Lake Wayne formed in the

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has t ...

and

Lake St. Clair Lake St. Clair (french: Lac Sainte-Claire) is a freshwater lake that lies between the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of Michigan. It was named in 1679 by French Catholic explorers after Saint Clare of Assisi, on whose feast day ...

basins around 12,500 years before present (YBP) when

Lake Arkona Lake Arkona was a stage of the lake waters in the Huron-Erie-Ontario basin following the end of the Lake Maumee levels and before the Lake Whittlesey stages, named for Arkona, Ontario, about east of Sarnia, Ontario, Sarnia. Beaches The ice she ...

dropped in elevation. About below the

Lake Warren Lake Warren was a proglacial lake that formed in the Lake Erie basin around 12,700 years before present (YBP) when Lake Whittlesey dropped in elevation. Lake Warren is divided into three stages: Warren I , Warren II , and Warren III , each defined ...

beaches it was early described as a lower Lake Warren level. Based on work in Wayne County, near the village of Wayne evidence was found that Lake Wayne succeeded

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 ...

and preceded Lake Warren.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 From the Saginaw Basin the lake did not discharge water through Grand River but eastward along the edge of the ice sheet to

Syracuse, New York Syracuse ( ) is a City (New York), city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, Onondaga County, New York, United States. It is the fifth-most populous city in the state of New York following New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffa ...

, thence into the

Mohawk valley The Mohawk Valley region of the U.S. state of New York is the area surrounding the Mohawk River, sandwiched between the Adirondack Mountains and Catskill Mountains, northwest of the Capital District. As of the 2010 United States Census, th ...

. This shift in outlets warranted a separate from Lake Warren. The Wayne beach lies but a short distance inside the limits of the Warren beach. Its character is not greatly different when taken throughout its length in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. At the type locality in

Wayne County, Michigan Wayne County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of 2020, the United States Census placed its population at 1,793,561, making it the 19th-most populous county in the United States. The county seat is Detroit. The coun ...

, it is a sandy ridge, but farther north, and to the east through Ohio it is gravel. The results of the isostatic rebound area similar to the Lake Warren beaches.

History

The Wayne beach is below the level of the

beach. It appears to be the older, for it shows evidence of submergence and modification. The Wayne beach was submerged and modified during Lake Warren. The lowest stage of Lake Wayne may have coincided with the earliest stages of

Lake Algonquin Lake Algonquin was a prehistoric proglacial lake that existed in east-central North America at the time of the last ice age. Parts of the former lake are now Lake Huron, Georgian Bay, Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Nipigon, and Lake Nipissing ...

Chapter XVIII, Glacial Lake Wayne; 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

Outlet

Lake Wayne was correlated with the Two Creeks Interstade and with eastward drainage into the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...

.Leverett and Taylor (1915), Hough (1958), and Bretz (1966), Field studies in western New York are inconclusive.Strand Lines and Chronology of the Glacial Great Lakes in Northwestern New York; Parker E. Calkin; Department of Geological Sciences, State University of New York at Buffalo; The Ohio Journal of Science 70(2): 78, March, 1970 Based on studies of the Buffalo Moraine, the Alden Moraine, and the Niagara Falls Moraine it is believed that a local series of rapid glacial melting led to sand and gravel deposition, followed by an advance of the ice sheet. Because subdued pebble beach ridges, the Wayne Lake may have persisted until the ice margin had retreated north to near the Niagara Falls Moraine. This would raise the lake level to form the Warren III lake.

Beach

From 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 ...

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 ...

line on the Black River to

Port Huron Port Huron is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of St. Clair County. The population was 30,184 at the 2010 census. The city is adjacent to Port Huron Township but is administered separately. Located along the St. Clair ...

the beach is very identifiable. It is composed of fine, partly wind-blown sand or is buried. The beach enters Michigan northeast of

Sylvania, Ohio Sylvania is a city in Lucas County, Ohio, United States. The population was 19,011 at the 2020 census. Sylvania is a suburb of Toledo, and encompassed by Sylvania Township. Its northern border is the southern border of the state of Michigan. T ...

. Here, it is a broad, sandy belt, about wide. The beach slightly above the . The belt is mostly areas of

dunes A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, fl ...

with swampy hollows. It includes a delta at the

Huron River The Huron River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed November 7, 2011 river in southeastern Michigan, rising out of the Huron Swamp in Springfield Township in north ...

near

Romulus Romulus () was the legendary foundation of Rome, founder and King of Rome, first king of Ancient Rome, Rome. Various traditions attribute the establishment of many of Rome's oldest legal, political, religious, and social institutions to Romulus ...

. near Wayne it is composed of sandy gravel wide and standing above the plain to the east of above the western plain.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wayne Former lakes of the United States Geology of Indiana Geology of Ohio Geology of Michigan Geology of New York (state) Geology of Pennsylvania Geological history of the Great Lakes Proglacial lakes Lake Erie Glacial lakes of Ohio Glacial lakes of Canada

History

Outlet

Beach

See also

References