MR447: Seasonal Water Table and Temperature Relationships in Calcareous Till and Residual Soils of Central Maine

Water table depths and soil temperatures were monitored for four growing seasons in six calcareous till pedons developed on gently rolling to level till plains in Corinth and Exeter, Maine. These soils are part of a new catena that supports potato production in southeastern Penobscot County. Three of these coarse-loamy to fine-loamy pedons are moderately well drained Oxyaquic Eutrudepts taxadjuncts in potato fields, and three are somewhat poorly drained Aquic Dystric Eutrudepts in predominantly deciduous forest. Soil morphology, hydrologic data, and a,a dipyridyl applications support the described subgroup classification of each pedon, along with the udic moisture regime. Despite a smooth, glaciated landscape that would suggest the presence of extensive lodgment till, five observation sites lacked a densic contact and one contained residuum (saprolite) in the substratum. Apparent water tables in the SPD very deep soils, as well as oxyaquic hydrology in the deep soils on 0 to 3 percent slopes, suggest the more permeable subglacial melt-out till predominating, rather than lodgment till in all of these pedons. Growing season concepts were compared based on frost-free season at 0 and -2.2° C thresholds, soil temperatures in the plow layer, soil temperature at 50 cms and well-water temperature. The commencement of the growing season in the spring did not differ much across all five concepts. However, in the fall there was a 4- to 8-week lag between the air or shallower soil-temperature growing-season concepts and the deeper soil or well-water-temperature growing-season concepts. Daytime air temperature during the first 2 years of monitoring differed significantly between spring and fall seasons, but not between field and forest sites within each season.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/aes_miscreports/1027/thumbnail.jp

The Deglaciation of Maine, USA

The glacial geology of Maine records the northward recession of the Late Wisconsinan Laurentide Ice Sheet, followed by development of a residual ice cap in the Maine-Québec border region due to marine transgression of the St. Lawrence Lowland in Canada. The pattern of deglaciation across southern Maine has been reconstructed from numerous end moraines, deltas and submarine fans deposited during marine transgression of the coastal lowland. Inland from the marine limit, a less-detailed sequence of deglaciation is recorded by striation patterns, meltwater channels, scattered moraines and waterlain deposits that constrain the trend of the ice margin. There is no evidence that the northern Maine ice cap extended as far south-west as the Boundary Mountains and New Hampshire border. Newly-obtained radiocarbon ages from marine and terrestrial ice-proximal environments have improved the chronology of glacial recession in Maine. Many of these ages were obtained by coring late-glacial sediments beneath ponds and lakes. Data from this study show that the state was deglaciated between about 14.5 and 11.0 ka BP (14C years). The coastal moraine belt in southern Maine was deposited by oscillatory ice-margin retreat during the cold pre-Bølling time. Rapid ice recession to northern Maine then occurred between 13 and 11 ka BP, during the warmer Bølling/Allerød chronozones. Radiocarbon-dated pond sediments in western and northern Maine show lithologic evidence of Younger Dryas climatic cooling and persistence of the northern ice cap into Younger Dryas time. A large discrepancy still exists between radiocarbon ages of deglaciation in coastal south-western Maine and the timing of ice retreat indicated by New England varve records in areas to the west. Part of this problem may stem from the uncertainty of reservoir corrections applied to the radiocarbon ages of marine organics

Report on fossiliferous glacial marine localities in the Passamaquoddy Bay area and sediment cores from ponds in eastern Maine

Maine Geological Surve

Report on fossiliferous glacial marine localities in the Passamaquoddy Bay area and sediment cores from ponds in eastern Maine

Maine Geological Surve

Report on core analysis from 5 ponds in western Maine and New Hampshire: Cushman Pond, Lower Black Pond, Surplus Pond, Pond of Safety, Quimby Pond

Maine Geological Surve

Report on core analysis from 5 ponds in western Maine and New Hampshire: Cushman Pond, Lower Black Pond, Surplus Pond, Pond of Safety, Quimby Pond

