Lake Erie, the great body of fresh water forming Ohio's north coast, is the fourth largest of the five Great Lakes; nevertheless, Lake Erie should not be considered an also-ran, as it is the 12th largest freshwater lake in the world. Lake Erie provides a nearly unlimited water supply to communities along its shore, is an unmatched recreational and sport-fishing mecca, and provides significant quantities of sand and gravel for construction.
Lake Erie is also a dynamic body of water noted for the ferocity of its storm waves and the havoc they wreak along the lakeshore. Waves, currents, shore erosion, and flooding are all problems that must be dealt with in coastal areas.
The common perception maybe that Lake Erie is a timeless entity, formed in the distant past and as ancient as any visible rock or landscape, and a feature that will remain essentially unchanged for eternity. Geologists, however, view Lake Erie in its present form as a very recent feature---less than 4,000 years old---that is destined for a relatively short life, geological speaking. Indeed, the known history of the lake and its predecessors has taken place in the last 14,000 years; most of this time is within what geologists term the Recent.
The history of Lake Erie within this brief span of geological time is remarkably complex, involving numerous lake-level stages that were at elevations different than the modern lake--some stages may have been as much as 230 feet higher. These higher lake stages have had a profound influence on the landscape, agriculture, transportation, and economy of northern Ohio, especially northwestern Ohio.
Fertile clays deposited on the lake bottom during high-water stages and the wetland areas that remained when lake levels dropped form one of the richest agricultural regions of the state. The beaches which formed along the shorelines of these higher lake stages are preserved as ridges elevated above the nearly flat former lake beds. These beach ridges, at a characteristic elevation for each lake stage, not only outline the configuration and extent of each stage, but also provided dry passage through swampy terrain. Indian and pioneer trails faithfully followed the beach ridges in many areas of northern Ohio; later, highways followed the ridge trails.
SETTING THE STAGE FOR A GREAT LAKE
Erie owes its fundamental existence to the presence of a basin or lowland that originated long before the Pleistocene Ice Age began about 2 million years ago. This lowland was the valley of an east-flowing river, known as the Erigan River, that some geologists speculate was the downstream portion of the preglacial Teays River.
The first of the major glacial advances obliterated this drainage system and deepened and enlarged the basin. Succeeding glaciations further deepened and enlarged it. Lake Erie, the southernmost of the Great Lakes, is also the shallowest because the ice was relatively thin (therefore lacking significant erosive power) when it reached so far south.
The Lake Erie basin is underlain by Silurian and Devonian carbonates (limestone and dolomite) on the west and by Devonian shales on the east. The carbonate rocks are generally more resistant to erosion than are the shales; therefore, the western basin is comparatively shallow, averaging less than 25 feet in depth. Glacial ice was able to scoop out to a greater extent the less resistant shales underlying the central and eastern basins. The deepest point in Lake Erie is 210 feet in the eastern basin.
"The detailed history of the Lake Erie basin can be surmised only from the time of retreat of the last Pleistocene glacier, the Wisconsinan, about 14,000 years ago. It is probable that the basin was occupied by lakes as each of the three earlier ice sheets retreated, but geologists can only speculate on these events because the evidence was destroyed by the succeeding glaciers."
THE LAKE STAGES
The initial phases of lake formation in the Erie basin began as soon as the ice had retreated north of the drainage divide and exposed a lowland in which water could accumulate. The complex series of lakes that occupied this expanding basin, apparently in rapid succession during a few thousand years, owe their existence to several factors. These factors include the configuration of the glacial ice to the north and the ice dams it created, low spots that filled with water until drainage divides were breached to form drainage outlets, and depression of the land surface by the weight of the glacial ice and the subsequent slow rise (rebound) after the ice retreated.
Lake Maumee
The earliest lake to form in the Erie basin, about 14,000 years ago, has been named Lake Maumee and is divided into three substages. The initial stage, known as Highest Maumee or Maumee I, formed beaches at an elevation of about 800 feet above sea level. As the Maumee waters rose, they eventually found an outlet through a low point in the Fort Wayne Moraine in Indiana and made their way along the Wabash River to the Mississippi drainage.
As the ice receded northward, Lake Maumee expanded its surface area, but the lake level dropped to an elevation of 760 feet when a new and lower drainage outlet was exposed. This outlet was in central Michigan and allowed the waters of this lake stage, known as Lowest Maumee or Maumee II, to be discharged through the Grand River to Lake Michigan and then to the Mississippi River.
