The Soils of Brant County - Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

DrumlinAbandoned shorelineMeltwater channelRecent8 Alluvium : Sand, silt, gravel7 Bog deposits : peat, muck, marlWisconsinan6 Glaciolacustrine silt and clay5 Glaciolacustrine and glaciofluvial sand4 Glaciofluvial outwash gravel and gravelly sand3 Ice-contact stratified drift : gravel and sand2 Wentworth Till : yellowish brown silty sand and till1 Port Stanley Till : clayey silt tillFigure 4 .Surficial geology of Brant CountyRetreat of the Wentworth ice was also accompanied by theformation of a large proglacial lake, Lake Whittlesey, intowhich large quantities of deltaic sand and gravel were deposited, particularly in Burford Township. Fluctuations in waterlevels and a later glacier advance into the Dundas Valley causeda series of lower lake levels to result, including Lakes Wayne,Warren, Grassmere, and Lundy. These lakes resulted in thedeposition of deltaic sands at Brantford and large amounts ofdeep water silt and clay in South Dumfries, Brantford, Onondaga,and Tuscarora Townships (Figure 4) . Final drainage ofglacial lake waters in Brant County was effected approximately12,000 years ago . Since that time, alluvial sedimentshave continuously been laid down along the major watercourses and soil development has progressed .12Physiography and Sediments and Their Relationship toSoils of the CountyThe distribution of the principal soil forming glacial sedimentsis shown in Figure 4 (5) . Of the tills shown in Table 4,only the Port Stanley and Wentworth tills are common at thesurface, while the Catfish Creek and older tills only occur indeep exposures or locally as small inliers . Lithology of the surfacetills is given in Table 4 .The Catfish Creek till is a very hard grey to yellowishbrowntill, occurring as buried ground moraine for the mostpart . Where it is exposed, its thickness ranges from 0 .5 to 10metres . At the surface it is very similar to the Wentworth tilland may be present as inhers within the units mapped asWentworth .