Lake Ontario Basin Research Articles

A FORTRAN 77 program for analyzing broad-scale spatial trends of streamline glacial features

Laurentide ice flow from the Lake Ontario Basin toward the Appalachian Plateau created one of the largest drumlin swarms in North America. A program for analyzing the broad-scale spatial trends of these streamline glacial features is presented. Allowing for variable grid cell dimensions and providing summary information for each quadrangle, the program is appropriate particularly if working with a large number of topographic maps. Orientations of more than 1500 drumlins from an approx. 12,000 km 2 area show a systematic lateral spread of ice flow from the Ontario Lowlands onto the Appalachian Plateau and are suggestive of low boundary shear stresses. The program allows for the ready accumulation of orientation, length, and geographic location of any linear feature from X, Y, coordinate pairs, and establishes a database suitable for plotting or statistical analysis.

Late glacial and postglacial geology in the Lake Ontario basin

Western Lake Ontario sediments record a till–mud–till sequence over bedrock and a thick layer of partly distorted glaciolacustrine clay unconformably overlying this. Another unconformity separates this clay from younger fine (lacustrine?) deposits, which are also distorted. Modern foreset and bottomset beds of the Niagara River overlap the lacustrine and glaciolacustrine deposits.In eastern Lake Ontario, thick glaciolacustrine clays overlie bedrock and the infilling ice-marginal deposits. These glaciolacustrine clays are severely distorted, and in the deepest parts of the area patches of overlying lacustrine (?) clay are preserved. A distorted terracelike deposit is preserved at higher elevation in the St. Lawrence trough. Bedrock, lag gravels, and sandy deposits characterize shallow-water areas.We suggest that after the fall of lake levels in the Lake Ontario basin, during the post-Iroquois lake phases, glaciolacustrine clays were subject to distortion by ice action at the time of the Greatlakean stadial. This deformation was more severe at the east end of the basin. At its lowest level, the surface of early Lake Ontario following the post-Iroquois phases was below the present lakebed in much of western Lake Ontario. Ice-wedge casts formed in sediments at both ends of the basin, soon after the initiation of early Lake Ontario, and are correlated with the Algonquin (St. Narcisse) glacial phase. Whereas there are significant accumulations of modern mud in the western basin of Lake Ontario, in the Kingston basin there is little except in the St. Lawrence trough.

Late Pleistocene water bodies in the St. Lawrence Lowland, New York, and regional correlations

In the St. Lawrence Lowland in New York, four lake levels and the limit of the Champlain Sea have been identified. Each reconstructed level has been traced west-southwest from Covey Hill. Water levels are correlated with previously identified levels in the Lake Ontario basin by means of an “extended” diagram. The study area includes the northwestern part of the Champlain Lowland, facilitating correlations of water bodies in the St. Lawrence and Champlain Lowlands. The highest lake (level I) in the St. Lawrence Lowland was continuous with Lake Iroquois in the Lake Ontario basin, and it drained across Covey Hill at 329–332 m into Lake Fort Ann in the Champlain Lowland. Level II, also confluent with Lake Iroquois, drained through Covey Hill Gap at 308–311 m into Lake Fort Ann. Level III was continuous with the post-Iroquois Sydney phase in the Lake Ontario basin and with the highest phase of Lake Fort Ann in the Champlain Lowland. Level IV in the St. Lawrence Lowland was continuous with the Belleville phase in the Lake Ontario basin and with a lower phase of Lake Fort Ann in the Champlain Lowland. Level V is the limit of the Champlain Sea in the St. Lawrence and Champlain Lowlands. Projection of the reconstructed marine water surface westward indicates that the Champlain Sea initially entered the Lake Ontario basin, where it was confluent with the estuarine post-Iroquois Trenton phase. Subsequent separation of water bodies in the Lake Ontario basin and St. Lawrence Lowland occurred as a result of isostatic uplift. Restrictions placed on ice-marginal positions by lake levels and the lake outlets indicate that the concept of contemporaneous marine and fresh-water events separated by a narrow ice dam at Covey Hill is implausible. Marine invasion of the St. Lawrence Lowland along the retreating ice sheet margin occurred subsequent to drainage of glacial lakes through the Covey Hill channels and the Champlain Lowland.

Lake Ontario Basin (U.S.A.-Canada) runoff modeling

An interdependent tank-cascade model of basin runoff is described; it employs analytical solutions of climatological considerations relevant for large watersheds. The mass balance is coupled with physically-based concepts of linear reservoir storages, partial-area infiltration, complementary evapotranspiration and evapotranspiration opportunity based on available supply and heat-balance determinations of snowmelt and net supply. Daily air temperature, precipitation and runoff data are required for calibration of the nine parameters; data are grouped for 15 watersheds about Lake Ontario as well as for the entire basin above Elevator, New York and Kingston, Ontario. The model is applied to the Lake Ontario Basin in both lumped- and distributed-parameter approaches; eleven subbasins and two basins are modeled for 7- and 30-day mass-balance computation intervals. Parameter values are interpreted for physical meaning and relation to data errors and computation intervals. Temporal and spatial integration effects are analyzed with respect to error reduction, modelling information and resolution, and cost trade-offs. Result summaries are given depicting model applications and validity. Extensions and improvements are discussed. The model is an accurate, fast representation of weekly or monthly runoff volumes from large watersheds with simple calibration and data requirements. Parameter values have physical significance and appear reasonable and consistent.