The ice soon readvanced, closing part of the Grand River drainage outlet and raising the lake level to about 780 feet. The phase of Lake Maumee, known as Middle Maumee or Maumee III, was too low to discharge through the Fort Wayne outlet, but found an intermediate outlet in Michigan known as the Imlay channel. This westward-flowing drainageway eventually connected with the Grand River. There is some evidence that Lakes Maumee II and III may be reversed in sequence.
Lake Arkona
Continued northward retreat of the ice and downcutting of the westward-flowing outlet through the Grand River in Michigan lowered the water level to the Lake Arkona stages at successive elevations of 710, 700, and 695 feet. Recent evidence suggests that the lowering of lake level may have been influenced by changes in climate and precipitation. Each Arkona stage is marked by indistinct beaches which are poorly developed, presumably because lake level was constantly being lowered and because of erosion by the later, higher Lake Whitely. The lowest stage of Lake Arkona has been radiocarbon dated at about 13,600 years ago.
There is evidence that an additional low-water stage, known as Lake Ypsilanti, may have existed in the Erie basin for a brief period prior to about 13,000 years ago and the establishment of the next major lake stage, Lake Whittlesey.
Lake Whittlesey
A major pulsation of the Wisconsinan glacier known as the Port Huron readvance closed part of the Grand River drainage outlet and raised lake level to an elevation of about 738 feet about 13,000 years ago. The new lake stage was named Lake Whittlesey in honor of Charles Whittlesey, a geologist and topographer with the first Geological Survey of Ohio in 1837-1838. The outlet for Lake Whittlesey was a westward-flowing channel, known as the Ubly channel, that connected with the Grand River in central Michigan.
The beach ridges that mark the former shoreline of Lake Whittlesey are some of the most prominent and well-preserved in Ohio. They are particularly well-developed in northeastern Ohio because, according to Dr. Jane L. Forsyth in Division of Geological Survey Information Circular No. 25, Beach ridges of northern Ohio, the fetch of the prevailing westerly winds was greater and larger beaches were produced.
Lake Whittlesey came to an end when the glacier made a significant retreat. Lake level dropped dramatically, even below that of modern Lake Erie. It has been postulated that Lake Whittlesey was finally emptied through a drainage outlet (St. David Gorge) in the Niagara Gorge area. This outlet was, at the end of Lake Whittlesey time, much lower than today because it was still greatly depressed from the weight of recently retreated glacial ice.
Lakes Warren and Wayne
A readvance of the ice raised lake level to about 685 feet. This new lake, known as Highest Lake Warren (Warren I), was later lowered to about 670 feet (Lowest Lake Warren or Warren III). Weakly developed and discontinuous beach ridges at an elevation of about 675 feet define an intermediate Warren (Middle or II) lake level. Some investigators have surmised that a lake at an elevation of 660 feet immediately preceded Lowest Lake Warren. This lake, called Lake Wayne, is thought to have drained eastward through the Mohawk River valley in New York. Radiocarbon dates suggest that Lake Warren and Lake Wayne existed between about 13,000 and 12,000 years ago.
Lake Lundy
After many pulsations through a relatively brief period of time, perhaps only 2,000 years or so, the Wisconsinan glacier made its final retreat and Lake Erie came closer to its final configuration. The last stage of the predecessor lakes in the Erie basin is known as Lake Lundy. This lake is thought to have had its drainage outlet through the Mohawk River valley in New York, but a western outlet in Michigan may have been used. Wherever the outlet may have been, it was evidently being continuously lowered by erosion, as beaches representing possibly three substages of Lake Lundy have been recognized. These substages, which have been given separate names, and their elevations are: Lake Grassmere (640 feet), Lake Dana (590 feet), and Lake Elkton (620 feet).
There is some doubt that this sequence is correct. Modern studies of the weakly developed and discontinuous beach ridges of these substages suggest that they are actually offshore bars or wind-blown sand. Lake Dana is now thought to be a restricted lake in New York and not a basinwide feature.
Modern Lake Erie
After final retreat of the ice, the land surface began to rise or rebound as it was released from the great weight of the glacier, but the rebound was relatively slow. When the drainage outlet through the Niagara Gorge was finally free of glacial ice it was about 150 feet lower than it is today.
