Glaciers and the Cincinnati Landscape, November 25, 2010 Field Trip

This field trip was a driving tour through portions of the southeastern side of Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky to view first-hand how the glaciers sculpted the area topography and how the existing river, stream, and drainage systems are evolving to shape the landscape.  During our tour, we drove through the Clermont Valley which was cut by glacial ice and melt-water from the Illinoian glacier. The Illinoian glacial melt-water created the large system of dendritic water flows in Clermont County that are currently trying to break down the stream divides to create a larger river system to flow to the Ohio River.  We observed that as the dendritic system of water flows got closer to the Ohio River, stream divides became very small and fewer in number and the topography became choppy.  We noticed how the hilltops in the area are the peaks of where the glaciers were with the rest of the landscape sculpted through erosion. 

     When the Wisconsinan glacier moved into Northern Cincinnati about 70,000 years ago, it brought with it outwashes of sand of gravel from Canada that filled many valleys in the Cincinnati area.  As a result, there are many sand and gravel pits in the Cincinnati region and Ohio that are a valuable Ohio resource.  In the Clermont County Valley, we drove by Kipp’s and Evan’s gravel mines.  A bucket of gravel from Evan’s Gravel Mine contained gravel from the Canadian shield, dolomitic limestone, and limestone.  In addition to bringing sand and gravel, the Wisconsinan glacier carried and deposited glacial erratics from Canada into the Clermont County Valley.  Glacial erratics are large rocks mostly from the 1.5 billion years old Canadian shield.

The advance and retreat of the Illinoian glacier produced an immature soil system in the Cincinnati area.  This immature soil system consists mostly of clay and rock flower with no organic material and is classified in the world of soil orders as an Inceptisol.  Inceptisols are weakly developed young soils that are just beginning to develop a soil profile. Cincinnati’s developing soil system is affected by the immature area drainage system them continues to wash soil development.