Lake Kankakee

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Lake Kankakee
A- Geology Annual (1916) Grn on grn.jpg
Lake Kankakee based on Barrett, Edward, 1916
Location North America
Group Great Lakes
Coordinates 41°13′N86°58′W / 41.22°N 86.96°W / 41.22; -86.96 Coordinates: 41°13′N86°58′W / 41.22°N 86.96°W / 41.22; -86.96
Primary inflows Wisconsin Glacier [1]
Primary outflows Kankakee River [1]
Catchment area l
Basin  countriesCanada
United States
Max. length50 mi (80 km)
Max. width50 mi (80 km)
Average depth40 ft (12 m) [1]
Max. depth45 ft (14 m) [1]
Surface elevation560 ft (171 m) [1]
References [1]

Lake Kankakee formed 14,000 years before present (YBP) in the valley of the Kankakee River. It developed from the outwash of the Michigan Lobe, Saginaw Lobe, and the Huron-Erie Lobe of the Wisconsin glaciation. These three ice sheets formed a basin across Northwestern Indiana. It was a time when the glaciers were receding, but had stopped for a thousand years in these locations. [2] The lake drained about 13,000 YBP, until reaching the level of the Momence Ledge. The outcropping of limestone created an artificial base level, holding water throughout the upper basin, creating the Grand Kankakee Marsh.

Contents

Lake Kankakee was a prehistoric lake during the Wisconsin glacial epoch of the Pleistocene Era. The lake formed during the period, when the Michigan and Saginaw lobes of the Laurentian glacier had receded back to the Valparaiso and Kalamazoo moraines. While the glacial advance became stagnant, the summer runoff formed a large lake covered parts of 13 counties in two states.

Around 1840, Mr. F. H. Bradley applied the name Lake Kankakee to the lake which he thought formerly occupied the Kankakee basin. [1] [3] The sand deposits outside the marsh were the first clue that the lake existed. These sands were the result of Aeolian or wind processes, not lacustrine, or fluvial processes. He predicted that the lake would have been at an elevation of 685 feet (209 m) above sea level. [1]

Origin

Formation of the Valparaiso Moraine and the Kankakee Valley. A 1908 Fig 16 Lobes of Retreating Ice (Mich).jpg
Formation of the Valparaiso Moraine and the Kankakee Valley.

The glaciers were static, only in that the glacial fronts melted at a rate matching the southward push of the ice mass. The meltwaters from the eastern edge of the Michigan Lobe and the western edge of the Saginaw Lobe ran through the Dowagiac River valley of western Michigan. Joining the ancestral St. Joseph River, reversing the flow southward towards the flat plain till plain, where South Bend, Indiana now stands. From the east, the St. Joseph River valley drained the meltwaters from the southern edge of the Saginaw Lobe and the northwestern shoulder of the Huron-Erie Lobe. [4]

The Valparaiso Moraine formed the southern flank of the Michigan Lobe as well as the northern ridge of the Kankakee Valley. [4] At the northern end of the valley, the Dowagiac River valley extended northward between the Valparaiso Moraine on the west and the Kalamazoo Moraine on the east. [4] The Kalamazoo Moraine formed one side of the melting Saginaw Lobe, with the southern flank sitting on the Sturgis Moraine. South of the Sturgis Moraine, the future St. Joseph River was a marshy plain, extending southeastward towards the toe of the Huron-Erie Lobe. First the Union City Moraine formed, then as the ice receded and again stabilized the Mississinawa Moraine formed along the front of this ice [4] The Saginaw Lobe's meltwater flowed across the St. Joseph valley, while the Huron-Erie Lobe's meltwater and sediments first flowed into the upper Tippecanoe River. [4] When the glacier moved back to the Mississinawa Moraine, the off flowing water created the Eel River valley.

