Northern Peninsula Of Michigan Research Articles

"Prairie Grouse", <em>Tympanuchus cupido</em> × <em>phasianellus</em>, Hybridization on Manitoulin Island, Ontario

Greater Prairie Chickens started their range expansion from Wisconsin about 1900. They reached Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, by 1925 and completed colonization of Manitoulin Island by 1945. In the fall of 1932, an irruption of Northern Sharp-tailed Grouse from the Hudson Bay Lowlands occurred. Residents of Manitoulin distinguished the two species and reported the presence of “square-tails” and “sharp-tails” in the winter of 1932-1933. There is no specimen evidence or verbal reports that Northern Sharp-tailed Grouse reached Michigan during that irruption. Prairie Sharp-tailed Grouse were in the northern peninsula of Michigan by 1930. In 1941, Michigan Department of Natural Resources made a planting of 37 Prairie Sharptailed Grouse on Drummond Island. Thence they spread east and the first lek was found at the west end of Manitoulin Island in 1952. By 1960, these birds had virtually colonized the whole island. Development of a hybrid index from the morphology of specimens of skins and skeletons from Manitoulin indicated that more than 50% of all birds in the 1960s were hybrids. In Michigan, less than 1% of the birds necropsied or checked in hunters’ bags were hybrid. It seems likely that ethological isolation broke down on Manitoulin Island. The booming display of the Prairie Chicken and the tail rattling display of the Sharp-tailed Grouse can be broken down into their component parts. They appear to be homologous to five discrete displays of the Spruce Grouse, grouped in different patterns in each of the two lek species. There was little hybridization between Prairie Sharptailed Grouse and Prairie Chickens that had lived sympatrically for thousands of years. Northern Sharp-tailed Grouse had probably never lived sympatrically with Prairie Chickens and the evolution of the perception of species distinctions may not have evolved to the point where hybridization was restricted to a rare event.

Glacial and postglacial sediments in Lakes Superior and Michigan

The lacustrine sediment sequence above the glacial till under Lake Superior consists of red clays overlain by gray varved clay and nonvarved gray and brown clay. The Lake Michigan sequence also contains red clay at the base and brown and gray clays above. The red clays in Lake Michigan are found in areas overridden by glaciers of Valderan age as well as in the far southern end of the lake. Deposition of red clay took place in the northern part of the lake as the Valderan glaciers were melting and continued during the Algonquin stadial when the ice front reached a stillstand on the northern peninsula of Michigan. Red and gray clay outwash dumped into Lake Superior may also have escaped from the Superior Basin into the Lake Michigan Basin through the Au Train–Whitefish channel and other channels across the upper peninsula of Michigan. The connection of the two lakes began between about 11,000 C14 yr B.P. and ended about 10,000 C14 yr B.P., when the connection was broken by rebound or by lowering of water levels near the end of the glaciation in the Lake Superior Basin.

A New Fossil Alga From the Silurian of Michigan

The record of Paleozoic algal diversity is strongly biased toward calcareous and stromatolitic types due to the general paucity of well preserved compression fossils of other taxa. A new genus, Thalassocystis (type species T. striata) is described on the basis of compression fossils in middle Silurian dolomite from the northern peninsula of Michigan. The plant is characterized by a short branched thallus, each branch terminated by an enlarged bladder-like structure. The plants were deposited in a tropical, shallow water marine environment but whether they were benthic, adventive to the pelagic zone, or completely pelagic cannot be determined from the evidence available.

A NEW FOSSIL ALGA FROM THE SILURIAN OF MICHIGAN

The record of Paleozoic algal diversity is strongly biased toward calcareous and stromatolitic types due to the general paucity of well preserved compression fossils of other taxa. A new genus, Thalassocystis (type species T. striata) is described on the basis of compression fossils in middle Silurian dolomite from the northern peninsula of Michigan. The plant is characterized by a short branched thallus, each branch terminated by an enlarged bladder‐like structure. The plants were deposited in a tropical, shallow water marine environment but whether they were benthic, adventive to the pelagic zone, or completely pelagic cannot be determined from the evidence available.

Gravity and Magnetic Evidence for the Eastern Termination of the Lake Superior Syncline

Gravity and aeromagnetic studies of the eastern portion of the Northern Peninsula of Michigan and the adjacent area indicate that the Lake Superior syncline consisting primarily of lower and middle Keweenawan mafic lava overlain by upper Keweenawan clastic sedimentary rocks extends from eastern Lake Superior into the Northern Peninsula, roughly between Grand Island in Lake Superior and the eastern margin of the peninsula. The limbs of the syncline, which are marked by positive gravity and magnetic anomalies, merge in the vicinity of the northern tip of the Southern Peninsula and mark the termination of the Lake Superior syncline. To the south, the Keweenawan volcanic rocks rapidly decrease in width and continue in a south-trending narrow belt which is reflected in the mid-Michigan gravity high of the Southern Peninsula. Two local sedimentary basins separated by a horst have been isolated within the syncline; one lies to the south and the other to the west of Whitefish Bay in Lake Superior.

