A GIS Study of Glacial and Post-glacial Geomorphology

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A GIS Study of Glacial and Post-glacial
Geomorphology in Western New York
Otto H. Muller Alfred University
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• 1. Reprojected NED floating point data from
  lat/long to UTM zone 17
• 2. Tilted the DEM to remove Post Glacial Rebound,
  at Fairchild rates
• to the E 50 ft in 60 miles 0.0001570
• to the N 100 ft in 50 miles
  0.0003788
• 3. Chose four 7 m elevation ranges to represent
  stable lake levels
• High Alfred Terrace 540 - 547 m
• Willing Terrace 509 - 516 m
• Scio Terrace 479 - 486 m
• Hornell Delta 386 - 393 m
• 4. Tried to find terraces using county wide
  statistics
• 5. Found areas in these ranges having slopes lt 3
• 6. Explored lake and drainage histories
• Software Used REALBasic, gdalwarp, Excel,
  GRASS, MacDEM

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• 1. Reprojected NED floating point data from
  lat/long to UTM zone 17
• 2. Tilted the DEM to remove Post Glacial Rebound,
  at Fairchild rates
• to the E 50 ft in 60 miles 0.0001570
• to the N 100 ft in 50 miles
  0.0003788
• 3. Chose four 7 m elevation ranges to represent
  stable lake levels
• High Alfred Terrace 540 - 547 m
• Willing Terrace 509 - 516 m
• Scio Terrace 479 - 486 m
• Hornell Delta 386 - 393 m
• 4. Tried to find terraces using county wide
  statistics
• 5. Found areas in these ranges having slopes lt 3
• 6. Explored lake and drainage histories
• Software Used REALBasic, gdalwarp, Excel,
  GRASS, MacDEM

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• The Fairchild rates
• to the E 50 ft in 60 miles 0.0001570
• to the N 100 ft in 50 miles 0.0003788
• This is equivalent to a strike and dip of
• N 67.5W, 0.023 NE
• Hinge was set at 42N, 78W

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A card table with one playing card beneath two
adjacent legs would have a tilt of about two feet
per mile 0.03 cm 85 cm 0.000353
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• 1. Reprojected NED floating point data from
  lat/long to UTM zone 17
• 2. Tilted the DEM to remove Post Glacial Rebound,
  at Fairchild rates
• to the E 50 ft in 60 miles 0.0001570
• to the N 100 ft in 50 miles
  0.0003788
• 3. Chose four 7 m elevation ranges to represent
  stable lake levels High Alfred Terrace 540 -
  547 m
• Willing Terrace 509 - 516 m
• Scio Terrace 479 - 486 m
• Hornell Delta 386 - 393 m
• 4. Tried to find terraces using county wide
  statistics
• 5. Found areas in these ranges having slopes lt 3
• 6. Explored lake and drainage histories
• Software Used REALBasic, gdalwarp, Excel,
  GRASS, MacDEM

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High Alfred Terrace 540 - 547 m Willing
Terrace 509 - 516 m Scio Terrace 479 - 486
m Hornell Delta 386 - 393
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High Alfred Terrace 540 - 547 m
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Willing Terrace 509 - 516 m
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Scio Terrace 479 - 486 m
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Hornell Delta 386 - 393 m
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• 1. Reprojected NED floating point data from
  lat/long to UTM zone 17
• 2. Tilted the DEM to remove Post Glacial Rebound,
  at Fairchild rates
• to the E 50 ft in 60 miles 0.0001570
• to the N 100 ft in 50 miles
  0.0003788
• 3. Chose four 7 m elevation ranges to represent
  stable lake levels High Alfred Terrace 540 -
  547 m
• Willing Terrace 509 - 516 m
• Scio Terrace 479 - 486 m
• Hornell Delta 386 - 393 m
• 4. Tried to find terraces using county wide
  statistics
• 5. Found areas in these ranges having slopes lt 3
• 6. Explored lake and drainage histories
• Software Used REALBasic, gdalwarp, Excel,
  GRASS, MacDEM

