Michigan's Landforms

The Wisconsin glaciation started in Minnesota about two million years ago. The parts missed by the Wisconsin glaciation were the Southwestern and Southeastern corners of Minnesota. There are four lobes in Minnesota called The Rainy Lobe, The Superior Lobe, The Des Moines Lobe, and The Wadena Lobe. The Wadena lobe advanced from Northern Minnesota. The Rainy Lobe along with the Superior Lobe advanced from Northeastern Minnesota.

For the first paragraph we shall have a quick focus on the geological history of the area of Kalamazoo. The main deposits and formations of the Kalamazoo area where formed during the Wisconsin glaciation period. Now the deposits are actually due to two lobes during this period, the lobes are the Lake Michigan and Saginaw lobe. Kalamazoo is actually know as a “reentrant district” due to the presence of two different lobes materials. During the middle of the Wisconsin Ice Age the Lake Michigan lobe was extending southeastward, while the Saginaw lobe was extending southwest. With the meeting of the two lobes an interlobate developed between the terminals of the lobes. It is also thought that the two lobes overlapped each other. With the Saginaw lobe covering the Kalamazoo area first and then retreating while the Lake Michigan lobe then covered the area. There are also some bedrock formations in the area as well, these formations were established during

Earth has experienced many episodes of dramatic climate changes with different periods in earth history. There have been periods during which the entire planet has been covered in ice and at another time it has been scorchingly hot and dry. In this regards, earth has experienced at least three major periods of long- term frigid climate and ice ages interspersed with periods of warm climate. The last glacial period which current glaciers are the result of it, occurring during the last years of Pleistocene, from approximately 110,000 to 10,000 years age (Clayton, 1997). Indeed, glaciers present sensitive indicators of climate change and global warming and by estimating and monitoring the dynamic evolution of these ice masses, several

Radiocarbon dating tests reveal that sea levels had lowered more than 400 feet below their current levels as a consequence of the growth of immense ice sheets in the Northern Hemisphere during the Ice Age.

The areas along the river are mainly forested; much of the area is a flat, gently rolling plain. The upland prairies were created during an intensive warming period several thousand years after the melting of the glaciers. The Illinois River Valley in the Starved Rock area is a major

The present configuration of the Great Lakes basin is the result of the movement of massive glaciers through the mid-continent, a process that began about one million years ago. . . . Studies in the Lake Superior region indicate that a river system and valleys formed by water erosion existed before the Ice Age. The Glaciers undoubtedly scoured these valleys, widening and deepening the and radically changing the drainage of the area (Encyclopedia Britannica )

When the Ice Age caused the sea level to drop, it exposed a land bridge from

The glaciation is very confusing to those who don't know about glaciers so here is some background information. The last glacial advance started about 75,000 years ago and the last

Michigan is one of the fifty states within the United States of America and is favored with having the largest shoreline within the U.S. It is characterized by two peninsulas, the upper peninsula (which is obviously cooler) and the lower peninsula which holds a vast majority of the land and also a big chunk of us, Michiganders. The name Michigan comes from the Chippewa Indian word Michigama which means great or large lake. Lake Michigan was called Michigama by the Chippewa Indians. Our unique state is luckily surrounded by four of the five Great Lakes. The Great Lakes in our region have vastly influenced our state and those around us. Without Lake Michigan, Lake Superior, Lake Huron, and Lake Erie, we would not have the large fresh water sources we currently are blessed with, many jobs would not exist, recreational activities would be slim to none, and we simply wouldn’t have the gorgeous views all around us. To say the very least, the state of Michigan is

During the Pinedale glaciation, there were two ice sheets. One of them being the Cordilleran Ice Sheet. The Cordilleran Ice Sheet was comprised of three main lobes. The Puget Lobe, Okanogan Lobe, and the Purcell Trench Lobe. The one lobe in Northern Idaho, near present day Lake Pend Oreille, was the Purcell Trench Lobe. When these sheets of glacial ice moved south they caused an ice dam to occur. J.T. Pardee states that “The evidence of icebergs, together with the apparent regency of the lake and the variable height of its surface, connect this lake with the glacial period, and readily lend themselves to the suggestion that its dam was of ice” (Pardee, 1910) This ice dam blocked the Clark Fork River which is near the boundary of Idaho and Montana. The water from the river was blocked and began to build up and formed Glacial Lake Missoula. Water

The day to day impact of human activities on the formation of Michigan is highly underestimated and not often considered. Human activity has positively impacted the formation of Michigan but there has also been negative

Champaign County was first covered by the Illinois Glacier (191,000—130,000 years ago), which leveled the region and covered it in a deposit of boulder clay. The county’s topography was then formed by the Wisconsin Glacier about 20,000 years ago. As lobes of ice from what is now Lake Michigan crossed the county, a deep (up to 300 ft) pile of glacial soil was created and topped by numerous moraines (any glacially formed accumulations of unconsolidated debris) forming small, flat watersheds with no outlets. The moraines formed as the Wisconsin Glacier advanced and receded many times over the Midwest. The Champaign moraine system now crosses the county in a northwest-southeast direction, and between the moraines ridges are broad plains of what used to be swampy land, most of which has since been artificially drained.

The landscape of Indiana, like that of Illinois and Iowa was shaped by the glaciers that covered the midwest during the last ice age. In central Indiana they flattened the land and deposited a rocky debris called till. Over time, the sand clay and minerals that made up the till eroded into

Living around the Great Lakes like we do in Michigan brings a lot of advantages. We have a great amount of water, unlike much of the United States. Water has shaped Michigan to its shape over the past thousands of years. The total area of Michigan is 96,716 miles squared. The total surface of the Great Lakes is 94,250 miles squared. Michigan is surrounded by 4 of the 5 Great Lakes like shown in figure 1. The Great Lakes include Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, and Lake Erie. Water has shaped Michigan to the shape it is by many different ways. Erosion, transportation, deposition, glaciers, and manmade causes.

Glaciers are one of the most fundamental phenomenon on the planet, and much of their purpose and impact on earth has been well documented and published. Ice sheets, Ice Caps and Glaciers trap nearly 90% of the world's fresh water, and are replenished by snowfall each year. Their existence on this planet dates back 650,000,000 years and yet they are always moving, always shifting and always melting. Before, human existence and even during the brief era of humans, ice dominated all of the earth's landmass and have regulated, created and altered many of the landscapes around the world.