Drift Area Research Articles

ON SEDIMENTARY FORMATIONS FROM CAPETOWN AND MORAINES OF THE ANTARCTIC

Cemented psammites were collected by O. S. Vyalov from Antarctic moraines and from outcrops in the vicinity of Capetown, South Africa, and were analyzed by L. G. Tkachuk. Comparison of the psammites--their chemical, mechanical, and paleontological composition--indicates the similar conditions of rock formation which prevailed in the vicinity of Capetown and in parts of Antarctica. Also, it is possible that sedimentary rocks from South Africa contributed to the drift area which supplied morainal material to parts of Antarctica. The results of this comparison are interesting in view of the assumed existence of a single Gondwana continent in the Paleozoic. Editor

Geoelektriske Undersøgelser i Danmark og Skåne 1953

The earth resistivity surveys which have been carried out in Denmark and Scania (Southern Sweden) during 1953 in accordance with the Wenner-method include both research and exploration projects.The particular problem involved in resistivity surveys in Denmark is related to the heterogenous bedding of the Glacial Drift which covers practically the whole country. Level and geologically uniform measuring grounds were therefore selected for particular research projects during the initial stage of the survey in 1953 in order to obtain relatively simple combinations of physical factors in the subsurface.The final goal of the work was to elaborate a suitable method for mapping of sand and gravel aquifers in the Glacial Drift, bed-rock topography, saltwater occurrences, etc. It was soon realized that a combined method using both trenching measurements and vertical electrical drilling would be the most applicable. Such procedure was applied to fundamental geo-hydrologic problems in different parts of the country after careful geologic planning in each case. The well logs on file in the Well Record Department of the Geological Survey were the very important basis for this work.The geo-electric work carried out during 1953 has shown that resistivity surveys may yield both scientific and practical results of general value even in a geologically complex region as the Glacial Drift area of Denmark. This is illustrated by 13 case histories of which no. 1, 2, 3, 9, and 10 cover research projects while the rest deals with the location or investigation of aquifers for rural and municipal waterworks.

Some Soil Classification and Mapping Problems in the Wisconsin Drift Area of Iowa

Some Soil Classification and Mapping Problems in the Wisconsin Drift Area of Iowa

Studies of Hillside Seepage in the Iowan Drift Area

Soil Science Society of America JournalVolume 12, Issue C p. 73-80 Article Studies of Hillside Seepage in the Iowan Drift Area† Don Kirkham, Don Kirkham Research Associate Professor. The writer acknowledges with thanks aid from his colleagues H. R. Meldrum, F. F. Riecken, and S. J. Angstrom of the Soils Subsection; and of R. A. Norton, R. K. Frevert, and G. O. Schwab of the Agricultural Engineering Section.Search for more papers by this author Don Kirkham, Don Kirkham Research Associate Professor. The writer acknowledges with thanks aid from his colleagues H. R. Meldrum, F. F. Riecken, and S. J. Angstrom of the Soils Subsection; and of R. A. Norton, R. K. Frevert, and G. O. Schwab of the Agricultural Engineering Section.Search for more papers by this author First published: 01 January 1948 https://doi.org/10.2136/sssaj1948.036159950012000C0016xCitations: 13 ‡ Journal Paper No. J-1504, Soils Subsection, Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station, Ames, Iowa. Project 892. AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume12, IssueC1948Pages 73-80 RelatedInformation

Weathered Zones and Glacial Chronology in Southern Indiana

The Illinoian drift of southern Indiana has been leached of its calcium carbonate to an average depth of 158 inches. The depth of leaching in the Wisconsin drift varies from about 4 1/2 feet along the Shelbyville moraine to 3 feet along the Bloomington moraine. Fifty-nine localities were found where calcareous Wisconsin drift, loess, or lake silt rests upon leached Illinoian drift. Measurements at these localities indicate an average leaching of 6 feet during the Sangamon interglacial stage. From 4 to 5 feet of gumbo til were formed upon the Illinoian drift during Sangamon time. This compares closely with the amount of gumbotil formed to the west of Indiana, but leaching did not penetrate to so great a depth in Indiana as elsewhere. This may have been due to lower relief and higher water table in Indiana during Sangamon time than in the states west of Indiana. Comparison of the weathering of the silts in southwestern Indiana shows the presence there of local loess and lake silt of Illinoian age and extensive loess and lake silt of Wisconsin age. The main body of loess in Indiana is the equivalent of the Peorian loess to the west. Within the Tazewell drift area two loesses occur which are the equivalents of the Tazewell and Iowan loesses of Illinois. Extensive lake silt of Wisconsin age occurs along the tributaries of the Wabash and Ohio rivers. The ponding of these tributaries was due to the deposition of an extensive valley train along the lower Wabash, while it acted as a sluiceway for the Wisconsin ice sheet. An estimate of 135,000 years is made for the duration of the Sangamon interglacial stage in southern Indiana. The Tazewell drift in Indiana has probably been undergoing leaching for at least 45,000 years.

