Teays River
The Teays River /ˈteɪz/[1] (pronounced taze) was a major preglacial river that drained much of the present
Creation
Scattered
If the sequence of bedrock formations of northern Indiana were exposed, the extensive cliffs along the ‘deep stage’ of the Teays and its tributaries would provide a clearer understanding of the stratigraphy of northern Indiana. The entire Silurian section below the Liston Creek limestone[7] and a few feet of the upper Ordovician probably would be visible in the vicinity of La Fontaine.[3] In Wabash County the part of the Teays Valley above the ‘deep stage’ consists of broad terraces at an altitude of about 600 feet (180 m). From this terrace level the bedrock rises gradually to the 700 feet (210 m) on the Lexington pene-plain surface. These terraces probably correspond in age to an erosional surface in the unglaciated areas known as the Parker strath, which was the result an erosion cycle that ended before the Kansan phase of the pre-Illinoian glaciation.[8] More recent correlation[9] places its age as pre-Nebraskan. The Parker strath probably represents an erosional level existent at the beginning of the Pleistocene before the rejuvenation associated with, and following, the Nebraskan glaciation. The general appearance and width of the strath terrace along the Teays Valley in Indiana indicates that it represents only a slight rejuvenation following the Lexington cycle.[3]
In Virginia and West Virginia, the Teays River flowed in the valleys of the modern
Course
The Teays River was a north- and northwest-flowing river existing before the Pleistocene Ice Ages – before 2.5 million years ago.[10] The Teays flowed through southwest West Virginia, between Kentucky and Ohio, and northwest across Ohio (see illustration).[11] The Teays then flowed under what is present-day Lafayette, Indiana, and just north of Champaign, Illinois, and likely was coincident with the lower present-day Illinois River.
The Teays River was dissected and largely wiped away by advancing glaciers and their meltwater. These glaciers were the massive continental ice sheets that began to cover large parts of Ohio and other states downstream (west) of Ohio between 2.5 and 3 million years ago. Their presence caused lakes (Lake Tight, Lake Monongahela, etc.) to form along the Teays and associated rivers. Overflow of these lakes into nearby, lower valleys caused large floods and new rivers to form. These new rivers – formed about 2 million years ago – included the present-day Ohio and Scioto Rivers, which are associated with the most direct evidence of the Teays.
West Virginia
The Teays River was the main stream of a preglacial river system. Its headwaters was near the eastern escarpment of the
TheOhio
The Teays system in Ohio is known as the Parker Strath. The Teays River extended across Ohio in a northwesterly direction from Huntington, West Virginia. It splits away from the Ohio River near Sciotodale/Wheelersburg and goes north and west through Minford, Stockdale, and Beaver before merging with the Scioto River valley near Waverly/Piketon. This is clearly visible on aerial and satellite imagery.[11] However, its floor exists as broad upland flats, near Omega and Higby. The Scioto River has eroded and partially destroyed the Teays Valley from Waverly to Richmond Dale. It then continues northward to Chillicothe, where it disappears under a layering of Wisconsin glacial drift.[3] Surveying under the glacial drift has revealed that it continues to the border of Indiana, near Grand Lake St. Marys.[14] From Chillicothe, the Teays Valley can be traced in a northwesterly direction past Andersonville, crossing the southwestern part of Pickaway County, past Atlanta. From there, it crosses the northeast corner of Fayette County near Waterloo, extending in a northwesterly direction past London in Madison County, to South Vienna in Clark County. Here the Teays was joined by the Groveport River, which drained central Ohio. From South Vienna, the Teays River continues in a westerly direction, to a point near Springfield, in Clark County, and thence northwestward past Boulusville and St. Paris in Champaign County, and Sidney, Anna and Botkins, in Shelby County, to the southeastern part of Washington Township in Auglaize County, where it was joined from the north by a tributary, Wapakoneta Creek. The Teays continued its course westward past the village of Mercer to Rockford. Continuing west to the Ohio-Indiana state line in Mercer County.[3]
Indiana
The Teays Valley enters Indiana in Jay County and trends west. It turns to the northwest 3 miles (4.8 km) west of La Fontaine crossing Miami County south of the Wabash River.[3] Reaching under Tippecanoe County, it continues west through southern Benton County and into Illinois. (Fidlar, 1948, pp. 12–15).
