An analysis of the late glacial lake levels within the western Lake Superior basin based on digital elevation models

This study establishes a detailed lake-level history for the Lake Superior basin by mapping strandlines from 10-m and 3-m digital elevation models. There are 24 levels above the mid-Holocene Nipissing level, and elevations increase along a direction of 23.1° due to post-glacial rebound. The highest level, the Epi-Duluth, is steeper than subsequent levels and may pre-date the Lake View ice advance into the western Lake Superior basin at the end of the Younger Dryas stade. The most prominent level is the Duluth, ca. 10,800 cal yr BP. Ice retreat exposed successively lower outlets, routing overflow to the Lake Michigan and Huron basins. By 10,600 cal yr BP, lake levels in the western Superior basin had dropped almost 200 m. This transformative period is complicated by multiple basin-wide events: the influx of glacial Lake Agassiz overflow, the creation of three sub-aqueous moraines, and a red to gray color transition in basin sediments. A later drawdown event has been hypothesized to have initiated the 9300 cal yr BP cooling event, but this flood was much smaller than estimated previously. If freshwater triggered the 9300 cal yr BP event, the source of the water must have been Lake Agassiz, not Lake Superior.