The implications of the opening of the Niagara outlet are dramatic. Water level in the Erie basin would have been lowered by about 150 feet; this lowering may have occurred suddenly when the ice-dammed water finally broke through the confining edge of the glacier, creating a flood that quickly drained the Erie basin.
The Erie basin is so shallow that the 150-foot drop in water level would have completely drained the western basin and left water only in the deeper eastern basin and perhaps a small lake confined by a moraine in the central basin. It is likely that the Niagara Gorge and several other gorges in the area were cut by these cascading flood waters.
The moderately slow rise of the land in the area of the Niagara outlet created a consequent rise in the water level in the Erie basin. By about 3,500 to 4,000 years ago lake level was perhaps only about 30 feet below that of the modern lake. A rapid 10- to 20-foot rise in lake level occurred about 2,600 years ago when the upper Great Lakes again began to drain through the Erie basin. Following this rapid rise there has been a continued slow rise of the water level that has brought Lake Erie to its current mean level of 572 feet above sea level.
DECIPHERING LAKE HISTORY
The sandy beach deposits rising above the nearly flat lake plains, especially in the region called the Black Swamp, in northwestern Ohio, captured the attention of Native Americans and European explorers and settlers because the ridges provided dry passage through the swamps formed on the former lake beds. The Indian trails along the beach ridges were succeeded by primitive roads and later by paved highways such as U.S. Route 30 west of Delphos and U.S. Route 20 west of Norwalk and east of Cleveland.
Whether or not these early travelers deduced that the sandy avenues were evidence of higher levels of lake waters is not recorded. However, it was not long after the settlement of Ohio that scientists and naturalists began to speculate on the origin of these unusual ridges. One of the earliest observers was Charles Whittlesey. In the Second Annual Report (1838) of the first Ohio Survey, Whittlesey called these features "Lake Ridges" and observed that Lake Erie must have once stood more than a hundred feet higher than its present elevation. The reason for such a higher lake level perplexed Whittlesey, as he could not account for a natural barrier that would have impounded the waters. The theory of glaciation was just being introduced by Louis Agassiz in Europe at this time and it would be some years before the theory was widely noted, and accepted, in the United States.
The famous British geologist Sir Charles Lyell, known as the father of geology, visited Cleveland in 1842 and observed the beach ridges under the guidance of Jared P. Kirtland, naturalist for the first Geological Survey of Ohio. Lyell recorded his observations in his book Travels in North America, 1841-1842. He noted that the ridges resembled ancient beaches parallel to the shore of Lake Erie. Lyell speculated that the ridges may have been formed beneath the water or formed as beaches along the shoreline.
It wasn't until the latter half of the 19th century, after the acceptance of the idea that vast continental ice sheets had once covered the north-central United States, that a mechanism was available to raise and lower lake levels by the alternate blocking and freeing of drainage outlets. Charles Whittlesey, John S. Newberry (2nd State Geologist of Ohio), and Edward W. Claypole, among others, attacked the complex problem of the rise and fall of Lake Erie and its predecessors.
The most comprehensive and definitive works on Lake Erie history were Frank Leverett's U.S. Geological Survey monographs Glacial formations of the Ohio and Erie basins (1902) and Pleistocene of Indiana and Michigan and the history of the Great Lakes (1915), the latter coauthored with Frank B. Taylor. In the 1915 volume, Taylor wrote the section on Great Lakes history. Both monographs included detailed maps of beach ridges and the former extent of individual lake stages.
Between 1909 and 1916, Frank Carney, professor of geology at Denison University, published extensively on the distribution and extent of beach ridges in northern Ohio. Much of this work was sponsored by the Ohio Geological Survey. Although the Survey never published Carney's detailed maps and report, they survive in the Survey files. Jane L. Forsyth published a generalized version of Carney's maps in her 1959 Survey publication on beach ridges.
Detailed study of beach ridges and lake history continues to the present. The development of radiocarbon dating in the 1950's added a new dimension to the investigation of lake history because lake stages could now be placed in an absolute as well as a relative sequence.
The most comprehensive modern general work on Great Lakes history is the 1958 book by Jack L Hough, Geology of the Great Lakes. A technical volume, Quaternary evolution of the Great Lakes, was published in 1985 by the Geological Association of Canada.
