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89:
257:, was neither deep nor broad. It was a wide plain of Marseilles drift, with a small river. The early outflows spread across this plain. At its highest level, the torrent found channels in the Minooka ridge and flowed across the ridge to the drift plain in the west. As the outflows continued, the Marseilles drift plain in the east was eroded. This removed much of the drift and even began eroding into the Silurian dolomite beneath. In the last stages, channels were cut in the bedrock.
19:
112:. Both the Kankakee River and Illinois River largely follow paths carved out by the torrent, a process that is believed to have taken only days. Most notable today is a region in north-central Illinois known as Starved Rock; while most of Illinois is located on a low-lying plain with little variation in elevation, Starved Rock State Park features several
260:
The area along the southern bank of the
Kankakee River, west of Kankakee, Illinois, consists of long narrow ridges leading to the northwest. These are gravel bars from the Kankakee outwash. The force of outflow scoured some of the dolomite bedrock, which can be seen in the gravel bars. The heavy flow
124:
The
Kankakee River also bears several features that are direct results of the catastrophic flood. The Kankakee River State Park encompasses all of the types of features that formed as a result of the catastrophic flood event. Along much of its course, tributaries enter the Kankakee over waterfalls, a
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age. Pre-glacial erosion of the surface of the bedrock created an irregular surface, allowing the glacial drift to vary in depth over short distances. Some areas are underlain by bedrock near the surface; in other areas it can be 100 feet (30 m) deep. Some hills are solely glacial drift; others
278:
Outwash from the glacier was carried beyond the
Kankakee area. The coarser outwash, consisting of the coarser pieces of the local drift and of rubble ripped from the bedrock, became bars along the river. At the end of the outflow, the lighter sands and silts were deposited in bars and across the
252:
The flood did not occur just once, or all at once. It was a repetitive event, over possibly hundreds of years. In the early years it was doubtless small, but as the years passed it became larger and larger until at some time it reached a maximum, and then, as the
Valparaiso glacier receded, it
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which were created in the
Kankakee Torrent. Another, very different, geologic effect left over from the Kankakee Torrent is the existence of "sand prairies". Sand prairies exist where the massive flood waters stopped their movement and deposited large quantities of sand. When
464:
Hajic, E.R., 1990. "Late
Pleistocene and Holocene landscape evolution, depositional subsystems, and stratigraphy in the Lower Illinois River Valley and adjacent Central Mississippi River Valley." Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Illinois, Urbana – Champaign, 301
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phenomenon known as "hanging tributaries". This is because the flood carved the
Kankakee far deeper than would normal river erosion, and the erosion of the bedrock along the slow-moving tributaries has never caught up. This effect is most evident where
343:
Curry, B.B., Hajic, E.R., Clark, J.A., Befus, K.M., Carrell, J.E. and Brown, S.E., 2014. "The
Kankakee Torrent and other large meltwater flooding events during the last deglaciation, Illinois, USA." Quaternary Science Reviews, 90,
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from the tills. The faster flow towards center created a channel, which the modern river still follows. Floodwaters were confined to the inter-moraine channels, which moved it west, then to the south. Upon reaching the
270:, area, the flood entered the ancestral Mississippi valley, now abandoned. The area where the old Mississippi valley was joined is called the Big Bend of the Illinois River.
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The water came from the melting "Valparaiso glacier", the glacier that deposited first the
Manhattan moraine and then other moraines to the northeast in the
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Earth
Science Field Trip, Guide Leaflet, Kankakee Area, Kankakee High School; 18 May 1957; John C. Frye; State Geological Survey; Urbana, Illinois; 1957
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appear to have had their courses altered by the Kankakee Torrent, with the Ohio being pushed further south and the Mississippi further west.
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valley floor. The sand was picked up by the wind, creating sand dunes to the south and southeast. Sand bars can be found as far south as
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bedrock to the waterfall point, upstream of its confluence with the Kankakee River, at the rate of 3 inches (76 mm) per year.
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Department of Geology and Environmental Sciences, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois. Retrieved 2017-09-24.
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settlers arrived, one remaining sign of these deposits were sand dunes located along parts of the flood's course.
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joins the Kankakee. The Illinois State Geological Survey reports that Rock Creek is cutting through the
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gradually subsided. Before the torrent, the valley of the Kankakee River near the city of
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68:. The landscape south of Chicago still shows the effects of the torrent, particularly at
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220:. The volume of water was blocked at the gap in the Farm Ridge moraine, a unit of the
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The effects of the Kankakee Torrent were not limited to northeast Illinois. Both the
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358:"Guide to the Geology of Kankakee River State Park Area, Kankakee County, Illinois."