Illinois
In Illinois, the valley is called the Mahomet.(Horberg, 1945, pp. 349–350).[3] It trends westerly across the state, into the bedrock valley of the Illinois River.[3][14]
Entrenched or ‘deep stage’
The ‘deep stage’ is used to describe the portion of the Teays Valley and other proglacial valleys carved into bedrock in the Great Lakes region. This includes Ohio Valley, near Madison, Indiana, before the Pleistocene;[15] the Wabash Valley; and the Mississippi Valley. The floor of the Teays Valley in West Virginia is 200 feet (61 m) above the entrenched Kanawha and Ohio valley floors, and its bedrock floor is at least 15 feet (4.6 m) above them. The ‘deep stage’ apparently was cut mainly after the diversion of the upper Kanawha (Teays) drainage to the Ohio River (Stout, Ver Steeg, and Lamb, 1943, pp. 78–79).[3] The lowest bedrock altitude obtained along the course of the Teays Valley across Wabash County was 410 feet (120 m) above sea level in the vicinity of La Fontaine. The average gradient of the Mahomet Valley above Beardstown, Illinois, is about 7 inches per mile (11.1 cm per kilometer).[16] The altitude of the valley floor where it occurs beneath the present floodplain of the Wabash River should be about 410 feet (120 m).[3] The profile of the Teays is a gorge-like valley entrenched within a broad, old age valley. Steep walls 200 feet (61 m) high can be recognized along the buried trench. The inner valley has been called the ‘deep stage’ and is interglacial in age.[3]
Tributaries
Ohio valleys
In the unglaciated area of southern Ohio, tributaries reflect the adjacent hills, which are considerably reduced: low gradients, broad valleys for the size of the modern streams, and dendritic patterns, all features of maturity. The largest of the tributaries in Ohio are the Marietta River, Hamden Creek, Albany River, Barlow Creek, Portsmouth River, Logan River, Bremen Creek, Putnam Creek, Cambridge River, Groveport River, Mechanicsburg Creek, and Wapakoneta Creek.[3] The Cincinnati River flows northeastward from the southwest corner of Ohio to Dayton, to join the Teays River.[3] At the time a divide existed between the preglacial Teays and the Miami watershed. Well records do not indicate a broad depression, which widens northward and is of sufficient size to have accommodated so large a stream as the Cincinnati River.
Preglacial Eel Valley
The
Illinois valleys
A tributary from the north enters the Mahomet Valley near Paxton, and important tributaries from the south, north of Danville, and in western Logan and Menard counties.[3]
Demise
The Kanawha (Teays) was forced across a major divide when the return of the Laurentian ice sheet dammed the northward flow of the river. The diversion occurred during the Nebraskan or older pre-Illinoian glaciation. This is based on an analysis of the drift found in the valley from the Kansan or late pre-Illinoian age.[17][3]
Present-day remnants
Visual remains of the Teays River today include large valleys containing only small streams (such as the mile-wide valley from Huntington to St. Albans in West Virginia and the valley extending north from Wheelersburg in Ohio). These valleys can be seen on aerial and satellite images. However, short segments of some such valleys are still occupied by the Ohio and Scioto Rivers. The Scioto flows through the valley in the opposite direction (south) to that taken by the Teays (north).
The Teays River was dissected and largely wiped away by advancing glaciers and their meltwater. These glaciers were the massive continental ice sheets that began to cover large parts of Ohio and other states downstream (west) of Ohio between 2.5 and 3 million years ago. Their presence caused lakes (Lake Tight, Lake Monongahela, etc.) to form along the Teays and associated rivers. Overflow of these lakes into nearby, lower valleys caused large floods and new rivers to form. These new rivers – formed about 2 million years ago – included the present-day Ohio and Scioto Rivers, which are associated with the most direct evidence of the Teays.
The present Ohio-Mississippi river system contains some distinctive
Discovery
The Teays River was discovered and named for the village of Teays, West Virginia, by geologist William G. Tight (1865–1910).[18] The small community of Teays is in the "riverless" Teays Valley that used to be the bottom of the Teays River.[1]
In 1886, Gerard Fowke recognized that the gorge west of
Namesakes
Teays Valley, West Virginia, and Ashville, Ohio's Teays Valley Local School District are named after the former river.
See also
References
- ^ a b Sullivan, Walter (November 29, 1983). "A Great Lost River Gets Its Due". The New York Times. Retrieved May 19, 2009.
[William G. Tight] called it the Teays (pronounced taze) River, for a village in West Virginia.
- ^ The Glacial Boundary in Western Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois; George Frederick Weight; Bulletin of the United States Geological Survey No. 58; Washington, Government Printing Office; 1890; pg 86-88
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Glacial Geology of Wabash County, Indiana: William J. Wayne and William D. Thornbury; Indiana Department of Conservation, Geological Survey; Bulletin No. 5; Bloomington, Indiana; 1951
- ^ a b c Teays River; ES 767 Quaternary Geology, Fall 2011; Wesley C. Smith; Emporia State University, Earth Science Department: Webpage submitted on November 28, 2011
- ^ Leverett; 1929, pp. 33-47
- ^ Thwaites, 1946, pl. 3
- ^ Indiana Division of Geology, 1949, pl. 2
- ^ Fenneman, 1938, p. 443
- ^ Thornbury, 1948, p. 1359
- ^ Professional Paper 13, Plate xviii; Wm Tight; U.S. Geological Survey; Washington, 1903
- ^ a b Hansen, Michael C. (1995). "The Teays River" (PDF). Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Retrieved July 19, 2023.
- ^ Stout and Schaaf, 1931, pp. 671-672
- ^ Stout, Ver Steeg and Lamb, Water in Ohio. Bulletin 44, Geol. Surv. Ohio, 1943, p. 51
- ^ a b c The Teays River; Karl Ver Steeg: The Ohio Journal of Science; Vol. XLVI, November, 1946 No. 6; College of Wooster; Wooster, Ohio
- ^ Malott, 1922, p. 137
- ^ Horberg 1945, p. 359
- ^ Horberg, 1945, p. 353
- The Popular Science Monthly, June issue, pp. 184–198.
- ^ a b A Great Lost River Gets Its Due; Walter Sullivan; Science, The New York Times; November 29, 1983