Postglacial lake shoreline surveys and lacustrine paleobiotic records in northern Bruce and Grey counties, Ontario, Canada

Abstract

Northern Grey and Bruce counties are situated centrally in the Lake Huron basin of the Great Lakes area of North America and are similarly central to the area of glacial Lake Algonquin, the largest glacial lake of the Great Lakes area. Ten survey traverses at sites in northern Grey and Bruce counties have documented the continuation of Lake Algonquin and Nipissing phase shorelines onto the Bruce Peninsula from previous work to the east. The Algonquin shoreline near 240m ASL (above sea level) rises northward above land high enough to record it near Lion's Head. The Nipissing shoreline at 191m ASL defines a shallow strait across the Bruce Peninsula near Ferndale, which was flooded temporarily at the maximum of the Nipissing transgression, separating northern Bruce Peninsula from the mainland. Uplift and Port Huron outlet downcutting later rejoined the island to the mainland as it is today. Raised beaches define Algonquin and Nipissing regressions by uplift using the Port Huron outlet. Paleobiotic records in a sand dune at Oliphant (molluscs), a Nipissing shorebluff along Sucker Creek (molluscs) and several sites in the former Nipissing shallow water strait near Ferndale (molluscs, ostracodes, plant macrofossils), provide paleoenvironmental data and supplement prior pollen studies at Lake Charles, Slough of Despond, and Hope Bay. Lake Algonquin deep water rhythmite clays are barren of fossils, whereas Nipissing shallow water silts are fossiliferous.