Overview: Documenting and reconstructing the early stages of Lake Michigan during the Algonquin, Chippewa and Nipissing Phases. Work is ongoing along the western coastline of Michigan and on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in conjunction with Dr. Walt Loope of the USGS. Using vibracoring technology we are able to recover cores below the modern level of Lake Michigan to date the Nipissing transgression. We are also finding that sand records in lake sediment provide a high-resolution record of past lake-level change. Funding is from an Illinois Indiana Sea Grant (2003-2005).
Further
information on reconstructing lake level change in Lake Michigan can be found
at:
http://www.iisgcp.org/research/projects/coast/rem0304.htm
Fisher, T.G., and Loope, W.L., 2005. Aeolian sand preserved in Silver Lake: A reliable signal of Holocene high stands of Lake Michigan, The Holocene, 15(7): 1072-1078. pdf
Fisher, T.G., and Loope, W.L. 2004. Lake-Level Variability within Silver Lake, Michigan: A Response to Fluctuations in Lake Levels of Lake Michigan. Michigan Academician 35: 373-385. pdf
Interlaminated sand and snow on Silver Lake
Stratigraphy and radiocarbon dates from Silver Lake