BEACH RIDGES--FUNDAMENTAL EVIDENCE
Beach ridges were recognized at an early date by the first geologists to traverse the region, but it took several decades of detailed field work before the beaches representing various stages of Lake Erie, and the other Great Lakes, could be mapped and correlated. Although other geologic evidence has been of great importance in deciphering lake history, the beach ridges have been the primary evidence of lake stages.
A complicating factor in deciphering various lake stages, particularly in the northern Great Lakes, has been a phenomenon known as glacial rebound. When the beaches were being formed along the shorelines of various lake stages, the land surface was still greatly depressed from the tremendous weight of the recently departed glacier. As the land has slowly risen during the last 14,000 years, the beaches, which formed at equal elevation for each lake stage, have risen at unequal rated dependent upon the local degree of rebound. Consequently, a beach formed during a particular lake stage may be considerably higher in elevation to the east and north in comparison to the same beach to the west and south.
Around 1900, the famous U.S. Geological Survey geologist G.K. Gilbert, who began his career with the Second Geological Survey of Ohio in the 1870's, developed a method for interpreting the degree and extent of glacial, or isostatic, rebound. This concept allowed geologists to begin meaningful mapping and correlation of beach ridges. The glacial ice was not of sufficient thickness in northern Ohio to cause extensive downwarping of the crust, so most beach ridges in Ohio do not exhibit significant deformation.
Although it is unlikely that the history of Lake Erie and the other Great Lakes will undergo major revision, modern studies are continually fitting together more pieces of the complex puzzle. Additional detailed mapping of beach ridges and their associated deposits, such as that being carried out by Survey geologists in the statewide county geologic mapping program, may add significant new insights into the early history of Ohio's Great Lake.
THE FUTURE OF LAKE ERIE
The brief history of Lake Erie presented here illustrates the ephemeral nature of such a body of water. Although the lake will not experience the major changes in lake level it did during the latter part of the Pleistocene Epoch, it is likely that Niagara Falls will eventurally migrate upstream to the point where Lake Erie waters enter the Niagara River. At such time Lake Erie will be lowered dramatically and most of the basin will be occupied by a river flowing into Lake Ontario.
Perhaps the more immediate dangers to the demise of Lake Erie are through the process of premature eutrophication--that is, the rapid aging and filling in of the lake from algal growth and increased sediment influx--and contamination with toxic materials. The crystal-clear waters of Lake Erie described by pioneers will never return. The fertile lands of northwestern Ohio, which were lake bottom during preceding lake stages, were opened to agriculture in the late 1800's when the great Black Swamp was drained. Although such fertile lands have been of immense benefit ot Ohio, the draining and plowing of the land removed a natural filtration system that prevented sediment from entering streams draining into the lake. Sediments can now freely enter the lake, along with fertilizers and pesticides utilized in agriculture.
There are, of course, no easy answers to such problems. As many people are beginning to realize, and what has long been evident to professionals in natural resources, there are no free lunches in the ecosystem.
FURTHER READING
Calkin, P. E., and Feenstra, B. H., 1985, Evolution of the Erie Basin-Great Lakes, in Calkin, P. E., and Karrow, P. F., Quaternary evolution of the Great Lakes: Geological Association of Canada Special Paper 30, p. 149-170.
Forsyth, J. L., 1959, The beach ridges of northern Ohio: Ohio Division of Geological Survey Information Circular 25, 10 p. (out of print).
__________ 1973, Late-glacial and post-glacial history of western Lake Erie: the Compass (Sigma Gamma Epsilon), v. 51, no. 1, p. 16-26
Hough, J. L., 1958, Geology of the Great Lakes: Urbana, University of Illinois Press, 313 p.
Leverett, Frank, 1902, Glacial formations and drainage features of the Ohio and Erie basins: U.S. Geological Survey Monograph 41, 802 p.
Leverett, Frank, and Taylor, F. B., 1915, The Pleistocene of Indiana and Michigan and the history of the Great Lakes: U.S. Geological Survey Monograph 53, 529 p.
Totten, S. M., 1982, Pleistocene beaches and strandlines bordering Lake Erie, in White, G. W., Glacial geology of northeastern Ohio: Ohio Division of Geological Survey Bulletin 68, p. 52-60.