The Journal of Geology, January-February 1893: A Semi-Quarterly Magazine of Geology and Related SciencesVarious
Science
The Journal of Geology, January-February 1893: A Semi-Quarterly Magazine of Geology and Related Sciences
Various
Geology -- Periodicals
In contrast to these superficial boulder formations, the till sheets
below are made up of a very large percentage of glacial clay whose
constitution shows that it was produced in part by the grinding down
of the paleozoic series. In this are imbedded boulders and pebbles
that were derived from the paleozoic series as indicated by their
petrological character, and, in many instances, demonstrated by
contained fossils. While a small part of the boulders contained in the
till are angular or but slightly worn, the larger part are blunted,
bruised, scratched and polished by typical glacial action. This obvious
grinding of the boulders, taken in connection with the clay product
resulting from the grinding, affords a clear demonstration that the
deposit was produced at the base of the ice by its pushing, dragging,
rolling action.
The two formations, therefore, stand in sharp contrast; the one
indicating the passive transporting action of the ice in bearing from
their distant homes north of the lakes the crystalline boulders and
dropping them quietly on the surface, the other indicating the active
dynamic function of the ice in rubbing, bruising and scoring the
material at its base. The one seems to me a clear instance of englacial
and superglacial transportation; the other an equally clear example of
subglacial push, drag and kneading.
Now if it were the habit of an ice-sheet of this kind to carry material
from its bottom to the surface by internal movement, it would seem
that the distance of 400 to 500 miles which intervened between the
source of the crystallines and the place of their deposit would have
furnished ample opportunity for its exercise, and that there would
have been commingled with the englacial and superglacial material many
derivatives from the intermediate region, and these derivatives should
have borne the characteristic markings received by them while at the
base of the ice. The very conspicuous absence of such commingling,
and the absence or phenomenal rarity of anything that even looks like
such a commingling, appears to me to testify in quite unmistakable
terms to the distinctness of the methods of transportation. In view
of the great territory over which this particular belt is spread,
and the greater territory which is embraced in the other tracts not
here specially considered, there is left little ground for doubt
that this distinctness of englacial from basal transportation was
a prevailing fact and not an exceptional one. This is supported
by concurrent evidence derived from the territory west of Lake
Michigan. This territory unfortunately does not bear erratics that
have equally distinct characteristics, but, so far as my observation
goes, the phenomena are alike throughout. I am therefore brought to
the conclusion that, in the interior at least, there was no habitual
lifting of boulders from the base of the ice sheets to the surface,
nor any habitual commingling of basal with englacial and superglacial
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