GLACIAL GEOLOGIC MAPPING OF THE MONTEZUMA WETLANDS COMPLEX IN CENTRAL, NY: DEVELOPING 3D GEOLOGIC FRAMEWORKS TO RESOLVE HYDROSTRATIGRAPHIC AND GLACIAL CHRONOLOGIC PROBLEMS

North of Cayuga Lake, the second largest and deepest of the Finger Lakes in central New York State is the Montezuma Wetlands Complex. Over 40,000 acres of federal, state and private wetland occupy a broad dendritic system of channels in the heart of the Ontario Drumlin field. Glacial and postglacial deposits between 4 and 60 meters thick overlie rugged channelized bedrock topography, carved into Devonian carbonates and Ordovician shales.

Excavations completed in 2008 revealed a complex stratigraphy inclusive of multiple buried peat horizons containing well preserved buried trees and abundant organic materials of Younger Dryas age. Follow up investigations revealed the presence of anomalous salt springs distributed throughout the wetlands. Detailed geologic field mapping in concert with LIDAR data, exploratory drilling and integrated geophysics provide robust information to understand complex glacial stratigraphic frameworks that govern surface water groundwater interaction.

As the Ontario Lobe of the Laurentide Ice Sheet retreated large high energy ice marginal channels routed meltwater into a drumlinized archipelago of early phase Lake Iroquois. Robust radiocarbon dates coupled with internally consistent stratigraphy from numerous boreholes provide a powerful set of data to constrain ice marginal positions, meltwater pulses and proglacial lake successions in central New York.

As one of the largest wetland systems in the Great Lakes region, detailed three-dimensional geologic mapping of the Montezuma Wetlands Complex provides natural resource officials an invaluable tool to manage ecosystems and water resources, understand the natural history, and plan for potential impacts of climate change.