Charles Lyell visited Niagara Falls in 1842 during his visit to North America. He made detailed observations of the falls, and the gorge of the Niagara River. He estimated the rate of retreat of the falls from the edge of the Niagara Escarpment, and calculated the amount of time that has elapsed since the initiation of the erosion that has resulted in the Niagara Gorge, which he thought may have begun about 35,000 years ago. Lyell tried to show the geology of the Niagara River did not support the idea of a great flood only a few thousand years ago having significant geologic effects, but he was willing to go along with a "tranquil flood" that left no evidence at all.
More recent investigation tends to confirm that catastrophic flooding has indeed left its mark on the area, as there are indications that there were at least five cataracts similar to the present Niagara Falls, and these are believed to have been contemporaneous.
In his book
Travels in North America Lyell presented a summary of his view of the sequence of the events that caused the gorge of the Niagara River. He avoided the more significant question of the manner in which the Great Lakes were excavated, and to this day, uniformitarian geologists have been unable to explain it in a satisfactory manner. The excavation of lake basins, streamlining of sediments, and formation of the drift, are all related to the effects of tectonic uplift when the region was submerged, in the "disintegration theory" discussed below. Lyell analyzed the sequence of events involved, that produded the scenery at Niagara, in a list of events by which he tried to show how an extended period of time was essential. But he excluded catastrophic events, and failed to notice important geologic features that undermine his interpretation.
A process of
in situ disintegration causing the drift helps simplify the story of the formation of the Niagara Gorge. This much simpler explanation is compared to Lyell's theory in the following paragraphs.
Lyell wrote (Travels in North America v. 1 p. 47): "The first event then to which we must recur is the superficial waste or denudation of the older stratified rocks, all of which had remained nearly horizontal from the era of their formation beneath the sea to a comparatively modern period."
The denudation of the Silurian and older rocks that once extended out over Lake Ontario is a crucial item in the history of the Great Lakes region. The mode by which it was accomplished is the key for understanding the geology of Southern Ontario, the Canadian Shield, and the Great Lakes area. Lyell was a dogmatic advocate for uniformitarianism, and since his approach restricted past causes to those now in operation, he attributed the missing strata which once extended over Lake Ontario to long ages of erosion, but that would not account for the excavation of the Great Lakes. The alternative, suggested by the tilted strata in the region, and by the uplift of the underlying Canadian Shield, and by the deep lake basins, is that the denudation was caused by rapid currents generated by a series of vertical uplifts when the land was submerged. The catastrophic currents generated by these uplifts swept over the Great Lakes area, eroding lake basins, and streamlining the surrounding land into patterns of drumlins, numbering in the tens of thousands in Ontario and New York, and some of them also occur on the bottom of Lake Ontario.
Lyell continues: "They at length emerged slowly, and portions of their edges were removed by the action of the waves and currents, by which cliffs were formed at successive heights, especially where hard limestones were incumbent on soft shales."
Lyell's idea of slow elevation is refuted by the evidence for fast currents provided by streamlined landforms and by the depth of the lake basins, some extending below sea level, which cannot have been caused by river erosion or by waves on the shore. Rivers that empty into the Great Lakes in present conditions tend to fill them up and form deltas. Virtually no sediments are being removed at the outlets. Neither does continental glaciation account for the excavation of lake basins, as merely postulating a former ice sheet or glacial 'lobe' in a lake does not explain how the lake basin formed. Fast currents that swept over the area when the region was submerged, on the other hand, adequately explains the excavation of the material lake basins and its removal to distant areas. The deep erosion was aided by the process of
in situ disintegration as explained below.
Lyell wrote: "After this denudation the whole region was again gradually submerged, and this event took place during the glacial period, at which time the surface of the rocks already denuded were smoothed, polished, and furrowed by glacial action, which operated successively at different levels."
Lyell's scenario requires the land was submerged while the original sediments were deposited, raised again for their denudation, and again submerged. These postulated vertical movements of the continent are entirely unnecessary, as the initial denudation due to catastrophic currents, and the resulting
in situ disintegration can explain the formation of the drift. Striations on bedrock can be explained by lateral movements of the drift due to expansion after the disintegration occurred.
Lyell wrote: "The country was then buried under a load of stratified and unstratified sand, gravel, and erratic blocks, occasionally 80, and in some hollows more than 300 feet deep. An old ravine terminating at St. David's, which intersects the limestone platform of the Niagara, and opens into the great escarpment, illustrates the posterity of this drift to the epoch when the older rocks were denuded."
