Date of Award
1960
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Geology
First Advisor
F.D. Holland, Jr
Abstract
The topography of northern Kidder County is due almost entirely to glacial deposition. This are is covered with glacial drift up to a thickness of at least 269 feet which was deposited during Wisconsin ice advances. Seventy-five percent of the area has stagnation moraine which typically exhibits knob-and-kettle topography, has high local relief with no linear trends, and which was deposited after the ice became stagnant. Many kames and eskers were formed contemporaneously with stagnation moraine. The names, Lake Williams and Woodhouse Lake loops, and proposed for and moraines deposited by Cary and Mankato ice advances, respectively. The Lake Williams loop consists partially of gravelly till while the Woodhouse Lake loop is essentially of clay till. Deposition of outwash accompanied the formation of these end moraines. Mechanical analysis were made of outwash and ice-contact drift, and results are included in the report. A small amount of ground moraine was deposited by Mankato ice in the northeastern part of the region. Calcium carbonate has not been leached from exposed tills, but an oxidized till occurs in a test well. Drift covered elongate bedrock hills preciously considered by others as end moraines are shown to by bedrock highs. Cretaceous and Tertiary bedrock beneath the drift has been considerably deformed, some of which is due to ice-shove.
Recommended Citation
Chmelik, James, "Pleistocene geology of northern Kidder county, North Dakota" (1960). Theses and Dissertations. 56.
https://commons.und.edu/theses/56