Basement Geology of the Lake Michigan Area from Aeromagnetic Studies

The magnetic field of Lake Michigan is dominated by a series of alternating regional maxima and minima which are, in general, directly related to gravity anomalies on the perimeter of the lake. These magnetic zones are believed to be primarily related to Penokean basement trends which extend from Wisconsin across Lake Michigan into the Southern Peninsula of Michigan. The strike of these zones changes from northeast in southern Wisconsin and east in northern Wisconsin to east and east-southeast respectively in eastern Lake Michigan and Michigan. Exceptions are found in the northern and southern extremities of the lake. In southern Lake Michigan southeast-trending magnetic anomalies are related to a regional gravity high extending across southwestern Michigan into northeastern Indiana. The positive magnetic zone in northern Lake Michigan strikes north from Grand Traverse Bay to north of Beaver Island, where it bifurcates with one limb extending north-northwest through Lake Superior to the Keweenawan basalt on Keweenaw Point. The other limb continues into the eastern portion of the Northern Peninsula of Michigan, and another segment of this branch connects to the Keweenawan flows on Mamianse Point on the eastern shore of Lake Superior. In the Grand Traverse Bay area this positive magnetic zone becomes strongly negative and connects to the south with the mid-Michigan gravity and magnetic anomaly.

An extensive early proterozoic glaciation in North America?

The Early Proterozoic Gowganda Formation of Ontario has long been considered to be a glacial. Similar deposits of similar age occur in the Northern Peninsula of Michigan, at Fern Creek and on the north side of the Dead River Storage Basin, in the Medicine Bow Mountains of Wyoming and at Chibougamau in northern Quebec. The wide separation of these areas indicates as extensive glaciation in Early Proterozoic times. The chemical composition of tillite matrix materials and laminated argillites from most of these areas shows a remarkable homogeneity which may reflect the homogeneous nature of a large part of the Superior craton.

A Revision of Stratigraphic Nomenclature for Middle Precambrian Rocks in Northern Michigan

The name Marquette Range Supergroup is proposed to supplant the term Animikie Series for middle Precambrian strata of the Northern Peninsula of Michigan and adjacent areas of Wisconsin. The Marquette Range Supergroup consists of the Chocolay, Menominee, Baraga, and Paint River Groups, as defined in previous literature. We feel that this new name to apply to Northern Peninsula rock units is appropriate, as continued investigations have failed to show unequivocal correlation between middle Precambrian rocks of Michigan and the Huronian Supergroup of Ontario. Although the equivalence of the Animikie Group in Ontario and Minnesota with parts of the Michigan rocks is likely, the Stratigraphic complexity of the Michigan sequence requires supergroup rank. The inherent confusion of an Animikie Group in Ontario and Minnesota, and an Animikie Supergroup in Michigan, makes a local name such as Marquette Range Supergroup preferable to Animikie for the middle Precambrian rocks of Michigan.

Transgressive Marginal Lithotopes in Niagaran (Silurian) of Northern Michigan Basin

Classical stratigraphic studies of the Niagaran of the Michigan basin have all been made in the zone of outcrop, which nearly encircles the southern peninsula of Michigan at the periphery of the basin. Here there is little difficulty establishing equivalency of units, for distinctive faunal and lithologic zones can be traced from Manitoulin Island, Ontario, through the northern peninsula of Michigan and southward into eastern Wisconsin. This has led to the generally accepted stratigraphic interpretation of a succession of Niagaran seas, each with a distinctive environment and the deposits of each separated from those of the preceding and succeeding seas by significant unconformities. With recent drilling information, however, it has become increasingly apparent that the characteristic outcrop zones quickly disappear in the subsurface of Michigan. A detailed examination has been made by the writer of the field relationships of these units on Manitoulin Island which has excellent exposures and which is used as the reference area of this paper. This study has failed to confirm any widespread unconformities above the base of the Niagaran. It is here proposed that the entire Niagaran sequence of the northern rim of the Michigan basin belongs to one large transgressing littoral-lagoon-barrier reef association. Evidence for this hypothesis is seen in the results of insoluble residue analyses made from samples collected at typical Manitoulin Island sections. An unconformity is indicated at the base of the Dyer Bay carbonate unit, which is interpreted as a littoral accumulation of fine carbonate sand deposited at the shoreward edge of the advancing lagoon. The overlying Wingfield and St. Edmund siltstones and calcisiltites reflect the calm, shallow bottom conditions of the lagoon proper, while the Fossil Hill calcarenites and calcirudites were deposited in the higher energy environment of the back-reef detrital zone. The Am bel comprises several facies of the reef core. Overlying the Amabel are detrital beds, formerly mapped as Fossil Hill or its correlatives, which are interpreted as fore-reef detritus, Detritus also occurs in passes through the Amabel reef-core facies.

