Earth Features and Their Meaning: An Introduction to Geology for the Student and the General ReaderHobbs, William Herbert
Science
Earth Features and Their Meaning: An Introduction to Geology for the Student and the General Reader
Hobbs, William Herbert
Geology; Physical geography
If now we descend from our position and visit the “battlefield”, we
find there a great ridge of level crest, behind which the British
force was stationed in its defense of the island in 1812. Near by in
the woods is Pulpit Rock, a strikingly perfect stack of the Nipissing
Lake. Across the straits at St. Ignace is an even finer example of the
notched stack (Fig. 372). Other less prominent beaches, but all later
than the Nipissing Lakes, intervene between this level and the present
shore to mark the stages in the continued uplift of the land.
=The present inclinations of the uplifted strands.=—It is not enough
that we should have recognized the marks of former shores now at
considerable elevations above the existing lakes; if we are to know
the nature of the uplift, we must prepare accurate maps based upon
measurements by precise leveling at many localities. Such methods are,
however, of comparatively recent application in this field; and, as in
the investigation of so many other problems, the earlier observations
were largely of the nature of reconnaissances with the elevation of
beaches estimated by comparatively crude methods only. The evolution of
ideas concerning the uptilt has, therefore, been a gradual one.
[Illustration:
FIG. 374.—Map of the Great Lakes region to show isobases and hinge
lines of uptilt. _a_, isobase of the Chicago outlet; _b_, main hinge
line of the Lake Whittlesey beach (Leverett); _b^1_, hinge line of the
Lake Warren beach (Taylor); _c_, isobase of the Port Huron outlet; _d_,
main hinge line of highest Algonquin beach (Goldthwait); _e_, _f_,
_g_, _h_, additional hinge lines of Algonquin beaches in Door County
peninsula (Hobbs); _l_, isobase of the Lake Superior outlet for the
Algonquin beaches (Leverett): _m_, isobase of the same outlet for the
Nipissing beaches (Leverett).]
It was early observed that the beaches corresponding to a given
lake stage were higher to the northward and northeastward, and the
natural conclusion from this was that the earth’s crust had here been
canted like a trap door (Fig. 373, _A_). As we are to see, this but
half-correct assumption has led to a striking prophecy relating to
future changes within the lake region which we now know to be without
warrant in the facts. Later it was learned that the uptilt of the lake
beaches is much accelerated to the northward (Fig. 373, _B_), and that
new beaches make their appearance from beneath others as we proceed in
this direction—there is a “feathering out” of beaches to the northward
(Fig. 373, _C_).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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