The Geological History of the Pattison Park - Manitou Falls Area - Superior, Wisconsin
Posted by: Groundspeak Premium Member flyingmoose
N 46° 32.182 W 092° 07.291
15T E 567362 N 5154019
Historical Marker along a trail near the top of Big Manitou Falls.
Waymark Code: WM134PX
Location: Wisconsin, United States
Date Posted: 09/15/2020
Published By:Groundspeak Premium Member bluesnote
Views: 1
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Marker text:

THE GEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE
PATTISON PARK - MANITOU FALLS
AREA
The geology of this area began over a billion years ago when the surface of the earth split apart. Basaltic lava welled up from dar underground and spread over the region.
In time the vulcanism waned. The lavas were then covered with an immense thickness of red sandstone deposited by oceans that invaded Wisconsin eons ago. Millions of years later earth movements caused faulting which raised the lavas and pushed them northward over the sandstones.
A resistant layer of the ancient lava holds up Manitou Falls, the highest waterfall in Wisconsin (165 feet). The sandstones are exposed at the north end of the gorge about 1000 feet downstream.
Glaciers covered the park several times during the past two million years. As the latest ice sheet melted about 12,000 years ago, melt waters were dammed in the western end of the Lake Superior Basin, forming a mighty lake. At that time the area where the falls in now was offshore under about 100 feet of water and the site of the park became covered with a layer of sandy sediments.
Erosion of these sediments and cutting of the valley of the Black River begain 10,000 years ago after melting freed the lake of ice and Lake Superior fell to lower elevations. There was then a waterfall at the north end of the present sandstone canyon. This waterfall gradually eroded the sandstone and later the lavas cutting back along a weakened area caused by the cracks in the bedrock.
Erosion continues today but slowly as to be unnoticeable in a lifetime.
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

County: Douglas

Location: Park

MarkerID: unk
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GreenHell visited The Geological History of the Pattison Park - Manitou Falls Area - Superior, Wisconsin 07/17/2021 GreenHell visited it