Burial of the country by a mantle of drift, a process required in both Lyell's theory and the glacial theory, is also rendered entirely unnecessary, as the process of
in situ disintegration explains the formation of drift in place. The buried St. David's gorge stretches from the Whirlpool to the edge of the escarpment. To explain the formation of this buried gorge in the post-flood ice age theory requires the excavation of the gorge, either by the glacier, or by meltwater, followed by the replacement of the excavated drift, as the drift remaining in the gorge has a characteristic feature; most of the pebbles in it are red or green in color like the underlying Queenston Shale from which it was derived. But how could these pebbles have been rounded? Neither the proposed glacial environment, nor the subsequent meltwater environment seems able to explain it.
The origin of the St. David's buried gorge is easily explained by the penetration of the surface of disintegration to various depths, and by the propagation of the disintegration along joints. Not only the St. David's gorge, but the upper gorge of the Niagara River can be explained as the products of
in situ disintegration. There is drift below the talus layer at the level of the present Niagara River, which was discovered during the construction of the railway bridge in the 1920's. This can be explained by the disintegration process forming the gorge, that was initially filled with drift, some of which the river subsequently eroded. Talus from the walls of the gorge covered the drift in the bottom of the gorge and now protects it from further erosion.
Lyell wrote: "The period of submergence last alluded to was very modern, for the shells then inhabiting the ocean belonged, almost without exception, to species living in high northern, and some of them in temperate, latitudes."
The submergence recognized by Lyell was real, although it is denied in the modern glacial interpretation, as ice dams and proglacial lakes are invoked instead. This is discredited by the presence of marine fossils in Michigan, such as whales and walrus.
Lyell wrote: "The next great change was the re-emergence of this country, consisting of the ancient denuded rocks, covered indiscriminately with modern marine drift. The upward movement by which this was accomplished was not sudden and instantaneous, but gradual and intermittent. The pauses by which it was interrupted are marked by ancient beach-lines, ridges, and terraces, found at different heights above the present lakes. These ridges and terraces are partly due to the denudation and re-arrangement of the materials of the drift itself, which had previously been deposited on the platform, the sloping face of the escarpments, and in the basins of the great lakes."
Rather than submergence, elevation, repeated submergence, and re-elevation as Lyell here postulates, it was the initial elevation of the land when it was submerged that generated currents that eroded the sediments that once stretched out over Lake Ontario. The currents caused the denudation Lyell referred to in his first stage. The removal of overburden initiated the
in situ disintegration that formed the drift as the rock was exposed to reduced pressure. The changed conditions caused compaction and initiated chemical alteration and diagenesis of the sediments, including a disintegration process that converted the sediments to sand and gravel in situ. The currents that eroded the sediments also formed patterns of drumlins and excavated the basins of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, as well as other lake basins along the perimeter of the Shield. Disintegration to various depths resulted in drumlins of varying composition in close proximity. There are drumlins composed of drift, drumlins of bedrock, and drumlins partly composed of drift and partly composed of bedrock all having the same form and orientation.
Disintegration of the rock due to removal of overburden promoted the deep erosion of lake basins. Where the drift produced by disintegration was eroded by currents the process propagated more rapidly, so the erosion of rock basins enhanced the disintegration.
The sediment eroded from lake basins was removed and redeposited, possibly in the continental shelves. The land was not elevated in one sudden motion, but there were numerous uplifts involved which spilled the currents in different directions. The drumlins north of Lake Ontario indicate a flow towards the north or northwest, probably due to uplift of the highlands in western New York and the area south of Lake Erie. The drumlins in northwestern New York indicate flow direction was towards the south. As the land was raised above sea level flow was diverted eastward down the Hudson Valley, and also towards the southwest. Only one series of elevations of the land is required, rather than multiple up, down, up, down earth movements such as Lyell invoked.
He wrote: "As soon as the table-land between Lakes Erie and Ontario emerged and was laid dry, the river Niagara came into existence, the basin of Lake Ontario still continuing to form part of the sea. From that moment there was a cascade at Queenston of moderate height, which fell directly into the sea. The uppermost limestone and subjacent slate being exposed, the cataract commenced its retrograde course, while the lower beds in the escarpment were still protected from waste by remaining submerged."
The Niagara River gorge was probably eroded for much of its length in a buried drift valley similar to the St. David's buried gorge. For a brief period there were at least five cataracts over the escarpment, as there was drainage of a vast area when the land emerged from the sea. The scale of the uplifts gradually decreased in intensity over a few centuries.
The more significant question about how the basins of the Great Lakes formed was passed over by Lyell and has been largely ignored by glacialists. Modern geology is still unable to provide any answer, but it is explained by the flood they deny happened. For a more complete discussion and background information see my article "Was there an Ice Age after the Flood?" available at:
http://vinyl2.sentex.net/~tcc/GT/PFIA.html
Doug
