STRATIGRAPHIC CORRELATION OF LATE PLEISTOCENE SEDIMENTS OF A BURIED VALLEY IN NORTHFIELD TOWNSHIP, SUMMIT COUNTY, OHIO

The elevation and distribution of late Wisconsinan sediments on dissected interfluves of the Cuyahoga Valley in northern Summit County suggest that the valley remained filled during the Sangamonian interglaciation. Possible Sangamonian drainage was directed into an adjacent and parallel valley 5 km east of the present day Cuyahoga Valley. Silts and clays are the predominant surficial material that define the location of this buried valley that once drained southward through Silver Lake and Akron into the Tuscarawas River system. A study of 261 samples within ten borings from this buried valley in Northfield Township, Summit County, Ohio, showed that most of the valley is filled with late Wisconsinan sediments. Analyses of grain size, carbonate content, and lithologic descriptions, from the samples suggest the presence of sediments of the Kent, Lavery and Hiram advances of late Wisconsinan glaciation.

Sediments of the Hiram advance are distinguished by having a total carbonate content ranging from 10 to 14%, whereas Lavery sediments contain a total carbonate ranging from 5 to 11%. Diamicts within each of these deposits may represent sediment flows within lacustrine sequences consisting of fine sands, silts, and laminated clays. Clay mineralogies of the lacustrine sequences are dominated by illite, and diffraction intensity ratios range between 1.1 and 3.2. This range is typical of glacial sediments derived from lower Paleozoic shales of northern Ohio. The late Wisconsinan deposits are underlain by a very consolidated diamict that has a radically different total carbonate content ranging between 2 and 4% and dominated by dolomite. This diamict is correlated with the Mogadore Till and overlies Mississippian Orangeville Shale of the Cuyahoga Formation.