Glacial Drift under the Saint Louis Loess

Abstract

Glacial drift in the vicinity of St. Louis seems to have been described first by Professor A. H. Worthen, in 1866.' In 189o, Professor G. Frederick Wright2 reported glacial drift in the following localities within the city limits: (i) Near Forest Park, on the road to Ferguson, beneath 20 feet of loess was bed of gravel 2 or 3 feet thick, which contained granite and other pebbles two to three inches in diameter, some finely striated; (2) at Hyde Park similar section was seen; (3) in the vicinity of Shaw's Garden. Loess had been removed for brick making, uncovering extensively gravelly stratum which contained many granite pebbles. Striae were found on angular limestone fragments. The elevation was 150 feet above the Mississippi River. H. A. Wheeler, in paper On Glacial Drift in St. Louis, in 1895,3 reported blue glacial clay or till 12 feet thick, at West Pine Boulevard and Taylor Avenue, extending westward to Euclid, underneath io to 15 feet of loess. The diameter of the bowlders is said not to exceed one foot. Among the erratics reported were red and gray granite, diorite, dolerite, and quartz-porphyry. In 1896 James E. Todd4 described bowlder clay in St. Louis. His section may still be seen on Laclede Ave. near Sarah St. The till is 8 feet thick, a reddish brown or waxy red clay, containing granite and other foreign pebbles. The overlying loess is 16 feet thick. Frank Leverett, in his monograph on the Illinois Glacial Lobe,5 reported deposits of glacial derivation underlying the loess for few