The Buried Topography of Western Ohio

Abstract

Examination of thousands of records from wells in western Ohio has made it possible to ascertain the topography of the bedrock surface beneath the glacial drift. Many pre-glacial or interglacial valleys, hitherto unknown, are now recognized. The most important are the preglacial or interglacial Maumee, Sandusky, Huron, and Teays. According to Tight, the Cincinnati River was a tributary of the old Teays in preglacial time and drained the Miami basin of southwestern Ohio. However, the slope of the bedrock in this area indicates that the drainage in interglacial time, and possibly in preglacial time, was to the southwest, as at present. The course of the Teays (in Ohio) was in a northwesterly direction from Pickaway County, through Madison, Clark, Champaign, Shelby, Auglaize, and Mercer counties into Indiana. The course of the Teays northward through Delaware and Marion counties was impossible, as the bedrock altitude is too high for it to have flowed in that direction. The old surface beneath the glacial drift in northwestern Ohio is remarkably even and not so rough as might be expected. The Worthington (Lexington) and Parker erosion surfaces, well developed in eastern and southeastern Ohio, are represented on the buried lowlands of western Ohio. The preglacial valleys were deepended during the Deep (interglacial) stage preceding the Illinoian, after much disturbance of the drainage by earlier glaciations.