Nipissing Great Lakes

The North Bay outlet river, (580 feet (180 m) above sea level[4]) or " Nipissing-Mattawa River," [5] crossed an area of crystalline rock, chiefly gneiss, reaching the Mattawa River, which joined the Ottawa River at Mattawa, which led out the St. Lawrence to the ocean.[3] Mattawa River is a chain of lakes. Some of the lakes are long, narrow, and deep, lying in canyon-like valleys 200 feet (61 m) to 300 feet (91 m)wide, with water 100 feet (30 m) to 300 feet (91 m) deep. The canyons are 100 feet (30 m) or more high.[6] A few places along this route show a scoured bed that would require a similar volume and velocity of water movement as St. Clair River today.[3]

In the early part of this closing two-outlet stage a small discharge went by way of Illinois River at Chicago. The basin there is only 8 feet (2.4 m) and the Nipissing beach is 15 feet (4.6 m) above the modern lake. The small discharge would have ended when the outlet at Port Huron had cut down 3 feet (0.91 m) or 4 feet (1.2 m).[3]

The name "Nipissing beach" has from the first been applied to the shoreline formed during the two-outlet stage of the lakes. The name more precisely belongs to the older beach made by the Nipissing Great Lakes when the whole discharge passed through the Ottawa River. [3] After the formation of the true Nipissing beach isostatic rebound elevated the region. This lowered the water plane on the north side of the basin and raised it on the south side. Thus the beach from the earlier stage of the Nipissing Great Lakes in the south was flooded and destroyed. Only the area in the northeast corner of Lake Superior still retains remnants of this first or original Nipissing beach.[3] The point of elevation or the ‘hinge line’ for Nipissing beach is the same as the highest Algonquin beach. South of the line the Nipissing beaches are horizontal and vary between 14 and 16 feet (4.3 and 4.9 m) above the present lake level, the mean being 15 feet (4.6 m).[3] In the south, the Algonquin beach and the Nipissing beach can be indistinguishable. Both are from 10 and 12 feet (3.0 and 3.7 m) below the Algonquin high beach. Where the Algonquin divides into several ridges, the Nipissing beach will be one these ridges. In the Superior basin where any considerable width of beach deposits intervenes between the Nipissing and the present shore it is likely to be occupied by rather light beach ridges set very close together, with the Nipissing beach as the uppermost. Where the Algonquin is represented by several ridges, the Algonquin beaches are heavier and less sandy (i.e., pebbly or gravelly) than the Nipissing.[3] Along the east side of the Michigan ‘thumb’ the Nipissing beach has been cut away by the present lake. This is most noticeable along the east side of the "thumb" north of Port Huron, and on both sides of Lake Michigan, and on the east side of Lake Huron.[3]

A shallow bay between Port Huron and Lakeport has a faint Algonquin beach at its back and a stronger one a mile (2 km) farther west. Outside of these the Nipissing and lower beaches complete the filling of the old bay and bring the shore to a straight line. [3] From Bay City northward to Saginaw, where the hinge line of the Algonquin and Nipissing beaches crosses the west shore of Saginaw Bay, the Nipissing beaches are sandy ridges 0.5 to 1 mile (0.80 to 1.61 km) from the lakeshore. A mile or two north of Alabaster the cliff back of the beach is 60 to 70 feet (18 to 21 m) high and the bench a quarter of a mile (half kilometer) wide. The beach is a wave-cut bench that carries ridges to the mouth of Tawas River. Through Tawas and East Tawas and beyond to Au Sable River it is a low, broad ridge of sand and gravel a half a mile to a mile wide. From East Tawas it lies generally about a mile (1.5 km) back from the shore.[3]

During the time of the Nipissing Great Lakes Lake St. Clair was at low stage; in fact, it was almost if not wholly abandoned as a lake. Only a sluggish, relatively small stream with locally expanded ponds or swampy parts remained.[3]

Lake Erie was at low stage during the time of the Nipissing Great Lakes. Without the inflow from the upper lake basin, both Lake Erie and Niagara Falls would lack the volume of water needed to cut the channel through the Niagara limestone cap rock. Lake Erie was a nonglacial lake in this period. The third stage of nonglacial development ended the Lake Algonquin. A fourth stage was initiated when the upper lakes entered the Nipissing Great Lakes stage and that volume of water was diverted through the outlet at North Bay, Ontario. At this low stage, Lake Erie was 10 feet (3.0 m) to 12 feet (3.7 m) lower than present lake level and which lasted throughout the time of the Nipissing Great Lakes.[3]

The Lake Algonquin period of lake development included drainage through the Algonquin River to Trenton, Lake Iroquois, Lake Frontenac, and Gilbert Gulf, which disappeared before the beginning of the Nipissing Great Lakes.[3] It is not certain but that the Champlain Sea had nearly disappeared and all the uplift, except perhaps about 20 feet (6.1 m), had been accomplished.[3] A heavily developed shore line, called the Micmac beach, extends for 200 miles (320 km)below Quebec along the south side of the lower St. Lawrence. It is strong and continuous between Quebec and Ste. Anne de Beaupre. It is 20 feet (6.1 m) above the level of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and is horizontal. Wave action at this level was evidently powerful and prolonged, for the sea cliff is in places 100 feet (30 m)high, cut in shale, and the wave-cut bench is unusually wide.[7][3]