Stratigraphy and sedimentation of the stratotype sections of the Catfish Creek Drift Formation between Bradtville and Plum Point, north shore, Lake Erie, southwestern Ontario, Canada

Abstract

Dreimanis, A. & Gibbard, P. 2005 (May): Stratigraphy and sedimentation of the stratotype sections of the Catfish Creek Drift Formation between Bradtville and Plum Point, north shore, Lake Erie, southwestern Ontario, Canada. Boreas, Vol. 34, pp. 101–122. Oslo. ISSN 0300–9483. The Catfish Creek Drift Formation is a significant and extensive lithostratigraphical marker unit in SW Ontario. Here the stratotype, exposed in the Lake Erie bluffs of the Plum Point-Bradtville (Grandview) area south of London, Ontario, Canada, is proposed. It consists of subglacial and proglacial sediments deposited at the beginning of the Nissouri Phase of the Wisconsinan glaciation. In the 2.5-km-long stratotype section, the Catfish Creek Drift consists of 9 members. Five of them, the Dunwich and Grandview I-IV members, mainly consist of till, with minor components of stratified drift. The Dunwich till was deposited by the Huron-Georgian Bay lobe, but the Grandview I-IV tills by the Erie lobe. The Zettler Farm Member consists of co-lobal till in the central part of the section and of a proglacial waterlain flow diamicton and a subglacial undermelt diamicton in the SW part. Three members consist entirely of stratified drift; the glaciolacustrine silty and clayey Waite Farm Member, the ice-marginal deltaic Oosprink Farm Member and the Boy Scout Camp Member — deposited by meltwater streams in subglacial channels. The sequence of interbedded till and stratified drift represents the oscillating advance of the Laurentide Ice Sheet in the Lake Erie basin.