TECTONIC GEOMORPHIC ANALYSIS OF THE EASTERN LOWLANDS OF UPPER MISSISSIPPI EMBAYMENT USING RECENTLY COLLECTED LIDAR DATASET

The Quaternary glacial and interglacial cycle controlled the drainage system in the Northern Mississippi Embayment by draining the melt-water from retreating Laurentide ice sheet through midcontinent. The Mississippi River changed from the braided system during the initial glacial cycle to the meandering system during the Holocene. The advance and retreat of the ice sheet caused the avulsion of Mississippi River for a couple of times and created Pleistocene river terraces both in Western and Eastern Lowlands. These Pleistocene terraces of Eastern Lowland were used as a geomorphic marker for the evaluation of Pleistocene and Holocene deformation. The topography of this area is mostly flat. High-resolution LiDAR imagery of the terrace surfaces was analyzed to collect elevation data and high order polynomial surface was constructed to look for subtle deformation on top of the terraces. From the third-order polynomial surface of Sikeston, the tectonic bulge of Lake County uplift can clearly be identified.