino acid estimates of latitudinal temperature gradients and geochronology of loess deposition during the last glaciation, Mississippi Valley, United States. Geological Society of America Bulletin 108, 892–903.Google Scholar
Schwert, D.P., Torpen-Kreft, H., and Hajic, E.R. (1997). Characterization of the late-Wisconsinan tundra/forest transition in midcontinental North America using assemblages of fossil beetles. Quaternary Proceedings 5, 237–243.Google Scholar
Shaffer, P.R. (1954). Extension of Tazewell glacial substage of western Illinois and eastern Iowa. Geological Society of America Bulletin 65, 443–456.Google Scholar
Smith, A.J. (1993). Lacustrine ostracodes as hydrochemical indicators in lakes of the north-central United States. Journal of Paleolimnology 8, 121–134.Google Scholar
Smith, A.J., and Forester, R.M. (1994). Estimating past precipitation and temperature from fossil ostracodes. The 5th Annual International High-Level Radioactive Waste Management Conference and Exposition Proceedings, May 22–26, 1994, Las Vegas, NV p. 2545–2552Google Scholar
Stuiver, M., and Reimer, P.J. (1993). Extended14 . Radiocarbon 35, 215–230.Google Scholar
Taylor, L.C. (1992). The Response of Spring-Dwelling Ostracodes to Intra-regional Differences in Groundwater Chemistry Associated with Road Salting Practices in Southern Ontario: A Test Using an Urban–Rural Transect..Google Scholar
Ward, G.K., and Wilson, S.R. (1978). Procedures for comparing and combining radiocarbon age determinations: A critique. Archaeometry 20, 19–31.Google Scholar
Wickham, S.S., Johnson, W.H., and Glass, H.D. (1988). Regional geology of the Tiskilwa Till Member, Wedron Group, northeastern Illinois. Illinois State Geological Survey Circular 543, 35 Google Scholar
Woodman, N. (1982). A subarctic fauna form the late Wisconsinan Elkader site, Clayton County, Iowa..Google Scholar
Wright, H.E. Jr.(1987). Synthesis: The land south of the ice sheets.Ruddiman, W.F., Wright, H.E. Jr. North America and Adjacent Oceans During the Last Deglaciation Geological Society of America, Boulder.479–488.Google Scholar