A numerical model of glacial isostasy in the Lake Michigan basin

Clark, J. A.; Pranger, Harold S.; Walsh, Jeffrey K.; Primus, John A.

doi:10.1130/spe251-p111

Cited by 14 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Divergence of hydrographs indicates that there has been differential vertical ground movement between sites through time and that the lake-level hydrograph created for each site shows lake-level change 'relative' only to that site. In the Great Lakes, this vertical movement is commonly attributed to isostatic rebound (Clark et al, 1990(Clark et al, , 1994Tushingham, 1992;Larsen, 1994) in response to the removal of ice following the last glacial retreat. In the upper Great Lakes, the rate of crustal rebound increases to the northeast, but the rebound is complicated because some sites (e.g., Ludington, Michigan) are rising at rates that are much slower than surrounding areas (Figure 8).…”

Section: Reconstructing Paleo Lake Levelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconstructing paleo lake levels from relict shorelines along the Upper Great Lakes

Baedke

Thompson

Johnston

et al. 2004

Aquatic Ecosystem Health &Amp; Management

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Shorelines of the upper Great Lakes include many embayments that contain strandplains of beach ridges. These former shoreline positions of the lakes can be used to determine changes in the elevation of the lakes through time, and they also provide information on the warping of the ground surface that is occurring in the Great Lakes after the weight of glacial ice was removed. Relative lake-level hydrographs can be created by coring the beach ridges to determine the elevation of basal foreshore (swash zone) deposits in each ridge and by obtaining radiocarbon dates of basal wetland sediments between ridges to generate an age model for the ridges. Because the relative-level hydrographs are the combination of lake-level change and vertical ground movement (isostatic rebound), the rebound must be removed to produce a graph that shows only the physical limits and timing of past lake-level fluctuations referenced to a common outlet. More than 500 vibracores of beach-ridge sediments were collected at five sites along Lake Michigan and four sites along Lake Superior. The cores showed a sequence of dune deposits overlying foreshore deposits that, in turn, overlie upper shoreface deposits. The base of the foreshore deposits is coarser and more poorly sorted than an overlying and underlying sediment and represents the plunge-point sediments at the base of the swash zone. The plunge-point deposits are a close approximation of the elevation of the lake when the beach ridge formed. More than 150 radiocarbon ages of basal wetland sediments were collected to produce age models for the sites. Currently, age models exist for all Lake Michigan sites and one Lake Superior site. By combining the elevation data with the age models, six relative lake-level hydrographs were created for the upper Great Lakes. An iterative approach was used to remove rebound from the five Lake Michigan relative hydrographs and merge the graphs into a single hydrograph. The resultant hydrograph shows long-term patterns of lake-level change for lakes Michigan and Huron and is referenced to the Port Huron outlet. When the age models are completed for the Lake Superior sites, a hydrograph will be created for the entire lake.

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Section: Reconstructing Paleo Lake Levelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconstructing paleo lake levels from relict shorelines along the Upper Great Lakes

Baedke

Thompson

Johnston

et al. 2004

Aquatic Ecosystem Health &Amp; Management

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show abstract

“…When the weight of the ice sheet was removed by melting, the Great Lakes region experienced isostatic rebound which continues to the present day ( Fig. 2) (Andrews, 1970;Clark & Persoage, 1970;Clark et al, 1990). The rate of uplift today is greatest to the north where deglaciation has occurred most recently.…”

Section: Geologymentioning

confidence: 92%

Holocene lake-level fluctuations and beach-ridge development along the northern shore of Lake Michigan, USA

