Ice Retreat from
Isle Royale

Isle Royale is the largest island in the world's largest freshwater lake (by surface area), Lake Superior. While much is known about the island's wolf and moose population dynamics, much less is known about its glacial history. This study seeks to determine when Isle Royale first emerged from under a retreating Laurentide Ice Sheet after the Last Glacial Maximum. We accomplished this task by determining the exposure ages of glacial erratics positioned on the crests of the highest moraines on the island, near Mt. Desor. We saw neither moose nor wolves during fieldwork, so we'll have to go back. Read more about our findings in the paper below!

Status: Complete

Participants & Collaborators:

• Stephen Ogden (EMU, General Geology, BS, '19)

• Prof. David Ullman, Northland College

• Community Cosmogenic Facility @ University of Vermont

• PRIME Lab @ Purdue University

• Isle Royale National Park

Funding Sources: 

• Eastern Michigan University, Dean’s Faculty Professional Development Award: Completing an Ice-Age History of Isle Royale (2020)

• Eastern Michigan University, Faculty Research Fellowship: Emerging from Ice: Dating Glacial Landscapes in Michigan’s Isle Royale National Park (2018)

• Purdue Rare Isotope Measurement Laboratory (PRIME Lab), Seed Grant: When did the last ice sheet retreat from Isle Royale National Park? (2017)