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County-Wide untilted data histogram shows
periodic artifact, probably a result of how the
DEM was produced.
County-Wide tilted data histogram retains some of
this artifact. There is little support for the
identified terrace elevations.
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• 1. Reprojected NED floating point data from
  lat/long to UTM zone 17
• 2. Tilted the DEM to remove Post Glacial Rebound,
  at Fairchild rates
• to the E 50 ft in 60 miles 0.0001570
• to the N 100 ft in 50 miles
  0.0003788
• 3. Chose four 7 m elevation ranges to represent
  stable lake levels High Alfred Terrace 540 -
  547 m
• Willing Terrace 509 - 516 m
• Scio Terrace 479 - 486 m
• Hornell Delta 386 - 393 m
• 4. Tried to find terraces using county wide
  statistics
• 5. Found areas in these ranges having slopes lt 3
• 6. Explored lake and drainage histories
• Software Used REALBasic, gdalwarp, Excel,
  GRASS, MacDEM

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High Alfred Terrace 540 - 547 m Willing
Terrace 509 - 516 m Scio Terrace 479 - 486
m Hornell Delta 386 - 393
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Willing Terrace 509 - 516 m Scio Terrace 479 -
486 m Moss Lake 439 m
Rushford Lake
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Wellsville Lake Elevation 479 m
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Wellsville Lake Elevation 479 m
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Wellsville Lake Elevation 479 m
but... this valley, Black Creek, has no
Scio terrace deposits.
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• 1. Reprojected NED floating point data from
  lat/long to UTM zone 17
• 2. Tilted the DEM to remove Post Glacial Rebound,
  at Fairchild rates
• to the E 50 ft in 60 miles 0.0001570
• to the N 100 ft in 50 miles
  0.0003788
• 3. Chose four 7 m elevation ranges to represent
  stillstands
• High Alfred Terrace 540 - 547 m
• Willing Terrace 509 - 516 m
• Scio Terrace 479 - 486 m
• Hornell Delta 386 - 393 m
• 4. Tried to find terraces using county wide
  statistics
• 5. Found areas in these ranges having slopes lt 3
• 6. Explored lake and drainage histories
• Software Used REALBasic, gdalwarp, Excel,
  GRASS, MacDEM

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The outlet will be the lowest breach on the dam
holding up a lake. However, another valley may
erode faster than the original outlet, cutting to
a lower elevation and becoming a new outlet. If
this occurs, the original outlet will cease
eroding and its elevation indicates the elevation
of the lake when the new outlet took
over. Fairchilds Pennsylvania lakes have
outlets down to 619 m, suggesting that the outlet
at Stone Dam became active when it eroded below
619 m. It now has an elevation of 484 m,
suggesting that an outlet at either Black Creek
or Swain opened at this elevation, which is also
the elevation of the Scio terrace. The presence
of this terrace in both the Genesee and Hornell
valleys suggests that the connection was made
through the Swain valley.
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Five Corners
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Five Corners
East Valley
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Five Corners
East Valley
Bennetts Creek
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Outlets
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Outlet
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1 600 m
4 518 m
2 590 m
To East 484 -385 m
3 562 m
To West 619 - 484 m
To South 687 - 619 m
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Untilted Elevation Untilted Elevation Tilted Elevation
Fairchild Name Feet Meters Meters Feature
Pennsylvania 2068 630 687 - 619
600 Five Corners (H-gtG)
590 East Valley (H-gtG)
562 Bennett's Creek (H-gtG)
540 - 547 High Alfred Terrace
518 West Valley (H-gtG)
509 - 516 Willing Terrace
Wellsville Lake 1600 488 479 - 486 Scio Terrace (H G)
Portage-Nunda 1320 402 386 - 393 Hornell Delta (H G)
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Questions?