School of Science, Penn State Erie – The Behrend College, Erie, Pennsylvania 16563

Summary

        Paleolandscape reconstructions are an important step in understanding the climate and environment of the Holocene. The paleotopography for the Lake Superior basin was generated at 500 year intervals from 9500 yrs BP to the present. Two functions, a polynomial and an exponential, were used to model glacioisostatic uplift across the basin. A Geographic Information System (GIS) was used to remove the effects of isostatic rebound and fluctuating lake level. A single step method was used in which an iteratively weighted isobase surface was subtracted from the modern topography to create paleo-elevation datasets. The depth, surface area, volume, and shoreline locations of the lakes were calculated from the paleotopography. These data paint a picture of a rapidly changing post-glacial landscape that has become more subdued in the recent past.