GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF OHIO
4th SERIES, BULLETIN 19
COLUMBUS
1916
1.
In the work of the United States Geological Survey in each quadrangle a topographic map is first made. Elevations above sea level are determined throughout the area and it suitable intervals contour lines are drawn by connecting all points of equal altitude. In addition to the forms of the surface, these government contour maps show all streams, roads, towns, and (outside the cities and villages), most of the houses. They are by far the most detailed and accurate maps available. The most common scale is about an inch to the mile. Such maps are now available for about one-half of eastern United States including most of Ohio. In this work Ohio, like some other states, has co-operated with the United States, bearing a share of the expense. Index maps showing the areas thus surveyed may be procured free by addressing a request to The Director, U. S. Geol. Survey, Washington, D. C. The several sheets may be purchased at 10 cents each. Enclose money (not stamps) and address The Director as above. Usually in the largest villages or city of each quadrangle there is one bookstore or stationery store where the local maps are sold. The Davis L. James bookstore in Cincinnati keeps all the sheets covered by this report.
An exceedingly detailed and accurate contour map on the scale of 13.2 inches to one mile or 400 feet to the inch has been prepared by the Sewer Commission of Cincinnati. It covers an irregular area of more than 100 square miles and is divided into forty-eight sheets which may be purchased at one dollar each from the City Engineer.
The entire set costs forty dollars.
2. Called by C. Willard Hayes in his Physiography of the Chattanooga District, the "Interior Lowlands," though in the same paper also "The Interior Lowlands and Highland Rim." See U.-S. Geol. Survey, Ann. Rept. Pt. 11. The same region is treated by Powell as a part of the Allegheny Plateau.
3. By reading this brief summary and carefully inspecting the various maps, the trained geographer will get almost as complete a mental picture of the essential character of the area as from the pages of description which follow, including much of ' the history given in a later chapter. One of the great aims of physiographic science is to develop and bring into use an exact, concise, technical language which will give to the geographer in a few words all that can be imparted by pages of description. The use of such language (and maps) necessarily involves previous study of physiographic processes and type forms.
4. There is no word in general use to describe that portion of a river's valley which is bounded by its bluffs. The word valley is the most convenient term after the sense in which it is to be used is once made clear, but it is used in other senses beside the one here specified. Frequently it refers to the entire drainage basin as in the common use of Mississippi Valley" and "OhioValley", generally also "MiamiValley." The valley between bluffs, where the latter are abrupt, is often referred to as a gorge, but this word would better be reserved for narrow cuts which are practically without floodplains. The word trough was suggested by the writer in discussing the Mississippi. (See Illinois Geol. Survey Bull. 12, page 13.) Probably the word trench would correspond better in most minds to the conception of a deep cut with a nearly flat bottom. The word entrenched is already in general use to describe such a cut in a special case (entrenched meanders). The word trench has been used descriptively in exactly the sense here intended by a number of good writers. There is little choice between the words trench and trough. Sometimes the words "immediate valley" are used in the narrower sense to distinguish such a trough from the entire drainage basin.
The name Latonia shale has been adopted by the U. S. Geological Survey for use in the Cincinnati folio.
* Computed from data in U. S. Geological Survey Water-Supply Paper No. 234 pp. 88 and 89. The data of the following paragraph are taken from the same source.
For exact data see Gilbert, G. K.-The Transportation of Debris by Running Water. U.S. Geol. Surv. Prof. Pap. No. 86, p. 216, 1914.
Todd, J. E.-The Moraines of southeastern South Dakota and their attendant deposits. U.S. Geol. Survey. Bul. 158, p. 150, 1899.
The term "subsequent" is frequently restricted by American writers to those whose position and growth are dertermined by softer rocks. Some excellent writers (Geike and others) have, however, used a word in the broader sense. This seems eminently desirable as it affords a suitable comprehensive term in contrast to "consequent."
The Writer.-Flood plains produced without floods. Bulletin Amer. Geogr. Soc. Vol. XXXVIII, p. 89, 1906.
