Letter to Taylor from Leverett, January 15, 1906

Item — Box: 1, Folder: 12

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

From the Series:

The correspondence series includes approximately 1100 letters written between 1892-1939. The majority of the collection are letters between Frank Leverett and Frank Bursley Taylor; they discuss their field work, Monograph 53, other publications and various related problems. There is also other correspondence with other geologists, including T.C. Chamberlin, Grove K. Gilbert, J.W. Goldthwait, H.L. Fairchild, et alia. There is extensive correspondence with the U.S. Geological Survey, the Geological Survey of Canada, and the Michigan Geological Survey. The primary subject of this series is the surficial glacial geology of the midwestern U.S. and Canada. Leverett & Taylor's work was essential for understanding how the Great Lakes were formed as the Pleistocene glaciers advanced and retreated from the midwestern states. The letters describe the 30 year process of gathering data, mapping the data and constructing the picture of glacial processes during the last Ice Age.

Dates

Creation: January 15, 1906

Conditions Governing Access

The collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Access

The material is stored offsite in Remote Storage. Please contact Special Collections 3 working days in advance if you wish to use it.

Extent

From the Collection: 1 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

General

Last season's field work left me with many questions. If the Algonquin beach is about 790' at Marquette to Munising, there are weak beaches and deltas at higher levels at Marquette but at Munising the beaches are strong at 870-900' with evidence for one at 950' and 930' at Chatham. One interpretation: these high levels may be formed when ice sheet still filled the Superior Basin so that south shore beaches were uplifted enough to equal the difference, about 150'. Second interpretation: if Algonquin isobases run more E-W than Nipissing, then highest beaches at Chatham and Munising would correlate with 930' in Chippewa Co. Discussion of varying Algonquin altitudes from Wisconsin to eastern Michigan. I expect to find that Algonquin isobases that run E-W in UP will bear SE in northern Huron Basin and Georgian Bay. 2nd Question: what is effect of S-N trend of uplift on E-W isobase. Other questions. 3. Is there a clear drop in lake level between Glenwood and Calumet stages of Lake Chicago? No evidence that ice sheet had withdrawn from Mohawk and Trent outlets that early. Do clays under the beach in SE Wisconsin require low water level or simply glacial features resulting from persistent ice tongues. The deep finger lakes of Traverse area seem to be glacial not stream effect. 4. Our Michigan work shows very little uplift from Port Austin to Tawas since Algonquin times, but when North Bay outlet opened at 375', the south part of Huron Basin was lower than the St. Clair outlet, so the North Bay outlet must have uplifted to 585-590' to shift the drainage to the South. 5. If there has been little uplift in Detroit to Port Austin, can we infer the southern limit of uplift is still further north, except Moseley's data show western Erie is still being uplifted. Can the rapid change at Niagara and no apparent rise at Port Austin be consistent with Gilbert's theory that there is a uniform direction of uplift between Escanaba and Sackett's Harbor, NY. 6. Could Lake Superior have become differentiated from the Huron-Michigan basins. Absence of Gorge at the Sault means the rapids are relatively modern with little under-cutting. 7. In your Short History of the Great Lakes the idea is expressed that Lake Algonquin began before Lake Iroquois -- was the channel past Syracuse low enough to make Erie and Algionquin separate but not high enough to separate Iroquois and Erie.