The waters coming down the St. Joseph valley crossed the till plain south and east of the future South Bend entering the valley of the Kankakee River. Water from the Huron-Erie Lobe came through the upper Tippecanoe valley, spreading across the till plain, in Starke, Pulaski, Jasper, and Newton counties, merging with the shallow waters in the Kankakee basin of St. Joseph, LaPorte, Porter and Lake counties. [2] The meltwaters were trapped between the ice masses to the north and east and the Nebo-Gilboa Ridge, an offshoot of the Bloomington Moraine to the south [5] and the Marseilles moraine. On the west, the Marseilles moraine formed the final and lowest barrier. [1] In the vicinity of Marseilles, Illinois the waters crested the divide and created an outlet into the pre-glacial Mississippi River, creating the modern Illinois River. [1] This event is known as the Kankakee Torrent.

Description

Lake Kankakee covered over 3,000 square miles (7,800 km2) of northern Indiana and the border of Illinois. [2] The lake had two open bodies of water, split by the Iroquois Moraine, which formed a peninsula from the west. The northern waters stretched from just west of Momence, Illinois, along the main stem of the Kankakee River to the marshes southwest of South Bend, Indiana. The southern waters stretched from near Watseka, Illinois eastward to the Tippecanoe River. These two basins were linked across 35 miles (56 km) of the nearly level Tipton Till Plain, west of the Tippecanoe River. The valley of the Tippecanoe from Monticello, north pass Winimac and reaching to Rochester was a part of this lake.

Development

Beginning around 15,000 years ago, [6] the Michigan lobe of the Laurentian glacier had retreated back to a line along the Valparaiso Moraine, from Wisconsin along a line, 30 miles (48 km) inland of Lake Michigan, southward, around the City of Chicago, and the southern tip of Lake Michigan, through Indiana, curving northward into the State of Michigan, only 15 miles (24 km) inland from the shoreline. Meanwhile, the Huron-Saginaw lobe had melted back to the north and east along a line in Michigan extending from Holland eastward through Kalamazoo to Jackson. Beginning 14,000 years ago, the glacial lobes had cleared the valley of the Kankakee River of ice. At this point, the forward movement of ice coming from the north equaled the rate of melting over the summer season. Now stagnant, glacier provided a continuing source of ground rock and soil to the southern edge of the glacier, creating the Valaparaiso Moraine and releasing vast quantities of water, sand and silt into the valley beyond. [6] The water created Lake Kankakee, flooding are area from Momence, Illinois upstream to the east to South Bend, Indiana with a southern pool reaching from Watseka, Illinois east to Monticello and Winamac, Indiana. [7]

Lacustrine deposits are those deposited in lake water and only when the lake drains or the land rises, does it become dry land. Most of the soils throughout the counties surrounding the Kankakee are loamy (up to a quarter clay, quarter to half silt with less than half being sand.)[3] The outwash plain is underlain by sand with gravel inter-bedded throughout. The prevailing westerly winds began to treat the 'Lake Kankakee' like the shores of Lake Michigan. Dunes began to form along the south and eastern shoreline. Where ice blocks had been left behind, sand filled the depressions. Runoff from the Valparaiso Moraine built [2] outwash ridges of sand leading into the lake. On the south, the winds built dunes. As the volume of water decreased from the glacier melting northward, the lake slowly drained and filled. Not being able to cut a channel through the limestone ridge in Momence, the Kankakee Lake became 500,000 acres (202,346 ha) of marshland. [8]

Aeolian sand

The Aeolian sands form the southern boundary of Lake Kankakee as they result from the wind moving sand from the shoreline inland. This feature begins in the northeast along the Maxinkuckee moraine of the Saginaw ice lobe in Marshall County, Indiana near Lake Maxinkuckee and Culver, Indiana. While a few dunes are found on the moraine, the sand beds are along the western edge. The Maxinkuckee moraine follows the north side of Tippecanoe River into Fulton County eastward towards Rochester. The southeastern edge of the sands, swings south and west through Cass County, to west of Logansport, turning west and passing 9 miles (14 km) north of Lake Cicott. Here a sand ridge forms the east border of the till plain sloping westward to the Tippecanoe River. This ridge runs westward in continuous line to the Tippecanoe Valley at Monticello. This is a lateral moraine between the Saginaw lobe on the north and the Erie lobe on the south. The ridge continue westward and becomes hard to distinguish as it passes west of Kentland, Indiana. [1]

