Untangling the Quaternary Period—A Legacy of Stephen C. Porter

Stephen C. Porter was an international leader in Quaternary science for several decades, having worked on most of the world’s continents and having led international organizations and a prominent interdisciplinary journal. His work influenced many individuals, and he played an essential role in linking Chinese Quaternary science with the broader international scientific community. This volume brings together nineteen papers of interdisciplinary Quaternary science honoring Porter. Special Paper 548 features papers from six continents, on wide-ranging topics including glaciation, paleoecology, landscape evolution, megafloods, and loess. The topical and geographical range of the papers, as well as their interdisciplinary nature, honor Porter’s distinct approach to Quaternary science and leadership that influences the field to this day.
Deglacial Kankakee Torrent, source to sink
*Present address: Département de Géographie, Université du Québec à Montréal, 405 Rue Sainte-Catherine Est, Montréal, Québec, H2L 2C4, Canada.
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Published:April 07, 2021
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CiteCitation
B. Brandon Curry, Alan E. Kehew, Jose Luis Antinao, John Esch, Sebastien Huot, Olivier J. Caron*, Jason F. Thomason, 2021. "Deglacial Kankakee Torrent, source to sink", Untangling the Quaternary Period—A Legacy of Stephen C. Porter, Richard B. Waitt, Glenn D. Thackray, Alan R. Gillespie
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ABSTRACT
The last-glacial megaflood Kankakee Torrent streamlined hills and the remarkably straight backslope of the Kalamazoo moraine (Lake Michigan lobe of the Laurentide ice sheet) in southwestern Michigan. Flooding ensued as proglacial Lake Dowagiac overflowed across remnants of the Lake Michigan lobe at the position of the inner margin of the Kalamazoo moraine as glacial debris and ablating ice were pinned against Portage Prairie. Proglacial Lake Dowagiac developed in the Dowagiac River valley as the lobe retreated to form the Valparaiso moraine. A minimum age of the Kankakee Torrent (18.7 ± 0.6 k.y. B.P) is indicated by the weighted mean value of six optically stimulated luminescence ages determined from quartz sand in glaciofluvial sediment on the Kalamazoo moraine (Lake Michigan and Saginaw lobes). This value is consistent with tighter age control based on radiocarbon ages of tundra plants within silty sediment forming ice-walled lake plains and in a torrent-scoured lake basin (Oswego channel) in Illinois. Crosscutting relationships of well-dated moraines indicate the Kankakee Torrent occurred sometime between 19.7 and 18.9 calibrated (cal.) k.y. B.P. as it skirted the south margin of the Valparaiso Morainic System.
- Angiospermae
- C-14
- carbon
- Cenozoic
- deglaciation
- Dryas
- erosion
- fluvial sedimentation
- geochronology
- geomorphology
- glacial erosion
- glacial features
- glacial lakes
- glacial sedimentation
- glacial transport
- glaciofluvial sedimentation
- Great Lakes
- isotopes
- Lake Michigan
- Lake Michigan Lobe
- lakes
- Laurentide ice sheet
- moraines
- North America
- optically stimulated luminescence
- paleofloods
- paleohydrology
- paleolakes
- Plantae
- Pleistocene
- Quaternary
- radioactive isotopes
- sedimentation
- spectra
- Spermatophyta
- transport
- ultraviolet spectra
- Saginaw Lobe
- Kalamazoo Moraine
- Valparaiso Moraine
- Lake Dowagiac
- Oswego Channel
- Kanakee Torrent