Lake Arkona was a stage of the lake waters in the Huron-Erie-Ontario basin following the end of the

Lake Maumee Lake Maumee was a proglacial lake and an ancestor of present-day Lake Erie. It formed about 17,500 calendar years, or 14,000 Radiocarbon Years Before Present (RCYBP) as the Huron-Erie Lobe of the Laurentide Ice Sheet retreated at the end of the W ...

levels and before the

Lake Whittlesey Lake Whittlesey was a proglacial lake that was an ancestor of present-day Lake Erie. It formed about 14,000 years ago. As the Erie Lobe of the Wisconsin Glacier retreated at the end of the last ice age, it left melt-water in a previously-existing ...

stages, named for

Arkona, Ontario Arkona is a community located in the municipality of Lambton Shores in southwestern Ontario near the Lambton–Middlesex county line, situated beside the Ausable River, on Former Kings Highway 79 (now Lambton County Road 79), Arkona is roug ...

, about east of

Sarnia Sarnia is a city in Lambton County, Ontario, Canada. It had a 2021 population of 72,047, and is the largest city on Lake Huron. Sarnia is located on the eastern bank of the junction between the Upper and Lower Great Lakes where Lake Huron fl ...

Beaches

The ice sheet had withdrawn north of the "thumb" of

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

, then advanced southward, raising water levels to the east of the "thumb", but not those to the west. This created four distinct areas around Lake Arkona: # In the Saginaw basin, where the Arkona beaches were neither submerged nor modified; # The area on the "thumb", where the beaches were overridden by the ice and destroyed; # The Black River valley, where the beaches were submerged but protected from modification; and # The area, which would be

, where the beaches were submerged and modified by storm waves.

Modified beaches

Glacial Lake beaches of the Lake Erie Basin

From Spring Hill and Zion to the

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

state line in southeastern

Lenawee County Lenawee County ( ') is a county located in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 99,423. The county seat is Adrian. The county was created in 1822, from territory partitioned from Monroe County. Its g ...

, the three Arkona beaches are faint and hard to trace. The same character continues throughout Ohio and

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

and western

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. Between Spring Hill and the Ohio state line the Arkona beaches do not show the characteristics normal to those in the

Saginaw Saginaw () is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Saginaw County. The city of Saginaw and Saginaw County are both in the area known as Mid-Michigan. Saginaw is adjacent to Saginaw Charter Township and considered part of Greater ...

and Black River valleys. The beaches appear as ill-defined gravel or gravelly soil. In the first belt is the faintest, the second is slightly stronger, and the third is the strongest.

Texture

The most peculiar characteristic of the gravel belts is their stiff clay. The soil of these gravel belts is very stiff and forms clods. They are continuous for miles, maintaining a constant level, and then merge into a single set of ridges in the Black River valley. Unlike most beaches of sand, the remains of the Arkona beaches are only the base structure, which are heavily impregnated with clay. Except for their consistent elevation, they would not have been identified as beach remnants. The Arkona beaches have been heavily modified by wave actions and the emergence of

. Initially, Lake Whittlesey's waves began the process of washing the top portion of the Arkona beaches away. Then, the depth of the lake grew and water currents along the bottom of the lake moved the larger gravels up slope to become part of the Lake Whittlesey beaches. Then a period of deep quiet water allowed fine clays to leave suspension and be deposited among the remaining gravel.

Distribution

As far south as Lenox the three Arkona gravel belts are distinct. Beyond, there are a few intervals in which only two are discernible. Still farther southwest the first and second ridges draw closer together and the vertical interval between them diminishes until it is often difficult to distinguish the two. The three ridges are distinguishable some distance beyond Britton, where the upper two are of very nearly the same height. The same occurrence of three beaches was noted in the Saginaw basin between Flushing and Cass City, but west of Flushing only two beaches appear. In the Saginaw basin the Arkona beaches were not submerged, but they were uplifted. The full strength of the Arkona beach ridges near Cass City and Croswell makes it clear that the ice barrier stood at least 25 miles north, enough distance to allow a heavy on shore surf.

Correlatives

Lake Chicago Lake Chicago was a prehistoric proglacial lake that is the ancestor of what is now known as Lake Michigan, one of North America's five Great Lakes. Fed by retreating glaciers, it drained south through the Chicago Outlet River. Origin The cit ...

was nearing its maximum at the time of Lake Arkona. In the Superior basin the ice sheet still covered the entire area. In

the

Finger Lakes The Finger Lakes are a group of eleven long, narrow, roughly north–south lakes located south of Lake Ontario in an area called the ''Finger Lakes region'' in New York, in the United States. This region straddles the northern and transitional ...

had united with Lake Arkona with the exception of possibly the most easterly lakes.The Pleistocene of Indiana and Michigan, History of the Great Lakes; Monographs of the United States Geological Survey, Vol. LIII; Frank Leverett and Frank B. Taylor; Washington, D.C,; Government Printing Office; 1915 The Lake Arkona water levels were close to the level of the First

Lake Saginaw Lake Saginaw occupied the basin of Saginaw Bay. There were two periods when it was an independent lake, not associated with a larger body of water in the Huron basin. The first Lake Saginaw was a contemporary of the last stages of Lake Maumee. ...

, and when the ice sheet retreated north from

, the merger of Maumee with Saginaw gave rise to Lake Arkona.Chapter XV, Glacial Lake Saginaw; Frank B. Taylor; The Pleistocene of Indiana and Michigan, History of the Great Lakes; Monographs of the United States Geological Survey, Vol LIII; Frank Leverett and Frank B. Taylor; Washington, D.C,; Government Printing Office; 1915 Later the Laurentian ice sheet expanded southward to the Port Huron morainic system. The lake waters to the east and south began to rise by above the Arkona beaches, becoming

and the western area once again became Later Lake Saginaw.. This rise in the lake waters caused the obliteration of most of the Arkona beaches as described above. In some places the Arkona beaches stand by the outer border of the Port Huron morainic system.Publication 9. Geological Series 7; Surface Geology and Agricultural Conditions of the Southern Peninsula of Michigan; Frank Leverett with a Chapter on Climate by C. F. Schneider;Michigan Geological and Biological Survey Lansing Michigan; 1911

References