Glaciolacustrine history of the Huron-Erie lowland in the southeastern Great Lakes region (USA) revisited

Abstract

Abstract The glaciolacustrine history of the Huron-Erie lowland is reinterpreted using a closed basin model (CBM), based on ground surveys, LiDAR imagery, and digital elevation mapping (DEM). According to the CBM, paleolakes Utica, St. Clair, and Rouge were formed about 13,813 cal yr BP in closed depressions as the level of glacial Lake Elkton dropped below that of bounding morainal swells. The CBM explains why no physical connections could be established previously between paleolakes Algonquin and St. Clair, or between paleolakes St. Clair and Rouge. The CBM obviates the need for a spillway at Port Huron during the time of early Lake Algonquin. The Port Huron spillway is reinterpreted as having first formed about 5,728 cal yr BP simply as a consequence of early Holocene glacial rebound, southward tilting of the Lake Huron basin, and rising water level during the Nipissing transgression. LiDAR and DEM maps suggest that spillway development in the Port Huron moraine caused catastrophic flooding during initial formation of the St. Clair River channel. Channeled scablands-like topography in the form of braided scour channels, streamlined erosional residuals, and boulder lag deposits downriver from Detroit suggest that the Detroit River may have formed by outburst flooding as the Detroit moraine was breached by the rising water level of paleolake St. Clair.