The Valparaiso Moraine

During my travels of the Calumet Region, I wanted to visit a moraine. A moraine is "a geographical feature composed of materials that were deposited by a glacier". (Schoon pg. 221) In my class, Groundwater and Glaciers, I read about the Valparaiso Moraine.

The moraine was created during the Pleistocene ice age, 1.8 million to 11,000 years ago. The deposit or till contains small and large particles. These particles can be clay, silt, sand, gravel pebbles and boulders. When the ice age came to an end, the glaciers retreated north and vegetation started to develop. (http://faculty.pnc.edu/pwilkin/geology.html/

The Valparaiso Moraine is about 60 miles long in Indiana and between 5 and 15 miles wide. The Lake Michigan ice lobe set down the Valparaiso Moraine in a large curve across far northwestern Indiana. To the north, the moraine impounded a lake along the edge of the ice lobe, which was melting. Mixed till and outwash were left from the meltwaters that had overflowed in places. Kettle lakes ("a depression left where a block of ice, left behind in glacial sediments, finally melted") are also found in the region. (Camp/Graham pg. 226, 296)

While researching the Valparaiso Moraine, I discovered an area that I could visit.

I traveled east on Rt. 30 into Valparaiso. I came to the intersection of N. Calumet Ave. and 632N/638N. As I approached this area, I could see Mink Lake (which is a kettle lake) situated on part of the Valparaiso moraine. A very hilly golf course rested around the lake. As I stood and looked over the golf course and the lake, I was amazed that this was a part of the region's geological history.

References: Kenneth J. Schoon/Calumet Beginnings

http://faculty.pnc.edu/pwilkin/geology.html1/

Mark J. Camp, Graham T. Richardson/Roadside Geology of Indiana