Letter to Taylor from Leverett, April 21, 1924

Item — Box: 2, Folder: 17

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: April 21, 1924

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

Rec'd your April 18 letter. I mapped the moraines W of Rochester in 1893, and traced the Albion Moraine S to a few miles from W end of Pinnacle Hills (p.702, Mon. 41). I don't know if Gilbert did any work on the Albion, but Dryer did some according to an early paper by him. The Union City moraine is not in MI, but on the border of IN and OH. The Tekonsha and the Union moraines seem to be the earliest ones in a series marked by a distinct readvance after a considerable retreat. This was the Lake Michigan Lobe readvancing into eastern Kalamazoo Co. which had been covered by the Saginaw Lobe. At the culmination of this readvance, the Michigan and Saginaw Lobes came together at the N end of the Climax Prairie. The Tekonsha Moraine runs SE across Calhoun Co. and S in eastern Branch Co. where it meets the Erie Lobe. Between Tekonsha & Kalamazoo moraines is the weak Battle Creek moraine, with a great outwash area between the Battle Creek & Kalamazoo with large basins and lakes. The lakes seem to be in places where stagnant ice remained when the active ice was at the Kalamazoo moraine. I formerly regarded the Kalamazoo moraine as the culmination of the readvance, but now I regard the Tekonsha as the culmination of the ice readvance. I now think the "Main Morainic System" of the Miami Lobe is early Wisconsin, not Middle, and is a close correlative of the Bloomington morainic system, as do the 4 moraines at the SW side of the Scioto Lobe (Plate 13 of Mon.41) which is labelled "Late Wisconisn Drift Border". The middle Wisconsin begins with Powell moraine on Scioto Lobe, and the Port Huron Morainic System is Late Wisconsin. Found your new blueprint map on my return, and am very glad to have it. P.S. I now regard the outer moraine of Wisconsin drift on the Miami & Scioto Lobes as a continuation of the Shelbyville. The CHampaign morainic system does not seem clearly developed in OH.