Archean to Anthropocene: Field Guides to the Geology of the Mid-Continent of North America

This volume of 25 field guides plus one paper on field instruction was prepared in conjunction with the 2011 GSA Annual Meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The diverse slate of field trips spans a geologically broad range of topics, including the Precambrian geology of the southern Canadian Shield; the economic geology of the Lake Superior region; Phanerozoic strata in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and North Dakota; glacial geology; hydrogeology and limnology; undergraduate and K12 geoscience field education; archaeological investigations in the upper Mississippi River valley; and geology by bicycle.
Geology of the Ice Age National Scenic Trail
-
Published:January 01, 2011
-
CiteCitation
David M. Mickelson, Mark D. Johnson, Kent M. Syverson, 2011. "Geology of the Ice Age National Scenic Trail", Archean to Anthropocene: Field Guides to the Geology of the Mid-Continent of North America, James D. Miller, George J. Hudak, Chad Wittkop, Patrick I. McLaughlin
Download citation file:
- Share
-
Tools
ABSTRACT
The Ice Age National Scenic Trail leads hikers on a 1200-mi (1900-km) tour of glacial and other geologic features across the State of Wisconsin. This one-day field trip highlights glacial landforms of the Superior Lobe of the southern Laurentide Ice Sheet in northwestern Wisconsin. Here the Ice Age Trail features spectacular end moraines, low-relief and high-relief hummocky topography, ice-walled-lake plains, eskers, tunnel channels, striations, and water-scoured features on basalt. The field trip involves several short hikes on parts of the trail, including one on a classic esker located in a tunnel channel. We argue that there is paleoglaciological significance to differing landform assemblages on the older, low-relief Emerald Phase land surface and the younger St. Croix Phase moraine, which has numerous high-relief hummocks, ice-walled-lake plains, and tunnel channels. Large potholes from the drainage of glacial Lake Superior are present at the Interstate State Park Unit of the Ice Age National Scientific Reserve.
- Cenozoic
- channels
- erosion
- eskers
- field trips
- fluvial features
- geomorphology
- glacial erosion
- glacial features
- glaciated terrains
- landforms
- Laurentide ice sheet
- moraines
- national parks
- plains
- Pleistocene
- potholes
- public lands
- Quaternary
- road log
- scour
- striations
- topography
- United States
- Wisconsin
- Superior Lobe
- Ice Age National Scenic Trail