Greatly Altered Drift Near Youngstown, Ohio

Abstract

Greatly altered drift is exposed beneath early Wisconsinan (Altonian) Titusville Till in three separate but related buried valleys in two strip mines 6 miles apart near Youngstown, Ohio. The deeply weathered drift, with a maximum thickness of 33 feet, consists of three till units separated by sand, gravel, and silt. The silt contains organic matter beyond the limit of C14 dating.

The altered drift is greenish gray and non-calcareous. Pebbles in the drift are thoroughly rotted, easily crushed between the fingers, and commonly unidentifiable. A few crystalline pebbles are evidence for the glacial origin of the material. The lower units appear to be more intensely weathered than the upper ones, indicating that more than one period of weathering may be represented. These deeply weathered deposits are probably pre-Wisconsinan in age, but no specific age is assigned to them.