Note the Donaldsonville, LA, topographic sheet of the U. S. Geol. Survey and other sheets in the Mississippi delta.
This analysis of the processes concerned in building moraine follows Chamberlin. See Compte Rendu of the Fifth Session of the International Congress of Geologists, Washington, 1891, pp. 176-192.
See Bownocker, J. A. - History of the Little Miami; Ohio State Acad. Sci. Special Paper No. 3, pp. 32-45, 1900.
Wright, G. F., The Glacial Boundary in Western Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky,
Indiana, and Illinois. Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey No. 58, p. 64, 1890.
Chamberlin T. C., Supplementary Hypotheses respecting the origin of the loess of the Mississippi Valley. Journal of Geology, Vol. 5, pp. 795-802, 1897.
While the character of this sheet of clay or silt is well exemplified in this area, its relation to the underlying till is not so clear. Such statements as the one made above regarding an earlier soil formed on the till, rest largely on the field work of Mr. Frank Leverett of the U. S. Geol. Survey, who has studied the glacial formation very widely. There are, however, some very good exposures close to Cincinnati which suggest the relation here described. As it is not the purpose of this bulletin to discuss unsettled questions, and as Mr. Leverett has probably worked and written more extensively on the Illinoian drift than any one else, the interpretations here presented are essentially those which he has given.
Glaciation in the Erie and Ohio Basins, U. S. Geol. Survey Monograph No. 41 p. 298.
Since this was written a study of deposits in Iowa has caused certain careful observers to entertain the hypothesis that they are residual soil derived from decay of the drift beneath. This hypothesis and the suggestion here made of local to and fro shifting do not exclude each other. Even if all the factors mentioned should prove to be involved, further investigation is necessary to determine their relative importance.
Geology of Ohio, Vol. 1, p. 427, 1873.
U. S. Geol. Survey, Monograph XLI, p. 318 and p. 322.
Geology of Ohio, Vol. 1, p. 432, 1873.
For these and other interesting figures see pamphlet entitled "The Michigan and Erie Ship Canal" by Frank. B. Taylor. Published by the Toledo, Ft. Wayne and Chicago Deep Waterway Assoc., Ft. Wayne, Ind.
Fuller, M. L, U.S. GeoL Surv. Water Supply Paper No. 259, p. 215.
Fuller, loc. cit. p. 215. The figures given here for Cincinnati and Dayton are averages of many analyses made in various reasons of the year. The others represent fewer analyses and are therefore less exact. It should be remembered that river waters are much harder at some times than at others.
A conveni ent summary of these floods is contained in U. S. Geol. Surv. Water Supply Paper No. 334 -The Ohio Valley Flood of March-April, 1913 - by A. J. Horton and H. J. Jackson.
The question of reservoirs to prevent floods has been thoroughly investigated by a commission under the auspices of the Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce. The
final recommendation of this commission on was for a system of reservoirs supplemented
by a river wall. The report of this commission is a large volume containing a vast
amount of information of general interest to students of floods. It also contains an
exhaustive bibliography on the subject of flood prevention in this and foreign countries.
U.S. Geol. Survey, 21st. Ann. Rept., Part IV.
McGee, W. J.- Wells and Subsoil Water. U.S. Dept. of Agr. Bureau of Soils. Bull. 92, p. 178, 1913. McGee estimates this lowering in Ohio at 11.5 feet and in Kentucky at 10.7 feet.
U.S. Geol. Surv. Water Supply Paper No. 259 by M. L. Funer and F. G. Clapp, entitled The Underground Waters of Southwestern Ohio, contains the largest amount of information yet assembled concerning all wells in this vicinity. Chemical analyses are also given and the nature of the water-bearing formations is described.
Dole, R. B.-Water Supply Paper, 259, p. 208.
Dole, R.B., loc. cit. Various analyses on pp. 198-204.
Dole, R.B., loc. cit., p.198 and 202.
Loam is a mixture of clay and sand, or intermediate between them. The terms clay loam, sandy loam, medium loam, etc., explain themselfes.