EARLY LAKES ON THE GLACIER ICE-DAMMED TEAYS RIVER: CREATION OF LAKE SPRINGFIELD (OHIO), THE LAKE SPRINGFIELD SPILLWAY, THE SPRINGFIELD RIVER, AND THE SPRINGFIELD BURIED VALLEY AQUIFER

The Preglacial Teays River flowed north from northern Virginia, across West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio, then westward across northcentral Indiana and Illinois to the Ancestral Mississippi River. The Teays is well known for forming an immense glacial ice-dammed lake in southern Ohio, West Virginia, and Kentucky, known as Lake Tight. Spillover and associated erosion from Lake Tight is believed to have formed the modern Ohio River drainage between Portsmouth and Cincinnati Ohio.

Before Lake Tight glacial ice dams further north (downstream) created other lakes on the Teays River. These early lakes have not previously been described, mostly because they are beneath a cover of Illinoian and Wisconsin glacial deposits. Ohio Geological Survey Bedrock Topography maps show several relatively deep and narrow buried fluvial divides downstream (northwest) of Lake Tight on the Teays River. These divides were loci where early glacier-dammed lakes spilled over a drainage divide into the Ancestral Great Miami River, which drained south and west into the Ancestral Ohio River, thence into the Ancestral Mississippi River.

The spillway of one of the early lakes (here designated glacial Lake Springfield) is prominently visible. The spillway is located on the west side of Springfield, Ohio. For a relatively short time the spillway diverted the entire Teays flow into the Ancestral Great Miami River drainage. Overflow from glacial Lake Springfield breached the spillway and cut deeply through the Silurian carbonate escarpment into the underlying more easily eroded Ordovician shale, creating a relatively deep narrow river here named the Springfield River. At the spillway the bottom of the Springfield River is at about 200 m. The spillway top is at about 300 m. The former river valley is about 2/3 filled with mostly gravel, which creates the Springfield Buried Valley Aquifer. The Springfield Buried Valley Aquifer extends about 12 km upstream (northeast) from the breached spillway where it joins the Ancestral Teays River Valley. About 8 km upstream from the spillway the city of Springfield wellfield is within the Springfield Buried Valley Aquifer. The breached spillway is now traversed by the modern Mad River, tributary to the modern Great Miami River.