Outlet

Lake Kankakee was over 40 feet (12 m) higher than the current river. [2] It topped the western divide near Morris, Illinois, where a lake had formed as the glacier retreated from the Marseilles moraine. Initially, this water body, drained through numerous gaps in the moraine at the 640 feet (200 m) to 650 feet (200 m) above sea level, until the gap on the present Illinois River dropped lower than the rest, becoming the outlet for this lake. [1] This outlet crosses exposed bedrock implying that it was a long slow process. Thus, this lake and Lake Kankakee were held in check. The terraces and beaches in the Morris Basin are 560 feet (170 m) above sea level or 60 feet (18 m) above the present head of the Illinois River. [1] This shows that this lake existed during the Valparaiso Moraine stage. The lakes level extended up the Kankakee River Valley about as far as Braidwood, where the sand dunes set in. Once this breach in the Marseilles moraine was created, it became the discharged for Lake Chicago . [1] Combined with Lake Wauponsee's waters, the outlet deepened. Lake Kankakee at this time was draining much of the St. Joseph Rivers watershed, which was fed by the Saginaw lobe. The erosion by this quantity of water created many of the features along the Illinois River and the lower Kankakee River. The rock barrier at Momence halted erosion further upriver. [1] The various lakes formed by the glacial retreats and its moraines were at their maximum levels at this time. The outlet was at or above 650 feet (200 m) above sea level. [1]

See also

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Lake Maumee was a proglacial lake and an ancestor of present-day Lake Erie. It formed about 14,000 Years Before Present (YBP) as the Huron-Erie Lobe of the Laurentide Ice Sheet retreated at the end of the Wisconsin glaciation. As water levels continued to rise the lake evolved into Lake Arkona and then Lake Whittlesey.

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Valparaiso Moraine

The Valparaiso Moraine is a recessional moraine that forms an immense U around the Lake Michigan basin in North America. It is a band of high, hilly terrain made up of glacial till and sand. It begins near the border of Wisconsin and Illinois and extends south through Lake, McHenry, Cook, DuPage and Will counties in Illinois, and then turns southeast, entering Indiana. From this point, the moraine curves northeast through Lake, Porter, and LaPorte counties of Indiana into Michigan. It continues into Michigan as far as Montcalm County.

Tinley Moraine

The Tinley Moraine is a moraine around the Lake Michigan basin in North America. It was formed during the Wisconsin Glaciation and is younger than the higher and wider terminal moraine called the Valparaiso Moraine, which is located farther from the lake than the Tinley Moraine. Compared to the Valparaiso Moraine, the Tinley Moraine is much narrower and occupies a similar swath, about 6 miles (10 km) closer to Lake Michigan, and passes through the communities of Flossmoor, Western Springs, and Arlington Heights. The moraine probably was named after the village of Tinley Park, a village southwest of Chicago that lies on the moraine.

Kankakee Outwash Plain

The Kankakee Outwash Plain is a flat plain interspersed with sand dunes in the Kankakee River valley in northwestern Indiana and northeastern Illinois of the United States. It is just south of the Valparaiso Moraine and was formed during the Wisconsin Glaciation. As the glacier, stopped at the Valparaiso Moraine, melted, the meltwater was carried away to the outwash plain. On the south side of the moraine, where the elevation drops, the meltwaters eroded away valleys, carrying sand and mud with them. As the muddy meltwater reached the valley where the slope lessened, the water slowed down, depositing the sand on the outwash plain. This created a smooth, flat, and sandy plain. Before its draining, the Kankakee Marsh, located on the outwash plain, was one of the largest freshwater marshes in the United States.

Calumet Shoreline

The Calumet Shoreline is an ancient shoreline of Lake Michigan located in the Lake Michigan Basin. It can be clearly seen as a sand ridge along Ridge Road south of Chicago. Closer to the lake from the Calumet Shoreline, there are the Tolleston shorelines and farther from the lake are the Glenwood Shoreline, the Tinley Moraine, and the Valparaiso Moraine. The shoreline is named after the Calumet Region of Northern Indiana.