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204:, which reached east up the Kankakee Valley into Indiana. It flowed south via the
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414:"Vegetation of Hooper Branch Nature Preserve, Iroquois County, Illinois"
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Illinois Geological Survey, Field Trip 1997C, Field Trip 1998 B. 11-17.
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The Kankakee Torrent was responsible for extensive modification of the
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over the Chatsworth ridge of the Marseilles morainic system to the
26:, carved by the force of the Kankakee Torrent some 19,000 years ago
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Designed from 1942 - Illinois Glacial Lakes by George, E. Eckblaw
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and Illinois River river valleys and landforms characteristic of
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180:, melt-water came from the Huron-Erie lobe to the east in the
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across northeast Indiana. The water backed up behind the
172:. The melt-water came from three glacial lobes of the
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between Farm Ridge and the Marseilles moraine in the
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261:of water transported boulders downstream and moved
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372:Filipek, K., Friant, K., and Richards, M., 1998,
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392:. Mountain Press Publishing. pp. 127–131.
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160:The area is underlain by dolomite bedrock of
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100:. (Leverett, 1899, U.S. Geological Survey)
188:and from the Sturgis Lobe coming out of
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64:. The point of origin of the flood was
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529:Rock formations of the United States
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240:between the Cropsey (unit of the
41:that occurred about 19,000
49:. It resulted from a breach of
165:may be entirely of limestone.
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389:Geology underfoot in Illinois
554:Glacial lake outburst floods
549:Floods in the United States
242:Bloomington morainic system
222:Bloomington morainic system
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374:"Starved Rock State Park."
200:. In the Morris Basin was
170:Valparaiso morainic system
57:fed by the melting of the
416:. Encyclopædia Britannica
314:List of prehistoric lakes
92:Michigan ice lobe at the
70:Kankakee River State Park
228:. This blockage created
47:Midwestern United States
281:Sand Ridge State Forest
214:Vermillion River Valley
78:Starved Rock State Park
24:Starved Rock State Park
304:Kankakee Outwash Plain
196:, forming a series of
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84:Geomorphology features
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524:Geography of Michigan
514:Geography of Illinois
490:41.42000°N 88.21083°W
356:Frankie, W.T., 1998.
283:in central Illinois.
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91:
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519:Geography of Indiana
437:Wiggers(1997), p.131
386:Ray Wiggers (1997).
299:Grand Kankakee Marsh
174:Laurentide Ice Sheet
96:location during the
62:Laurentide Ice Sheet
539:Geology of Illinois
495:41.42000; -88.21083
486: /
98:Pleistocene Ice Age
22:Sandstone cliff at
255:Kankakee, Illinois
194:Marseilles moraine
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142:Mississippi Rivers
102:
94:Valparaiso Moraine
28:
544:Glacial landforms
399:978-0-87842-346-0
268:LaSalle, Illinois
226:LaSalle, Illinois
218:Pontiac, Illinois
45:years ago in the
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263:glacial erratics
148:Flood hypothesis
53:forming a large
32:Kankakee Torrent
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309:Proglacial lake
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234:Illinois Valley
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206:Iroquois River
202:Lake Wauponsee
178:Michigan basin
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106:Kankakee River
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74:Illinois River
59:Late Wisconsin
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294:Lake Kankakee
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182:Maumee valley
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418:. Retrieved
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238:Lake Pontiac
210:Lake Watseka
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110:megaflooding
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66:Lake Chicago
55:glacial lake
36:catastrophic
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29:
15:
493: /
319:Great Lakes
230:Lake Ottawa
72:and on the
534:Megafloods
508:Categories
481:88°12′39″W
478:41°25′12″N
326:References
127:Rock Creek
43:calibrated
420:2 January
344:pp.22-36.
287:See also
190:Michigan
162:Silurian
131:dolomite
119:European
51:moraines
274:Outwash
216:, past
114:canyons
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236:, and
34:was a
248:Flood
224:near
208:into
198:lakes
39:flood
422:2011
394:ISBN
186:Ohio
140:and
138:Ohio
30:The
184:in
76:at
510::
465:p.
442:^
430:^
365:^
349:^
334:^
80:.
424:.
402:.
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