Origin, Distribution, and Postglacial Dispersal of a Swimbladder Nematode, Cystidicola stigmatura

New distributional records indicate that Cystidicola stigmatura occurs in lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) and Arctic char (S. alpinus) in the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River drainage basins, in lakes along an arc extending from northwestern Ontario to Great Bear Lake and into the Canadian Arctic Archipelago but not elsewhere. This distribution can be explained by the parasite's probable postglacial history. I hypothesize that the nematode survived in only one glacial refugium. During deglaciation the parasite probably dispersed with lake trout from its refugium in the upper Mississippi River region into the Lake Michigan basin. Confluence of glacial waters would have given the nematode access to the drainage basins of Lakes Huron, Erie, and Ontario. Invasion of the St. Lawrence River basin occurred during a postglacial connection with the Lake Ontario basin. Dispersal from the Lake Huron basin was via glacial Lake Algonquin and later via glacial Lake Barlow–Ojibway and gave rise to present populations in eastern Ontario and western Quebec. Northward dispersal was probably via the glacial waters of the Lake Michigan–Lake Superior basin through glacial Lakes Agassiz, McConnell, and Coppermine to the Arctic Ocean. Arctic char would have first acquired the parasite at this time. Extant parasite populations along this dispersal route occur in Minnesota, northwestern Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and the Northwest Territories. Invasion of the Arctic Archipelago has been with anadromous fishes. The apparently restricted preglacial distribution of the nematode and recent history of its intermediate host (Mysis relicta) in freshwater suggests that C. stigmatura may have arisen as a species during the last glaciation.

Glaciomarine model for upper Precambrian diamictites of the Port Askaig Formation, Scotland

Descriptive techniques (lithofacies codes) and vertical profile analysis emphasizing lithofacies contacts and geometry allow objective characterization and comparison of diamict(ite) sequences irrespective of geologic age. Upper Precambrian diamictites (?650−600 m.y.) of the Middle Dalradian Port Askaig Formation in Scotland are traditionally interpreted as products of repeated ice-sheet advances over an emergent shallow marine shelf and deposition by in situ basal melt-out. The Dalradian sequences are, however, fundamentally different from modern and Pleistocene diamicts deposited by either lodgment or basal melt-out and fail to show evidence of tractional processes associated with basal ice movement. Scottish diamictite sequences are similar to assemblages of massive and stratified diamict lithofacies, of late Pleistocene age, deposited subaqueously below floating ice and recently described from the Lake Ontario Basin of North America. A glaciomarine depositional model may have implications for the origin and paleogeographical setting of other upper Precambrian diamictites of similar age and stratigraphic context in East Greenland, Spitsbergen, and Scandinavia.

Late Wisconsin white spruce (Picea glauca (Moench) Voss) at Brampton, Ontario

Study of late Wisconsin deposits in a small bog on the crest of Brampton esker (mantled by the Halton Till), about 30 km west of Toronto, Ontario, yielded a radiocarbon date of 12 320 ± 360 years BP (BGS-551) for a sample of white spruce cones that contained fully-developed seeds. This date on cones (in gyttja) provides an estimate of minimum age for the lower boundary of the spruce pollen zone in southern Ontario. Silty clay beneath the gyttja yielded leaves of Dryas integrifolia and pollen assemblages (a herb pollen zone) that indicate presence of a dwarf-shrub tundra (essentially treeless) type of vegetation.This study supports the Port Huron Stadial age (about 13 000 years BP) of the Halton Till that underlies the silty clay, and suggests an age of between 12 500 – 13 000 years BP for glacial Lake Peel in the Brampton area that preceded the glacial Lake Iroquois phase in the Lake Ontario basin.

A climatonomic study of the Lake Ontario drainage basin

An evapotranspiration climatonomy model (Lettau and Baradas, 1973) designed to compute monthly runoff, actual evapotranspiration, exchangeable moisture level, and stored moisture change, and incorporating seasonally varying parameter values was applied to the Lake Ontario drainage basin and to subbasins within it. The model was refined and improved by using a ‘direct search’ optimization technique (Rosenbrock, 1960) to obtain monthly values of the set of prescribed parameters. The parameters were calibrated using data for 1969–1971 inclusive and for long‐term means. They were then applied to relevant 1972 data as an independent test of the validity of the model. The results were consistent and reasonably reliable by comparison with others. The parameter values are physically justifiable and in accord with comparable parameter values reported in the literature. Computed monthly runoffs are within 1.4% of observed streamflow in the unregulated subbasins and within 6.0% in one that is regulated. For the Lake Ontario basin as a whole, computed monthly runoff is within 7.0% of measured outflow adjusted for lake level changes. The agreement is within 3.5% in the case of annual values. Computed monthly actual evapotranspiration is in excellent agreement with other studies. It is concluded that the model, with a calibrated set of seasonally varying parameter values, is a viable approach for the study of the moisture regimes of catchments.

