What to Study

• Text: Bennett and Glasser: Chapters 6-11
• Lecture notes: Till, Moraine, Drumlins, Meltwater
• Crossword:interactive/printable
• Articles: These articles are important. Read them and make sure that you can answer the question written below! *MOST IMPORTANT! +Second most important.
  • Bolton and Hindmarsh, 1987, Sediment deformation beneath glaciers: Rheology and geologic consequences
  • Boyce and Eyles, 1991, Drumlins carved by deforming till streams below the Laurentide ice sheet
  • +Clayton and Moran, 1979, A Glacial Process-Form Model
  • * Hughs, et al., 1985, Models of glacial reconstruction and deglaciation applied to Maritime Canada and New England
  • * Kaye, 1976, Beacon Hill end moraine, Boston: New explanation of an important urban feature
  • *Koteff and Pessel, 1981, Systematic Ice Retreat in New England
  • Kruger and Thomsen, 1984, Morphology, stratigraphy, and genesis of small drumlins in the front of the glacier myredalsjokull, South Iceland
  • Larson, 1982, Nonsynchronous retreat of the ice lobes from southeastern Massachusetts.
  • Oldale and O'Hara, 1984, Glaciotectonic origin of the Massachusetts coastal end moraines and a fluctuating late Wisconsin ice margin
  • +Mooers, 1990, A glacial-process model: The role of spatial and temporal variations in glacier thermal regime
  • Teller, 1987, Proglacial lakes and the southern margin, Laurentide Ice Sheet (not assigned)

• How are glacial lake formed? List and describe three mechanisms of lake formation, and give at least one example of each.
• What is the difference between a glacial lake and a pluvial lake. Discuss using examples.
• Once the lake is destroyed, what is the evidence that it existed?
• For each of the following lakes, locate where and when it was formed, why it formed, and what is the evidence that it existed
  • Glacial Lake Missoula
  • Glacial Lake Hitchcock
  • Glacial Lake Agassiz (Teller, 1987)
  • Glacial Lake Tauton and Glacial Lake Cape Cod
  • Pluvial Lake Bonneville
• Discuss the possible link between the Glacial Lakes in the Midwest, the Marine incursion of the Lawrence Valley and the Younger Dryas. (Teller, 1987)

Articles

Hughs, et al., 1985

• Controversy: What are the two schools of though concerning the form of the Laurentide Ice Sheet?
• First Order Glacial Features: Central basin, zone of areal scouring, arc of exhumation, arc of deposition, radial troughs.
  • What are first order features and under what conditions were they formed. Why are they significant?
• Second Order Glacial Features: Drumlins, Striations, grooves, roche mountonnees, glacial fluvial sediments, Recessional moraines
  • What are second order features and under what conditions were they formed. Why are they significant?
• How does their model predict events during glaciation and deglaciation?
• How do they explain the existing controversy?
• How can erosional landforms be used to reconstruct basal thermal regime and dynamics of the glacier that formed them.

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Koteff and Pessel, 1981

• Briefly outline and discuss some of the controversies concerning the mode of retreat of the Late Wisconsin glacier from New England.
• Define concept and the significance of the "dirt machine."
• end moraine controversy (what does the definition of "end moraine" vary among different authors?)
• Describe the process of stagnation-zone retreat. What evidence is there that this was the style of retreat in New England?
• morphosequences--What are morphosequences? What do they indicate? List and describe some examples.
  • How is the width of the stagnant zone fronting live ice estimated?
• How do deposits left by retreating ice in New England differ from those in the Midwest? Why?
• Terms and people: base level, spillway, morphosequence, head of outwash, collapse structures, dirt machine, Richard Foster Flint, Ernst Antevs, Richard Jahns, J. Goldthwaite
  

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Kaye, 1976

• What was the "false premise" (Kaye, 1976) concerning Beacon Hill assumed by engineers when constructing the Boston Common Garage and other projects. What problems did this assumption cause?
• What do we know about drumlins now that was not know then (cf. text)?
• Kaye concluded that Beacon Hill is not a drumlin, but an end moraine. In light of what is now known about drumlins, what would a modern glacial geologist consider Beacon Hill? Discuss.

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Oldale and O'Hara, 1984

• How does the composition of the terminal moraine on Martha's Vinyard differ from the differ from the moraines on the Cape? How are these moraines similar in terms of their origin?
• According to Oldale and O'Hara were these moraines formed under thawed- or frozen-bed conditions? What evidence is used to support this conclusion?
• Briefly outlined the formation of the coastal moraines on the Cape?

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Larson, 1982, Nonsynchronous retreat of the ice lobes from southeastern Massachusetts. Read also Glacial Cape Cod

What is meant by nonsynchronous retreat? Locate and briefly describe the composition and formation of the following features? Mention which ice lobes were responsible for each deposits. Buzzards Bay Moraine Sandwich Moraine Mashpee Pitted Plain Buzzards Bay outwash What lobe was responsible for depositing the eastern (outer) arm of the Cape? What is the nature of these deposits? What do you suppose the "pits" are in the Mashpee Pitted Plain? How did they form? What economically important crop is grown in these pits on the Cape?

 

Moores, 1990

• How did the landform assemblages created by the retreat of the Rainy Lobe differ from those of the Superior Lobe? What explanation is given for these differences.

• You have been hired to find a good quality sand and gravel deposit (mostly gravel) for construction of a new highway. What kinds of deposit(s) are likely to contain this material and where would you look for them? Where would you not look for them. Could you possibly find gravel in a drumlin?
• Discuss why lodgment till does not make a good aquifer.
• Describe the internal stratigraphy of a Gilbert-type delta? In what kind of environment do they form? How are these deltas important in reconstructing past proglacial environments. Explain.
• Was the Laurentide Ice Sheet warm-based or cold-based as it retreated through New England from its terminal position. (Review: Moores, 1990; Oldale and O'Hara, 1984, Koteff and Pessel, 1981; Clayton and Moran, 1979; Bolton and Hindmarsh, 1987) List and discuss the evidence for your conclusion.
• Why are thrust moraines formed under frozen bed condition typically back (in the up-ice direction) by lakes or basins? (Oldale and O'Hara 1984, Clayton and Moran 1979)
• Briefly discuss the morphology, composition, and distribution of drumlins. List and discuss three theories of drumlin formation. Why is there no thoroughly accepted theory of drumlin formation? During what phase of glaciation are most preserved drumlins formed? What information can be obtained from them about subglacial flow conditions?
• Briefly described the morphology, composition, and formation of eskers. What information can be obtained from them? Why are these deposits economically important?
• Discuss the marine submergence. What caused it? What is the evidence that certain coastal areas were submerged? Which areas in New England were most affected? and Why?
• Discuss why the Cape and the Islands were not deposited under marine but rather lacustrine conditions.
• How might an ice-contact deposit be distinguished from a proglacial non-ice contact deposit?
• How do glacial-marine and glacial-lacustrine clays differ? Why?
• How do you distinguish a till from a glacial fluvial deposit?