A GEOHISTORY OF THE LAKE CHAMPLAIN BASIN by Scott Mardis

Lake Champlain is the sixth largest lake in the United States and is bordered by the states of Vermont

and New York and the Canadian province of Quebec.1,2

It is 126 miles long and 400 ft. deep, but has an average

depth of 64 ft..3The lake can be divided into 5 distinct basins, each with it's own unique ecology.

4It supports 83

different fish species ,as well as a diverse array of tetrapods.2The entire drainage system of Lake Champlain is

referred to as the Champlain Basin.2Lake Champlain is connected to the Atlantic Ocean by river systems at both

it's Northern and Southern ends, but access is restricted by the presence of dams and canal systems on the

connecting rivers.5Much of the geological history of the Champlain Basin was obliterated by glacier scouring

during the Wisconsin glaciations (110,000-10,000 years ago or Kya) 4 but the missing chapters may be inferred

by the geology of surrounding regions.

The pre-glacial geology of the Champlain Basin can best be understood using John Tuzo Wilson's

tectonic plate model representing 3 orogenies or mountain building episodes.6,7

Late Proterozoic era continental

rifting(650 million years ago or Mya) resulted in the opening of the Iapetus or proto-Atlantic Ocean,

subsequently closed during the Paleozoic era (542-251 Mya) in stages by subduction processes. The first stages

of closing during the Ordovician period (488-440 Mya) resulted in the Taconic mountain-building orogeny.

Most of the Iapetus Ocean would be closed during the Devonian period (416-359 Mya) Acadian orogeny, but

some parts would persist until final closure during the Carboniferous-Permian period (359-251 Mya)

Alleghanian orogeny. Much later continental rifting during the Mesozoic era (251-65 Mya) led to the opening

of the present day Atlantic Ocean .6,7

In late Ordovician times (440 Mya),the North American continental margin was being subducted down a

trench, causing not only loss of shallow marine sedimentary depositional environments but build up and

accretion of deformed sediments near the trench.8As time progressed, the island arc to the east of the continental

margin was drawn westward, as was a large land mass that had built up from the deformed sediments near the

trench.8Eventually,due to the subduction, oceanic crust from the east was actually driven over the top of the

continental margin, resulting in geological oddities such as the Champlain Thrust fault .8At Lone Rock Point,

Burlington, Vt., Cambrian oceanic crust sits on top of younger Ordovician continental sediments .8The

Champlain Thrust Fault extends from Canada south to the Catskill plateau in New York state,a distance of

approximately 199 miles.9The Champlain Thrust Fault and it's extensions, such as the Cabot Fault, follow the

exact trajectory north from Lake George, through the middle of Lake Champlain, through the Richelieu River,

eastward through the St. Lawrence River directly out to the Gulf of St. Lawrence .10

It is not an unreasonable

assumption that this fault system has defined drainage patterns in this region for the last 440 million years. The

Champlain Valley itself was formed at this time, when blocks of land between the Green Mountains of Vermont

and the Adirondack Mountains of New York dropped down .2

In late Permian times (251 Mya),the breakup of the supercontinent Pangaea began as the North

American and European/African plates began to rift apart .11

The rifting apart of these continental plates

proceeded sequentially from south to north, reversing the docking pattern seen in the Alleghanian orogeny, and

spanned the entire Mesozoic era (251-65 Mya).11

Geologic evidence of these processes can be found throughout

New England in the form of igneous intrusions( related to intraplate magmatism ) and much block faulting, as

well .6, 11

The Mesozoic igneous rocks of New England have been classified into four distinct provinces, based

on differences in their ages, physical aspects and petrology .11

One Mesozoic igneous province of New England is the New England-Quebec province.11

The

Champlain Basin sits within the New England-Quebec province and contains many early Cretaceous period

(135-115 Mya) dikes and faults .7, 11

One notable Mesozoic igneous feature of the Champlain Basin is Barber

Hill,a large syenitic dome, located in Charlotte, Vt. .11, 12

It has been suggested that the Champlain Basin may

have been close to the continental margin during this time period (135-115 Mya).12, 13

