Date of Award

4-2002

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Geological and Environmental Sciences

Department

Geosciences

First Advisor

Dr. Alan E. Kehew

Second Advisor

Dr. Ronald Chase

Access Setting

Masters Thesis-Open Access

Abstract

Two diamicton units from the southern Allegan County, Michigan lakeshore bluffs were identified and differentiated through clay mineralogy by analysis of 7 /10A peak-height ratios and the 2-80 mm crystalline fraction from pebble count results. t-Tests indicate the two units are significantly different. These two units are correlated with the Saugatuck and the Ganges tills of southwest Michigan based on similarities in stratigraphic position and lithologic description as described by Monaghan et al. (1986). Other diamicton samples were collected throughout southwest Michigan, near Moline, Otsego, Bloomingdale, Gobles, and Decatur. In correlating the Saugatuck and the Ganges tills to their inland counterparts, it appears that the buried tills in the Valparaiso Moraine correlate to the Ganges till. Where the Ganges till exists at shallow depths in Bloomingdale (12 ft), there may be higher bedrock topography or thicker section of underlying glacial deposits. There is a general increase in the relative amount of 10A clay, or illite, to 7A clay, or kaolinite, laterally and vertically, in which illite increases westward toward the Lake Michigan basin and increases in successively younger tills in southwest Michigan.

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