Maine Geological Surve

Deglaciation of the northwestern White Mountains, New Hampshire

The mode of deglaciation in the northwestern White Mountains of New Hampshire has been controversial since the mid 1800's. Early workers believed that active ice deposited the Bethlehem Moraine complex in the Ammonoosuc River basin during recession of the last ice sheet. In the 1930's this deglaciation model was replaced by the concept of widespread simultaneous stagnation and downwastage of Late Wisconsinan ice. The present authors reexamined the Bethlehem Moraine complex and support the original interpretation of a series of moraines deposited by active ice. We found other moraine clusters of similar age to the northeast in the Johns River and Israel River basins. Ice-marginal deposits that probably correlate with the Bethlehem Moraine also occur west of Littleton. The Bethlehem Moraine complex and equivalent deposits in adjacent areas were formed by readvance and oscillatory retreat of the Connecticut Valley lobe of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. This event is called the Littleton-Bethlehem Readvance. Throughout the study area, sequences of glaciolacustrine deposits and meltwater drainage channels indicate progressive northward recession of the glacier margin. Radiocarbon dates from nearby New England and Québec suggest that the ice sheet withdrew from this part of the White Mountains between about 12 500 and 12 000 14 C yr BP. We attribute the Littleton- Bethlehem Readvance to a brief climatic cooling during Older Dyas time, close to 12,000 BP.Le mode de déglaciation du nord-ouest des White Mountains a fait l'objet de contro- verses depuis le milieu du XIX e siècle. Les premiers chercheurs ont supposé que le complexe morainique de Bethlehem dans le bassin de l'Ammonoosuc River avait été mis en place par la glace active au cours du recul du dernier Inlandsis. Au cours des années 1930, ce modèle de déglaciation a été remplacé par le concept selon lequel il y aurait eu stagnation simultanée sur une grande étendue et fonte de l'inlandsis du Wisconsinien supérieur. Les présents auteurs ont réétudié la Moraine de Bethlehem et appuient l'interprétation originelle selon laquelle il s'agit d'un ensemble de moraines terminales mises en place par une glace active. Ils ont aussi découvert d'autres ensembles morainiques d'âge similaire au nord-est, dans les bassins de Johns River et Israel River. Quelques dépôts de marge glaciaire, probablement de la même époque que celle du complexe morainique de Bethlehem, ont aussi été identifiés à l'ouest de Littleton. Le complexe morainique de Bethlehem et les dépôts équivalents dans les zones adjacentes ont été mis en place par récurrence et retrait oscillatoire du lobe de la vallée du Connecticut appartenant à l'Inlandsis laurentidien. Il s'agit de la récurrence de Littleton-Bethlehem. Les dates obtenues en Nouvelle-Angletterre et dans le Québec limitrophe laissent supposer que l'Inlandsis laurentidien s'est retiré de cette partie des White Mountains vers 12 500-12 000 14 C BP. Les auteurs attribuent la récurrence à une refroidissement climatique de courte durée vers 12 000 BP, pendant le Dryas ancien.Die Art des Abschmelzens in den nordwestli- chen White Mountains von New Hampshire ist seit Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts umstritten gewesen. Die ersten Forscher glaubten, dass aktives Eis die Bethlehem-Moräne-Einheit während des Rückzugs der letzten Eisdecke im Becken des Ammonoosuc-Flusses ablagerte. In den 30 er Jahren des 20. Jahrhunderts wurde dieses Enteisungsmodell durch das Konzept einer gleichzeitigen weitflächigen Stagnation und Abwärtszehrung des Spät-Wisconsin-Eises ersetzt. Die gegenwärtigen Autoren haben die Bethlehem-Moräne-Einheit neu untersucht und stützen die ursprüngliche Interpretation einer Serie von Moränen, welche durch das aktive Eis abgelagert wurden. Sie fanden weitere Moränen-Einheiten ähnlichen Alters nordostwärts in den Becken von Johns River und Israel River. Eisrand-Ablagerungen, die wahrscheinlich mit der Bethlehem-Moräne korrelieren, treten auch westlich von Littleton auf. Die Bethlehem-Moräne-Einheit und entsprechende Ablagerungen in angrenzenden Gebieten wurden durch Rückvorstoβ und oszillatorischen Rückzug der Connecticut Tal-Lobe der laurentischen Eisdecke gebildet. Dies Ereignis nennt man den Littleton-Bethlehem-Rückvorstoβ. Durch das ganze erforschte Gebiet hindurch weisen Folgen glaziallimnischer Ablagerungen und Schmelzwasser-Drainage-Rinnen auf einen Rückzug des Gletscherrands in Richtung Nordwest. Radiokarbondaten vom nahen Neu-England und Québec legen nahe, dass die Eisdecke sich von diesem Teil der White Mountains zwischen etwa 12 500-12 000 14 C Jahren v.u.Z. zurückzog. Wir schreiben den Littleton-Bethlehem Rückvorstoβ einer kurzen Klima-Abkühlung wäh- rend des älteren Dryas zu, um 12 000 v.u.Z