The presence of the

mineral monchiquite, associated with oceanic crust, in lamprophyre dikes in Williston, Vt. may reinforce this

idea .7It has been speculated that Mesozoic rifting in the Champlain Basin, in addition to creating new faults,

may have reactivated older faults underneath Lakes Champlain and Lake George (south of Lake Champlain),

significantly deepening the lake basins through block faulting.14

By this time period (135-115 Mya), tectonic rifting had created the Atlantic Ocean between the

separating continental plates.11

Inhabiting this early Atlantic Ocean were large, fish-eating marine reptiles such

as plesiosaurs, pliosaurs and the dolphin-like ichthyosaurs.15

There is geologic evidence that some plesiosaurs

would occasionally enter freshwater environments.16

There is the distinct possibility that a large body of water

with marine connections could have existed in the Champlain Basin at that time, as it is known that a version of

the Hudson River, which connects to the southern end of Lake Champlain, existed by early Jurassic times (200

Mya).17

In addition, plesiosaur fossils have been found in New Jersey, indicating their presence in the vicinity of

the mouth of the Hudson River.18

If a large body of water with marine connections through the Hudson River

existed in the Champlain Basin during the Cretaceous period (146-65 Mya), it is possible it could have

occasionally been visited by those remarkable fossil animals, the plesiosaurs.

Though the direct ancestry of the fishes that currently inhabit Lake Champlain can only be traced back

to the post-glacial period of 13.5 Kya5, some of these fishes may in fact have a deeper regional history. The lake

sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens),the long nose gar (Lepisosteus osseus) and the bowfin (Amia calva) are all

representative of Mesozoic forms.19, 20

Paleontological and paleogeographical evidence suggests that the

Champlain Basin was in the geographic ranges of Mesozoic forms of all three of these fishes.21, 22

It is not

unreasonable to speculate that representatives of these forms were in the Champlain Basin during the

Cretaceous period (146-65 Mya) and pre-glacial Cenozoic era(65-3 Mya). During the glacial periods (3 Mya-

13.5 Kya), they would have been forced into glacial refugia beyond the glaciers' margins and reinvaded their

former ranges during the interglacials, as did many other fishes that inhabit Lake Champlain today.20,21,23

In

support of this idea, the authors can point to the cases of the mysid Mysis relicta and the amphipod Pontoporeia

affinis.24

Both of these freshwater invertebrates were once thought to have been isolated from their marine

ancestors only after the Wisconsin glaciation (10 Kya), but molecular and morphological studies revealed that

they had diverged from their marine ancestors millions of years before the last glaciations.24

The only fossil evidence to be found in the Champlain Basin that fills in the gap between the early

Cretaceous period (135-115 Mya) and the post-Wisconsin glacial period (13.5-10 Kya) are the early Miocene

(20 Mya) plant fossils at Brandon, Vt..8,25

These fossils are preserved in brown lignite coal associated with

kaolinite clay deposits.25

There is a two layer depositional sequence at Brandon, with land plants within the

lignite overlain by a silt layer containing aquatic phytoplankton believed to be deposited very shortly after the

lignite fossils.26

No vertebrate fossils associated with the Brandon lignite fossils have yet been found.27

Within

the silt layer is the dinoflagellate Saeptodinium hansonianum.26, 28

Not only is this aquatic phytoplankton

believed to be a transitional form between marine dinoflagellates of the Mesozoic era (251-65 Mya) and modern

freshwater dinoflagellates, it and it's close relations are often associated with brackish water environments.26,

28This dinoflagellate conceivably could have reached Brandon by a pre-glacial version of Otter Creek (a large

tributary of Lake Champlain that reaches Brandon today), mentioned by Vermont state naturalist Charles

Johnson.19

This suggests the presence of an early Miocene (20 Mya) version of Lake Champlain with marine

connections. The Brandon flora indicate that the region at that time had a much warmer climate than today,

comparable to the Gulf coast of the United States.29

Remarkably, much of the geographical ranges of both living and fossil representatives of much of the