Ferns of Manitoulin Island, Ontario

Manitoulin Island is located in the northern part of Lake Huron (from 45030' to 46000' N. and 81?30' to 83?15' W.) and together with several neighboring islands and a small portion of the mainland to the northeast, constitutes the District of Manitoulin in the Province of Ontario, Canada. Geographically and geologically it is a link between the Bruce Peninsula to the southeast and Drummond Island and the northern peninsula of Michigan to the northwest. Manitoulin Island is roughly eighty miles long, thirty miles wide at the broadest portion, and has a land area of nearly 1100 square miles. About forty percent of the island is farm land. There are many inland lakes on the island, the three largest, Lakes Manitou, Mindemoya, and Kagawong, presenting a total water surface of over sixty-five square miles.

A Spruce‐Fir Stand in the Northern Peninsula of Michigan

A Spruce‐Fir Stand in the Northern Peninsula of Michigan

Comparisons of some aeromagnetic profiles with ground magnetic profiles

Typical aeromagnetic total intensity profiles are compared with ground‐magnetic vertical intensity profiles over the same geologic structures in the Iron River district in the northern peninsula of Michigan. The magnetic surveys and the pertinent geologic conditions causing the anomalies are briefly discussed. Certain slate and volcanic rocks of Pre‐Cambrian age produce the major anomalies; in addition, inversely magnetized diabase dikes cause pronounced negative anomalies. The aeromagnetic profiles are strikingly smoother than the ground‐magnetic profiles chiefly because of the merging and attenuation of anomalies with increasing height. The commonly used depth rules applied to the aeromagentic data yield depth estimates that are usually too great.

Lower and Middle Silurian Rocks in Michigan Basin: ABSTRACT

The discovery of the Howell gas field, Livingstone County, Michigan, with gas production from the base of the Salina formation and the top of the Niagara group, has added to the interest in the possibility of commercial production from these rocks in other areas in the Michigan basin. Gas and oil have been produced from the Cataract formation and Niagara group in fields in southwestern Ontario for many years, and showings of oil and gas were reported in Niagara rocks penetrated by wells in various areas in Michigan. Cataract rocks of lower Silurian age and Niagara rocks of middle Silurian age occur in the subsurface in the Michigan basin, and they crop out, or underlie glacial drift, around the margin of the basin. The rocks are exposed in places in the Northern Peninsula of Michigan, eastern Wisconsin, northeastern Illinois, northern Indiana, northwestern Ohio, and southwestern Ontario, Canada. The Cataract formation which includes the White Medina and Red Medina gas-producing sandstones in Ontario west of Niagara River, is 45-190 feet thick in the Michigan basin. The Cataract is represented by dolomite and shale in the Michigan basin, and sandstones of the eastern facies are absent. The Niagara group of the Michigan basin is composed almost entirely of dolomite, with some chert and shale in places. Shale, which grades laterally into dolomite, occurs in the group in northern Indiana. The lower part of the Niagara in eastern Michigan and the Northern Peninsula of Michigan End_Page 305------------------------------ is dolomite, argillaceous dolomite, and shale. The thickness of the Niagara varies from 66 feet in Kent County in southwestern Michigan to more than 700 feet in Mackinac County in the Northern Peninsula of Michigan. The Niagara increases in thickness southward from Kent County, Michigan, to 425 feet in northwestern Indiana near the area of outcrop. The sequence of Niagara rocks in southern Michigan is thin due to non-deposition of pre-Salina erosion. Outcrop and subsurface data indicate that pre-Salina erosion occurred in some areas. Local variations in thickness are due in part to reefs which in places are numerous. Niagara rocks dip at the average rate of 45 feet per mile from the outcrop area in northern Indiana to the center of the Michigan basin in Clare and Gladwin counties, Mic igan, where the top of the group is more than 9,000 feet below sea level. The average dip per mile from the outcrop area in the Northern Peninsula to the center of the basin is approximately 70 feet per mile. End_of_Article - Last_Page 306------------