Petty

Delcourt

1996

J Paleolimnol

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Geomorphology of a beach-ridge complex and adjacent lake basins along the northern shore of Lake Michigan records fluctuations in the level of Lake Michigan for the last 8000 to 10 000 14C yr B.R (radiocarbon years Before Present). A storm berm at 204.7-206 m (671.6-675.9 ft) exposed in a sandpit provides evidence of a pre-Chippewa Low lake level that is correlated with dropping water levels of Glacial Lake Algonquin (c. 10 300-10 100 14C yr B.R). Radiocarbon dates from organic material exposed in a river cutbank and basal sediments from Elbow Lake, Mackinac Co., Michigan, indicate a maximum age of a highstand of Lake Michigan at 6900 14C yr B.E, which reached as high as 196.7 m (645 ft), during the early-Nipissing transgression of Lake Michigan. Basal radiocarbon dates from beach swales and a second lake site (Beaverhouse Lake, Mackinac Co.) provide geomorphic evidence for a subsequent highstand which reached 192.6 m (632 ft) at 5390 4-70 14C yr B.R Basal radiocarbon dates from a transect of sediment cores, along with tree-ring data, and General Land Office Surveyor notes of a shipwreck, c. A.D. 1846, reveal a late-Holocene rate for isostatic rebound of 22.6 cm/100 radiocarbon years (0.74 ft/100 radiocarbon years) for the northern shore of Lake Michigan, relative to the Lake Michigan-Lake Huron outlet at Port Huron, Michigan. Changes in sediment stratigraphy, inter-ridge distance, and sediment accumulation rates document a mid-to late-Holocene retreat of the shoreline due to isostatic rebound. This regression sequence was punctuated by brief, periodic highstands, resulting in progressive development over the past 5400 14C yr of 75 pairs of dune ridges and swales each formed over an interval of approximately 72 years. Times of lake-level fluctuation were identified at 3900, 3200, and 1000 14C yr B.R based on changes in inter-ridge spacing, shifts in the course of Millecoquins River, and reorientation of beach-ridge lineation. Soil type, dune development, and selected pollen data provide supporting evidence for this chronology. Late-Holocene beach-ridge development and lake-level fluctuations are related to a retreat of the dominant Pacific airmass and the convergence of the Arctic and Tropical airmasses resulting in predominantly meridional rather than zonal air flow across the Great Lakes region.

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“…Lambeck et al (2007) and Goldberg et al (2016) used ice-age sea-level models to explore the timing and location of sill breach in the Black Sea flood, but neither study included a fully gravitationally self-consistent treatment of the flood event. Clark et al (1990) predict uplift across the Great Lakes during the last deglaciation. To do so, they track individual elevation curves for potential lake outlets and calculate the location of the lowest ice-free outlet to infer drainage history.…”

Section: Final Remarksmentioning

confidence: 97%

An extended ice-age sea-level equation: incorporating water flux across sills

Coulson

Al-Attar

Mitrovica

2020

Geophysical Journal International

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Summary We present a generalized theory governing gravitationally self-consistent, spatio-temporal sea-level changes within an ocean-plus-lake system that is intermittently connected by water mass flux across a sill. Our expressions for the change in sea level (defined as the difference in height of the sea surface equipotential relative to the solid surface) hold for any Earth model, and easily incorporate effects of viscoelastic deformation of the solid Earth and perturbations in both the gravitational field and rotation vector (as is now standard in ice-age sea-level calculations). In its most general form, the theory also includes an exact treatment of the evolving shoreline position in both water bodies. Our formalism involves three cases: (1) one global ocean, in which mass transfer may occur between ice sheets and the global ocean; (2) an ocean and lake separated by an exposed sill, in which mass transfer may occur between ice sheets and the global ocean, and between the ocean and lake via evaporative flux; and (3) transitional phases between these two states, when the ocean surface reaches the height of the sill from below (i.e., the sill is breached) or above (the sill is exposed). We illustrate the new theory using examples from the Black Sea flooding during the last deglacial phase (∼10 ka) and sea-level fall in the Mediterranean Sea during the Messinian Salinity Crisis (5.96-5.33 Ma). These examples demonstrate the importance of including the geophysical feedbacks associated with sea-level change in an isolated basin in the dynamics of flooding and desiccation.

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A numerical model of glacial isostasy in the Lake Michigan basin

Cited by 14 publications

References 19 publications

Reconstructing paleo lake levels from relict shorelines along the Upper Great Lakes

Reconstructing paleo lake levels from relict shorelines along the Upper Great Lakes

Holocene lake-level fluctuations and beach-ridge development along the northern shore of Lake Michigan, USA

An extended ice-age sea-level equation: incorporating water flux across sills

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