Brandon flora overlap the geographic distribution of living and fossil “ river dolphins “. River dolphins are an

artificial grouping of freshwater-adapted, convergently -evolved, moderate-sized toothed whales representing

largely extinct lineages from 50 to 20 million years old.30,31,32

The better known forms inhabit the Yangtze,

Ganges and Amazon river systems.30,31,32

The Brandon fossil plant family Lardizabalaceae is currently

distributed along the Yangtze River (China) and close to the Ganges River (India).29

The Brandon fossil plant

genus Turpinia is currently found around the Amazon and Orinoco Rivers in northwestern South America.33

The

Brandon fossil plant family Illiciaceae is currently found along the Yangtze River and near the Brahmaputra

River of India, also inhabited by river dolphins.31,34

Another contemporaneous early Miocene (20 Mya) flora

with much of the same genera as Brandon is the Calvert Formation of Delaware.27,35,36,37

Also found in the early

Miocene deposits of the Calvert Formation of Delaware are bones of the extinct North American platanistid

river dolphin Zarhachis flagellator (though whether this species had yet made the transition to freshwater

remains unclear).31, 32, 38

The remarkable correlation between the geographic distributions of Brandon flora and

river dolphins and the occurrence of river dolphin fossils associated with a contemporaneous early Miocene

flora with much of the same genera as Brandon suggests the possibility of the presence of river dolphins in the

Champlain Basin during the early Miocene.

Though Miocene (23-5 Mya) temperatures in the Champlain Basin were tropical, climates would grow

progressively cooler through the Pliocene period (5 -1 Mya) until a sharp cooling in the mid- Pliocene (3

Mya).27

This set the stage for the so-called “Ice Age”, the series of glaciations and interglacials between 3 Mya

and 10 Kya that extended into the Pleistocene period (1 Mya-10 Kya).19

Glacial evidence from New Jersey

suggests that New England was glaciated at around 850 Kya and again between 180-160 Kya.39

Temperatures

during the interglacials may have exceeded modern temperatures in New England.40

There is evidence that,

during the interglacials, large bodies of freshwater from glacial melting and marine waters from rising sea levels

inundated parts of New England.39, 41

Isostatic crustal depression from the weight of the ice sheets expedited

these flooding scenarios.1During the heights of glaciation, fishes and other aquatic animals froze to death, were

driven into the sea or driven into freshwater glacial refuges beyond the glaciers' margin.21,23

At 110 Kya, the most recent glaciation, the Wisconsin glaciation, began.39

Most of New England and

adjacent Canada were buried under mile thick sheets of ice as far south as Long Island, New York.42

As the

glacier in the Champlain Basin moved southward on it's initial advance, it significantly deepened the basin

through erosion and destroyed most of the Basin's geologic record down to Ordovician period (488-440 Mya)

sediments, as well as the geologic record of the previous glaciations.4 By 17 Kya, the process began to reverse

itself as the glaciers in New England retreated northward and temperatures began to rise, leaving massive

amounts of meltwater along the ice margin.40

By 13.5 Kya, numerous large glacial lakes existed in the region of

the Champlain Basin.1,5

Glacial Lake Vermont occupied the Champlain Basin itself.40

It was substantially deeper

than modern Lake Champlain, having a maximum depth of 900 ft., but was a very muddy lake of low

productivity.42

However,the first wave of fishes to reinvade Lake Champlain arrived during this period.20

To the

west of Lake Vermont, where the Great Lakes Ontario and Erie are now, was Glacial Lake Iroquois.43

To the

east of Lake Vermont was Glacial Lake Memphemagog.44

By 12.6 Kya,the ice margin had retreated to the point that all three of these lakes were combined into

one gigantic glacial lake known as Glacial Lake Candona, named after a diagnostic inhabitant, the freshwater

ostracod crustacean Candona subtriangulata. Lake Candona covered not only the Champlain Basin, but large

portions of southern Quebec and Ontario and the northeastern parts of Vermont north to the St. Lawrence

River.44

Separating the northeastern border of Lake Candona from the marine waters of the Gulf of St.

