Skip to main content

Letter to Taylor from Leverett, June 13, 1917

 Item — Box: 2, Folder: 10

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: June 13, 1917

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

General

Rec'd your letter this morning. I have been trying to clarify the tilting of the shorelines in the Elsie and Chesaning quads. If the zero isobase for Lake Arkona is nearly the same as Whittlesey, and if you project the hinge line, it passes through the SW corner of the Elsie Quad. Therefore the Arkona beaches there only had slight uplift and tilting -- not more than 15' in the NW corner of Elsie and still less at Eureka and Elsie. The beach causing the loops in the 700' contour is likely older than the Warren, and I am inclined to correlate it with the Whittlesey. You indicate in Mon.53 that the Arkona beaches in the Saginaw Basin show evidence that they were made before the Port Huron Morainic System, a correlative of the Whittlesey. During the life of Lake Whittlesey the Grand River Outlet was probably cut lower than this 700' shore, or to about 680'. When the opening of an eastward outlet past Syracuse NY then lowered the lake level to 660' and stopped the westward discharge. If this 700' beach is a correlative of the Whittlesey, it should show a slight uplift and tilt in the Elsie Quad. It seems slightly below 700' at the SW end near Eureka and reached 705' at North Star and Oakley. If you interpretation in Mon. 53 is correct, the Warren beach has a hinge line ~18 miles N of the Whittlesey hinge line, which would carry it to the NW corner of the Elsie Quad and near the divide at Ashley. The Warren beach may be as low as 675' in some places and 680' in SE MI, but it not easily identified in a map with 5' contours. How does this interpretation strike you? P.S. Mrs Leverett left yesterday for 2 weeks visit with her mother in IA, so I am running the typewriter myself, as you may have suspected.

Repository Details

Part of the Stephen O. Murray and Keelung Hong Special Collections Repository

Contact:
MSU Libraries
366 W. Circle Drive
East Lansing MI 48823 USA