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Late-Glacial and Postglacial Sedimentation in Lake Superior Based on Seismic-Reflection Profiles1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Thomas C. Johnson
Thomas C. Johnson*
Affiliation:
Limnological Research Center and Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455
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Abstract

Seismic reflection profiles (3.5 kHz) were obtained along more than 3500 km of shiptrack in Lake Superior within the last 2 yr. The acoustic character of profiles is categorized as: (I) a single, strong reflector at the lake floor, (II) a thick, acoustically transparent layer overlying a strong reflector, and (III) relatively thick sediment with internal acoustic reflectors. These profiles, in conjunction with sediment cores from the area, reveal that varved glacial-lacustrine sediment settled out preferentially in a trough between Isle Royale and the north shore, and to a lesser extent in other topographic depressions; bottom currents generated by storm waves prevent clay accumulation on till or bedrock in the open lake wherever the bottom is shallower than 100 m; bottom currents prevent deposition or erode bottom sediment in certain deep-water (> 200 m) valleys; and lacustrine sediment is disturbed by creep or slumping off Grand Portage, Minnesota, and by other processes such as dewatering in many other areas. These factors complicate sedimentation in Lake Superior, and must be considered when investigating any aspect of the lake sediment.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 13 , Issue 3 , May 1980 , pp. 380 - 391
Copyright
University of Washington

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Footnotes

1

Contribution No. 219 of the Limnological Research Center and No. 1001 of the Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Minnesota.

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