The Fishes of Northwestern Kansas

When one undertakes to study the distribution of Kansas fishes he encounters a peculiar situation. Since 1889 there have been published but three short papers bearing specifically on this subject. It seems strange that in a state of some 80,000 square miles, with a large variety of streams belonging to two great river systems, the study of fishes has not received more attention. Kansas ichthyology was given a good start by the work of Cragin, Gilbert, Graham, Hay and others about a half century ago, but for some reason the interest was not continued. To be sure, considerable collecting has been done between that time and now, but the results have not been published; nor has there been follow-up work and coordination of effort, such as has characterized, for example, the study of the amphibia and reptiles of the state. One of the principal purposes of this paper is to call attention to the need for collection and study of the fishes of our state. The northwestern part of Kansas is the only sizable portion of the state for which even a fair distributional picture can be presented at this time. More actual material is available from certain other areas, especially about Manhattan, Lawrence, Ottawa and Emporia; however, the problems of habitat variations, change in character of streams due to cultivation and pollution, subspecies variation and range overlapping are also much greater. Furthermore each of these centers is a part of a much larger general ecological set-up for which the data are quite incomplete. Parts of the state that need particularly to be represented by fish collections are: (1) The entire region southwest of a line from Ness City to Winfield; (2) the southern Flint Hills; (3) the glacial drift area, i. e., the part of the state north of the Kansas river and east of the Blue, and (4) the area including the lower reaches of the Republican, Solomon, Saline and Smoky Hill rivers.

A study in the mineral composition of the soils of South Ayrshire

1. A detailed mineralogical analysis was carried out on soils, specially selected by members of the Soil Survey.2. The heavy liquid separation showed a higher percentage of ferromagnesian minerals in soils from the Northern than the Southern Drift area.3. The minerals identified in the soils may be referred to fairly local origins, but no close relationship with subjacent rock has been established.4. The mineral assemblage was characteristically fresh and angular.5. Hypersthene, sphalerite and hornblende are characteristic of the Southern Drift, while barkevikite is more pronounced in the Northern Drift.6. Comparisons are made with results obtained by investigators in other areas.

The Peorian Loess and the Classification of the Glacial Drift Sheets of the Mississippi Valley

The Peorian has always been regarded as the shortest interglacial stage of the glacial epoch. Now it appears from recent new evidence that the Peorian stage was geologically too brief to be regarded as an interglacial stage. Calcareous Peorian loess in the Iowan drift area rests on calcareous Iowan drift, and in Illinois the early Wisconsin ice buried the Peorian loess before it was weathered. Peorian time is recorded primarily by the loess deposit, and the time was so short that we are forced to regard the Iowan ice invasion as the first of the series of invasions of the Wisconsin glacial epoch. This permits, on the one hand, a natural classification of the Wisconsin stage, according to ice centers, and, on the other, a subdivision of Pleistocene time in America that harmonizes with the subdivisions of Europe.

XXVII.—Lake-dwellings in Holderness, Yorks., discovered by Thos. Boynton, Esq., F.S.A., 1880–1

The Holderness district is a vast accumulation of the great Northern Drift, a thick deposit of clay and gravel, with scratched and striated boulders of Scandinavian and other rocks marked by the grinding and drifting of glaciers and icebergs. This Northern Drift rested on the ancient surface of the chalk when that surface sloped from the Wolds, 600 ft. high, to 60 ft. and more below the sea-level. The vast bay that formerly extended from Flamborough Head to Spurn Point thus received the ice-sheets of the Glacial period, which in melting deposited debris frozen into their mass. There was thus formed an irregular crescentic area, 40 miles long and 20 miles in maximum breadth, reaching the foot of the Wolds which was then the seashore with creeks running inland. The tract rarely rises more than 30 ft. above the sea; and the natural drainage, on account of the slope of the drift, is from the seashore towards the centre line of the drift area. The surface drainage from the Wolds also tends to the same line of outflow. In ancient times the outlets of this drainage into the sea would have been higher, as the strata rise seaward; and consequently more water would have been penned up in the prehistoric lakes, and a larger proportion of the area flooded, than would now be possible, since the waste of land by the sea, at the rate of nearly two yards a year, has been going on for many centuries.