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Pleistocene Stratigraphy of the Boston Harbor Drumlins, Massachusetts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

William A. Newman ,
Richard C. Berg ,
Peter S. Rosen  and
Herbert D. Glass
William A. Newman
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts 02115 USA
Richard C. Berg
Affiliation:
Illinois State Geological Survey, Champaign, Illinois 61820 USA
Peter S. Rosen
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts 02115 USA
Herbert D. Glass
Affiliation:
Illinois State Geological Survey, Champaign, Illinois 61820 USA
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Abstract

Evidence from the Boston Harbor drumlins indicates that two superposed tills were deposited during glacier advances which were separated by a long nonglacial interval. At Long and Peddocks Islands, argillans and truncated clay-filled fractures, along with discontinuities in clay-mineral composition, define the till contacts. Physical indicators separating the tills are not apparent at other exposures, where till boundaries were defined solely by discontinuities in clay-mineral composition. The weathering profile in the upper part of the lower till indicates extensive weathering under a climate similar to that of today, and probably similar to that of the Sangamon Interglaciation. The depth of the weathering profile, the sequence of clay-mineral alteration products, and the presence of pedogenic features in the upper part of the lower till are comparable to Sangamonian weathering profiles in the midwestern United States, implying that the lower till is Illinoian or older.

Type
Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 34 , Issue 2 , September 1990 , pp. 148 - 159
Copyright
University of Washington

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