Geology

Geologic Formations

Geological history recorded in the sedimentary rocks and surficial deposits of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is limited to two widely separated intervals of geologic time, the Late Precambrian, Cambrian, and Early Ordovician Periods (500-800 million years before present) and the Late Quaternary Period (two million years before present to the present).

During the Cambrian and Early Ordovician periods, sediments were deposited in the shallow seas and near-shore deltas that covered what is now northern Michigan. These deposits became the sandstone units that are exposed within the Lakeshore. Except for their exposure near Lake Superior, these units are presently covered by a veneer of Quaternary glacial drift.

Bedrock is best observed in the western one-third of the Lakeshore where cliffs rise up to 60 m (180 feet) from Lake Superior. These extend along the lake about 27 km (17 m) from Munising to Beaver Basin. For a short distance inland from the escarpment, bedrock is occasionally exposed.

The Jacobsville Formation, of Late Precambrian age, is the oldest formation exposed in the lakeshore. It is a fluvial/lacustrine, feldspar-rich quartz sandstone, deep red in color with white mottling. Only the top few feet of the formation rise above lake level within the Lakeshore (e.g., vicinity of Au Sable Point). This formation was quarried on nearby Grand Island for building stone in the late 19th century. The western side of Grand Island, within the Hiawatha National Forest, features spectacular Jacobsville cliffs.

The Mid to Late Cambrian, light grey to white Munising Formation lies unconformably above the Jacobsville. The Munising Formation probably represents a complex shoreline/shallow water environment that was influenced by fluvial, wave, tidal and aeolian processes. The Munising is divided into three members: the basal conglomerate, the hard Chapel Rock sandstone, characterized by large, sweeping cross beds and the crumbly Miners Castle sandstone.

Capping the easily eroded Miners Castle Member of the Munising Formation in the western half of the Pictured Rocks, is the resistant Early Ordovician Au Train Formation. The Au Train Formation is a light brown to white dolomitic sandstone that lies above the distinctive caprock above the lip of Munising and Bridalveil Falls.

Fossils are completely absent from the Jacobsville Formation and uncommon in the Munising Formation. Fragments of trilobites have been found in the Miners Castle member and 26 taxa of conodonts in the upper Munising Formation and the lower Au Train Formation. The Au Train also contains Middle Ordovician cephalopod and gastropod fossils.

Structurally, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore lies along the northern edge of the Michigan Basin, thus sedimentary bedding dips gently toward the south. Strata also rise very slightly eastward in the vicinity of the Lakeshore so that the Jacobsville, which is below lake level at Miners Castle, is well exposed to the east of Hurricane River Campground, at Au Sable Point, and in the gorge at Sable Falls.

Glaciers / Glacial Features

During the Pleistocene epoch, ice sheets of all four North American glacial stages advanced and retreated through the area. The Valders advance, one of the last substages of the Wisconsinan glacial period, wiped the surface clean and left only its record about 12,000 years ago. A brief re-advance of ice, the Marquette substage, occurred 10,000 years ago in northern Upper Michigan.

Melting of glacial ice within the Superior Basin produced huge rivers that deposited millions of tons of pulverized rock rubble in various configurations to the south of the Superior basin. A sheet of outwash, of varying thickness, was deposited along the south edge of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore between Wetmore and Seney by southward flowing "braided" glacial streams. The material underlying the present-day Kingston Plains was deposited in this way. Kingston and Nevins lakes are examples of "kettle hole lakes" within the outwash. The Grand Sable Banks near Grand Marais perhaps originated as a glaciofluvial crevasse filling or kame terrace.

Meltwater carved several channels into Cambrian sandstone bedrock; the most prominent of these are now occupied by Chapel Creek and Mosquito River and by Beaver Basin. As ice retreated completely from the Superior Basin, water levels in the basin receded rapidly northward leaving the Pictured Rocks area "high and dry" about 9500 years ago. This occurred as outlet channels to the east remained at low levels due to the recent loading of glacier ice.

Between 6,000 and 4,000 years before present, "isostatic rebound" of the earth's crust from its "depressed" state began to accelerate as land was relieved of the huge weight of the ice sheets. The rise of the outlet of ancestral Lake Superior (at North Bay, Ontario) caused lake level to rise relatively quickly to a level roughly 13 m (40 feet) higher than present Lake Superior. This high lake stand has been designated Glacial Lake Nipissing. Slowing of rebound, downcutting of channels through unconsolidated material, shifting of outlets to the south and climatic change subsequently caused a lowering of Lake Superior to near its present level.

As lake levels rose about 5,000 years before present, the Grand Sable Banks were destabilized and part of the glaciofluvial deposit was reworked by wind to form the Grand Sable Dunes. During the Nipissing "high stand," Chapel Rock and Miners Castle as well as many less prominent features were carved into the Cambrian sandstone by wave action. Beaver, Trappers, Little Beaver, Chapel, Little Chapel, and Miners Lakes represent embayments on ancient Lake Nipissing.

As erosion lowered the Lake Nipissing outlet to the modern Lake Superior level during a 1,600 year period, lake currents deposited a succession of parallel beach ridges from the Nipissing level to the present beach. These closely spaced ridges which form a "corrugated plain", are evident in the vicinity of Au Sable Point, along the trail from Little Beaver Lake Campground to Lake Superior, on Sand Point and on the tombolo between Trout and Murrays Bay on Grand Island.