Black River Escarpment (Wisconsin)

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The Black River Escarpment is a geological feature in Eastern Wisconsin. [1] [2] The escarpment runs parallel to and between the Niagara Escarpment and the Magnesian Escarpment. The escarpment marks the boundary between bedrock from Lower Magnesian limestone bedrock and earlier Black River limestone. The escarpment emerges from Green Bay, on Lake Michigan. The escarpment's boundaries are not always visible to the untrained eye, but are marked by cliffs in some regions.

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The Magnesian escarpment is the most westerly of three prominent escarpments that run north-south in Wisconsin. All three escarpments are formed by the edges of layers of sedimentary rocks. The easternmost and most prominent escarpment is the Niagara Escarpment formed where younger and harder layers of dolomite overlay softer sedimentary rocks. The Black River Escarpment is capped by another layer of relatively harder rocks, overlay older softer rocks. The rocks of the Magnesian layer overlay rocks of the Cambrian Period, the oldest sedimentary rocks that contain fossils.

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References

  1. Lawrence Martin (1965). The physical geography of Wisconsin . University of Wisconsin Press. p.  247. ISBN   978-0-299-03475-7 . Retrieved 2010-09-14.
  2. "The Eastern Ridges and Lowlands of Wisconsin". Wisconsin Online. Archived from the original on 2010-06-17. Retrieved 2010-09-14.

Coordinates: 43°45′57″N88°58′24″W / 43.76583°N 88.97333°W / 43.76583; -88.97333