Glenwood Shoreline

The Glenwood Shoreline is an ancient shoreline of the precursor to Lake Michigan, Lake Chicago. It is named after the town of Glenwood, Illinois. The shoreline was formed when the lake was higher during the last Ice Age, while ice blocked the Straits of Mackinac. After the straits were freed, the lake receded and left behind a sand ridge at an elevation of about 640 feet (200 m) where the shore resided. This ridge can be seen clearly in Glenwood, Illinois, Dyer, Indiana, and Schererville, Indiana, all south of Chicago.

Kankakee Torrent

The Kankakee Torrent was a catastrophic flood that occurred about 19,000 BP calibrated years ago in the Midwestern United States. It resulted from a breach of moraines forming a large glacial lake fed by the melting of the Late Wisconsin Laurentide Ice Sheet. The point of origin of the flood was Lake Chicago. The landscape south of Chicago still shows the effects of the torrent, particularly at Kankakee River State Park and on the Illinois River at Starved Rock State Park.

Marseilles moraine

The Marseilles moraine is a terminal moraine that encircles the southern tip of Lake Michigan in North America. It begins near Elgin, Illinois, and extends south and west of Chicago metropolitan area, turning eastward 30 miles (48 km) to 40 miles (64 km) south of the lake in Kankakee and Iroqouis counties, entering Indiana. It formed during the Wisconsin glaciation. The glacier had been in retreat when it stopped for an extended period, depositing glacial till and sand creating the hills of the moraine.

Lake Saginaw occupied the basin of Saginaw Bay. There were two periods when it was an independent lake, not associated with a larger body of water in the Huron basin. The first Lake Saginaw was a contemporary of the last stages of Lake Maumee. When the ice border opened allowing these two lakes to become one, it entered the period of Lake Arkona. Then, the ice advanced, closing the link forming the second Lake Saginaw. This was during the time of Lake Whittlesey. When the ice margin retreated northward for the last time, it became the western bay of Lake Wayne and then of Lake Warren and Lake Lundy. During its periods as an independent lake, its outlet was west through Grand River channel.

Lake Whittlesey

Lake Whittlesey was a proglacial lake that was an ancestor of present-day Lake Erie. It formed about 14,000 years ago. As the Erie Lobe of the Wisconsin Glacier retreated at the end of the last ice age, it left melt-water in a previously-existing depression area that was the valley of an eastward-flowing river known as the Erigan River that probably emptied into the Atlantic Ocean following the route of today's Saint Lawrence River. The lake stood at 735 feet (224 m) to 740 feet (230 m) above sea level. The remanent beach is not horizontal as there is a ‘hinge line’ southwest of a line from Ashtabula, Ohio, through the middle part of Lake St. Clair. The hinge line is where the horizontal beaches of the lake have been warped upwards towards the north by the isostatic rebound as the weight of the ice sheet was removed from the land. The rise is 60 feet (18 m) north into Michigan and the Ubly outlet. The current altitude of the outlet is 800 feet (240 m) above sea level. Where the outlet entered the Second Lake Saginaw at Cass City the elevation is 740 feet (230 m) above sea level. The Lake Whittlesey beach called the Belmore Beach and is a gravel ridge 10 feet (3.0 m) to 15 feet (4.6 m) high and one-eighth mile wide. Lake Whittlesey was maintained at the level of the Ubly outlet only until the ice melted back on the "Thumb" far enough to open a lower outlet. This ice recession went far enough to allow the lake to drop about 20 feet (6.1 m) below the lowest of the Arkona beaches to Lake Warren levels.

Lake Border Moraine

The Lake Border Moraine is a complex group of moraines bordering the southern end of Lake Michigan. It can be traced north along the eastern shore of the lake basin and across the highlands between the northern Lake Michigan and Saginaw Bay. It continues around the Saginaw Basin into the " thumb " of Michigan, and south through southeastern Michigan on the eastern side of the "thumb." Along Lake Michigan, north to Holland the system is close to the shore. From Holland north to Oceana County it is 15 miles (24 km) to 25 miles (40 km) east of the shore. In Oceana County it forms the prominent "clay banks" along the shoreline of Lake Michigan. It again bears inland from Hart, where more recent moraines reside between it and Lake Michigan. It runs north of the great interlobate moraine that exists between the Lake Michigan and Saginaw lobes of the Laurentian ice sheet. A little north of Cadillac turns to the east. A short distance from Cadillac, it splits with the southern ridge or outer member heading to the Saginaw basin. The northern ridge heads towards Lake Huron, but turns south before reaching the shore. In Newaygo and Lake counties it rest on an earlier interlobate moraine. It separates in Wexford and Missaukee counties to continue south along the west side of the Saginaw basin.