Variability of Annual Runoff in the Lake Ontario Basin

A study of variability of runoff in the Lake Ontario basin is undertaken to provide background information for the International Field Year on the Great Lakes to be held in 1972 on Lake Ontario, since it is realized that a period of 1 year is a small sample in the life history of a lake basin and that there are large annual fluctuations in the variables in the water balance. Because of a lack of long-term records of measured runoff, the Thornthwaite-Mather water balance model for estimating point runoff from climatic data is used for the 81 stations in and near the basin with records of 15–136 years. Statistical tests show that annual station runoff has a normal distribution, and standard deviations are computed to express variability. Maps of average runoff, as well as plus and minus two standard deviations of runoff, are drawn and thus permit the estimation of the volumes of annual runoff that can be expected in the Lake Ontario basin. A coefficient of variability of runoff map indicates that the southwestern areas of the basin have the most variable runoff.

Estimation of Basin Precipitation by Regression Equation

Regressions on 30 years' precipitation data from five stations for the calculation of the monthly amount of precipitation falling on the land portion of the Lake Ontario basin are presented. Verification on three years' test data shows a maximum cumulative annual error of 4%, with individual monthly errors as high as 17%. Provision for missing data is made.

Pollen-bearing sediments of the St. Davids buried valley fill at the Whirlpool, Niagara River gorge, Ontario

Continued studies of the buried St. Davids gorge, an ancient valley of the Niagara River, have indicated that the upper part of this gorge was filled in mid-Wisconsinan time and later. Lacustrine sediments dated at 23 000 years B.P. were deposited in the gorge when the late Wisconsinan ice caused the water level to rise in the Lake Ontario basin by blocking the eastern outlet, prior to over riding the Niagara area. Palynological studies support the correlation of the dated lacustrine deposits in the gorge with the Plum Point Interstade of southern Ontario.

Correlation of Glacial Lake Stages in the Huron-Erie and Michigan Basins

The writer's interpretations of Great Lakes history, which have been seriously questioned by J Harlen Bretz in this Journal (1959, 1964), are explained in detail in a review of the field facts, and a new alternative hypothesis of the lakes history is presented. The principal points of disagreement involve the acceptance or rejection of recent studies in the Lake Ontario basin and St. Lawrence valley, which require a revision of the correlation of events in the Huron and Michigan basins. A distinction is made between field facts and Bretz's interpretations of field facts.

Water Resources of a Western New York Region: A Case Study of Water Resources and Use in the Genesee Valley and Western Lake Ontario Basin

Water Resources of a Western New York Region: A Case Study of Water Resources and Use in the Genesee Valley and Western Lake Ontario Basin

Hydrology of Lake Ontario

A description of the physical and climatological features of the Lake Ontario basin is presented. The effects of climate and topography on the supply of water into Lake Ontario are examined. Short and long term records of flows and supplies of Lake Ontario are related to the factors causing variation in the water supplies. Detailed descriptions of the source of supply are made in relation to seasonal and areal distribution of precipitation, temperature and runoff. Flow records of many of the large tributaries of Lake Ontario and the possibility of long and short-term forecasting are analyzed.

Hydrology of Lake Ontario

Physical and climatological features of Lake Ontario basin; effects of climate and topography on supply of water into Lake Ontario; factors causing variation in water supplies; seasonal and areal distribution of precipitation, temperature and runoff; flow records of tributaries of Lake Ontario; possibility of long and short-term forecasting is discussed.

The Champlain Sea in the Lake Ontario Basin

The retreating front of the Labradorian ice sheet late in the Wisconsin glacial stage rested for a time against the northwestern slopes of the Adirondack Mountains. Between the ice front in the upper St. Lawrence Valley and the southern rim of the Ontario basin in New York state, the waters of Lake Iroquois were ponded. The history of this lake, with its outlet down the Mohawk Valley past Rome, New York, has been deciphered by Fairchild, Taylor, Spencer, Coleman, and others. Further withdrawal of the ice margin permitted the escape of the Iroquois waters through Gulf, southwest of the summit of Covey Hill, the northernmost hill on the west flanks of the Adirondacks, a mile north of the international boundary. The altitude of the Covey outlet at the present time is about i,ooo feet, while that of the Rome outlet is 460 feet, but, according to Fairchild,' the altitudes of the two outlets during Iroquois time were very similar, if not practically identical (see Fig. i). North from Covey Hill the land drops rapidly away to the broad, low valley of the St. Lawrence. As soon, therefore, as the edge of the ice sheet had withdrawn a mile or two farther northward, Lake Iroquois was drained. The water in the Ontario basin and the St. Lawrence Valley rapidly fell to sea-level, for the land stood at a much lower altitude then than now. Differential uplift of the Great Lakes region had commenced long before the extinction of Lake Iroquois, and it is commonly held that the Champlain Sea was then at its maximum extent. It has been more or less unconsciously assumed that the history of these sea-level waters in the upper St. Lawrence Valley was simply a slow but progressive