Cambrian and Ordovician Rocks in Michigan Basin and Adjoining Areas

Sandstone, limestone, and dolomite of Upper Cambrian and Ordovician age either are exposed at the surface or underlie glacial drift in the Northern Peninsula of Michigan. The outcrop of these rocks extends southward from northern Michigan into Wisconsin and Illinois. Eastward across the Northern Peninsula, Middle Ordovician rocks overlap progressively older rocks, and on Manitoulin and adjacent islands Black River rocks of Middle Ordovician age rest on pre-Cambrian. This same stratigraphic relationship is observed in other outcrop areas in Ontario and in deep wells that have penetrated the full section of sedimentary rocks. Pre-Black River erosion removed most of the older Paleozoic rocks from the underlying pre-Cambrian in southwestern Ontario and in some places only a t in remnant of Upper Cambrian sandstone and some dolomite occurs between Middle Ordovician and pre-Cambrian rocks. Cambrian and Lower Ordovician (sub-Trenton) sandstone and dolomite range in thickness from less than 500 feet to more than 3,500 feet in Michigan. The aggregate thickness of these rocks increases southwestward from Michigan toward Illinois and thins southeastward over the Findlay arch in southeastern Michigan and northwestern Ohio. The rocks increase in thickness eastward into the Appalachian basin from the Findlay arch. The widespread limestones and dolomites of Middle Ordovician age rest on eroded Lower Ordovician and Upper Cambrian rocks in Michigan, northern Indiana, and northwestern Ohio and range in thickness from less than 200 feet in the Northern Peninsula to more than 900 feet in southeastern Michigan. These rocks are thickest a short distance east of the center of the present Michigan basin and are thinner over major anticlinal folds. This indicates that the basin was depressed in an area somewhat similar to its present form as early as Middle Ordovician time. Oil and gas were commercially produced from the sub-Trenton rocks in Ohio on the east flank of the Findlay arch in several small areas. Showings of oil and gas in these rocks have been reported from wells in northeastern Indiana, southeastern Michigan, and southwestern Ontario. The Trenton limestone, which is the producing formation in the Lima-Indiana field, is productive in small areas in southeastern Michigan and southwestern Ontario.

The 60-cycle primary transmission system of the Milwaukee Electric Railway and light company

THE PRIMARY transmission system described in detail in this paper operates at 132 kv. and 66 kv. to transmit bulk energy from generating stations to step-down substations, and to interconnect the system of the Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Company with hydroelectric plants in the northern peninsula of Michigan. The system is divided into power areas which are served directly from a generating station or from a step-down substation located near the load center of the area. Energy is distributed from these points over secondary transmission lines.

Nesting of the Evening Grosbeak in Northern Michigan

THE breeding range of the typical form of the Evening Grosbeak (Hesperiphona vespertina vespertina) is at present very imperfectly known. There are records of birds seen in summer in Alberta, Manitoba, Minnesota, and extreme western Ontario and of young not yet fully fledged in both Alberta and Manitoba; but the only fully authentic nest found is one discovered by Mr. S. S. Stansell about thirty miles northwest of Edmonton, Alberta. The writer's discovery of five nests of this species in northern Michigan is therefore of much interest. Evening Grosbeaks are found to be fairly common in favored sections of Michigan in fall, winter, and early spring, but disappear with the approach of the nesting season. Flocks of these forest dwellers were observed in November, 1920, in the Taquamenaw River district, Northern Peninsula of Michigan, to which locality they were evidently attracted by the heavy beech mast. The birds were generally observed earnestly feeding in the top branches of the hardwood trees. Observation and inquiry in the summer of 1921 gave no hope of finding the birds nesting, and it was, therefore, an agreeable surprise when, in July, 1922, a nesting colony was located on Whitefish Point, Lake Superior, about 20 miles from the Canadian shore. It is fitting that a place so far-famed as Whitefish Point should be selected as a nesting place by these elusive wanderers, but from available information it seems that they had never before, during the recollection of present inhabitants, so favored it. The site chosen is an impressive and interesting one and truly in harmony with the beauty and dignity of the birds. The beauty of the northern woods, especially where the white pine grew, has been greatly impaired by lumbering, not only as a result of the removal of the trees, but because, where extensive lumbering was done, forest fires invariably followed the logging. It is not improbable that the cutting of the pines influenced the birds that might have

Early Silurian rocks of the Northern Peninsula of Michigan

Early Silurian rocks of the Northern Peninsula of Michigan