Lake Warren

Lake Warren was a proglacial lake that formed in the Lake Erie basin around 12,700 years before present (YBP) when Lake Whittlesey dropped in elevation. Lake Warren is divided into three stages: Warren I 690 feet (210 m), Warren II 680 feet (210 m), and Warren III 675 feet (206 m), each defined by the relative elevation above sea level.

Packerton Moraine

The Packerton Moraine in north-central Indiana has been considered by most persons who have studied it to be a large interlobate moraine between the Saginaw and the Erie lobes. The northeast-southwest direction of the eskers north of Disko, Wabash County, and the southeast-northwest trend south of there indicated that the part of the Packerton moraine south of Disko was built by the Erie lobe and the part north of Disko by the Saginaw lobe. An esker, Miami County shows a northeast-southwest alignment, providing evidence that Packerton moraine in Miami County was built by the Erie lobe. A small area in the northwestern was deposited by the Saginaw lobe. It is named the Packerton moraine from the village of Packerton in Kosciusko County. Thirteen kames and eskers complexes are mixed with sand and gravel. The till is, sandier, especially in the part deposited by the Saginaw lobe, than in the lobe passed over some source of sand, whereas the Erie lobe did not. Water-laid or wind-blown sands are found throughout the moraine. The bulk of the sand seems to have been water-deposited, but locally the sand appears to have been reworked by the wind. Few of the sand deposits exhibit dunal forms.

Lake Wayne formed in the Lake Erie and Lake St. Clair basins around 12,500 years before present (YBP) when Lake Arkona dropped in elevation. About 20 feet (6.1 m) below the Lake Warren beaches it was early described as a lower Lake Warren level. Based on work in Wayne County, near the village of Wayne evidence was found that Lake Wayne succeeded Lake Whittlesey and preceded Lake Warren. From the Saginaw Basin the lake did not discharge water through Grand River but eastward along the edge of the ice sheet to Syracuse, New York, thence into the Mohawk valley. This shift in outlets warranted a separate from Lake Warren. The Wayne beach lies but a short distance inside the limits of the Warren beach. Its character is not greatly different when taken throughout its length in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. At the type locality in Wayne County, Michigan, it is a sandy ridge, but farther north, and to the east through Ohio it is gravel. The results of the isostatic rebound area similar to the Lake Warren beaches.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 The Illinois Ice Lobe, Section 3, Lake Kankakee; Frank Leverett; U.S. Geological Survey, Monograph, #38; Government Printing Office; Washington, D.C.; 1899, pg 328-338
  2. 1 2 3 4 Dunes of Northwestern Indiana; Edward Barrett; Forty First Annual Report of Department of Geology and Natural Resources, Indiana; pg 11-22; Fort Wayne Printing Company; 1916
  3. ↑ Geology of Illinois, Vol. IV, 1870, pp. 226-229.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 The Glacial Lakes Around Michigan; William R. Farrand, Bulletin 4, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, Geological Survey Division; Lansing, Michigan; revised 1988
  5. ↑ Chapter VI. The Saginaw Lobe; Frank; Monographs of the United States Geological Survey, Volume LIII, Government Printing Office, Washington; 1915
  6. 1 2 1816-1966, Natural Features of Indiana; Indiana Academy of Science, Indiana State Library, Indianapolis, 1966, Symposium, April 22–23, 1966, Wabash College, Crawfordsville, IN
  7. ↑ The Dunes of Northwestern Indiana; Edward Bartlett; Forty-First Annual Report of Department of Geology and Natural Resources, Indiana; Edward Bartlett, State Geologist; Indianapolis, Indiana, 1916, pg 11-18
  8. ↑ Soil Survey of Porter County, Indiana; USDA, Soil Conservation Service, Purdue University, Agricultural Experiment Station, IDNR, Soil and Water Conservation Committee; 1976

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