Lawrence was a large ice dam at Warwick, Quebec.42

At about 12.5 Kya, the ice dam at Warwick failed and the

waters of Lake Candona flooded into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, dropping the water level some 300 ft. in a

matter of days.42

Shortly thereafter,, marine waters from the Gulf of St. Lawrence occupied most of the former

space once occupied by Lake Candona and created the Champlain Sea.40

The picture above shows a recreation of the contours of the Champlain Sea and adjacent contemporary

glacial lakes at 11.5 Kya. As depicted above, the Champlain Basin was only a small fiord in a sea that was

mostly located in southern Quebec and Ontario.1The St. Lawrence River east of Warwick, Quebec to the Gulf

of St. Lawrence is referred to as the Goldthwait Sea, technically a separate body of water.45

At it's western

margins, the Champlain Sea was connected to the large Glacial Lake Algonquin, which occupied the space of

the modern day Great Lakes.1Lake Algonquin was in turn connected to Glacial Lake Agassiz, the largest glacial

lake ever documented.1, 46

Based upon the above configuration, it is conceivable that a marine animal could have

traveled from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to Lake Agassiz in North Dakota. And marine animals were certainly

inhabiting the Champlain Sea. There are freshwater adapted marine fishes such as rainbow smelt and Atlantic

salmon living in present day Lake Champlain that are relicts from the Champlain Sea episode.20

In addition,

there are abundant Champlain Sea age fossils of multiple whale species and multiple pinniped species

including walrus.40,47,48

The most common Champlain Sea marine mammal fossil is the Beluga whale (Delphinapterus

leucas).47

No less than 21 specimens have been found in Champlain Sea deposits (see the above map),including

one from Charlotte, Vt., on the shores of Lake Champlain, in 1849.49,50

Today, there is a population of Belugas

that inhabit the St.Lawrence River estuary that may be Champlain Sea relicts.49

Belugas are moderate-sized,

toothed cetaceans with a white coloration, prominent and flexible neck, no dorsal fin and whose nearest relative

is the Narwhal (Monodon monoceras).49

In addition, they have a marked tolerance for freshwater

conditions.50

The oldest known Beluga is Denebola megacephala from the late Miocene (6-8 Mya) of

Mexico.51

Evidently, the ancestral Belugas migrated around South America, through a Pliocene seaway that

once existed near Panama and moved upwards into the Atlantic, reaching the North Atlantic by the beginning of

the Pleistocene (1 Mya).51

The Champlain Sea episode is usually divided into two marine phases, each named after a predominant

bivalve mollusc diagnostic of each phase.40

The “Hiatella arctica” phase lasted from about 12.5 Kya to 11 Kya,

reflecting a subarctic climate with deep,cold water and a salinity of about 23-28%.40, 47

The “Mya arenaria”

phase lasted from 11 Kya to 9.8 Kya and represented more boreal conditions, with warmer water and a saline

content as low as 5%.40,47

The reduced salinity of the waters of the Champlain Sea may be directly attributable to

outburst flooding from Glacial Lake Agassiz.1It has been suggested that the larger whale species inhabited the

Champlain Sea during the “Hiatella arctica” phase and that the Beluga whales were common during the “Mya

arenaria” phase.47

It is thought that Paleoindians were hunting Champlain Sea marine mammals, based on the

correlation of the locations of fluted point finds with beach deposits associated with the Champlain Sea

coastlines.52

The final marine phase of the Champlain Sea came to an end 9.8 Kya when differential uplift in the

region of Quebec City prevented marine waters from entering the St. Lawrence lowlands and the Champlain

Basin.40, 42

This transitional phase between the Champlain Sea and Lake Champlain is called the “Lampsilis

Lake” phase, due to the abundance of the freshwater bivalve Lampsilis radiata siliquoidea.40

Lower water levels

and increased sedimentation that outpaced the rate of erosion caused the downcutting of “Lampsilis Lake” into

the Ottowa River and Lake Champlain by 7 Kya.40,42

It is thought that a third wave of invading fishes arrived

during this transitional period.20

One legacy of the Champlain Sea is that isolated pockets of saline Champlain Sea water can still be

found in aquifers of the St. Lawrence lowlands.53

It is possible that other legacies of the Champlain Sea have

thus far eluded us.

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