GREAT SAND BAY (NORTH SHORE) KEWEENAW COUNTY, MICHIGAN

This is a remarkable geological site, with many excellent examples of features to see.  There is a low energy beach with offshore sandbars, sheltered by a dramatic headland.  The headland is part of a resistent lava layer from the Lake Shore Traps, where there are underwater copper rich veins which cut across. A large copper boulder was removed for the display at Quincy Mine, but much remains of veins for diving here in the Underwater preserve.

Inland, within the Redwyn Dunes and George Hite Dunes are Coastal Dune Ecosystems with many perched dunes and vernal pools.  Perched dunes are dunes that are located above glacial deposits, moraines, outwash or glacial lake deposits. In this place vernal pools are between dunes and above post glacial lake materials.  All this makes for an unsual environment, well worth visiting. A 1 hr trail at Redwyn covers these features well. From the Great Sand Bay website

GRAIN DISTRIBUTION CHARACTERISTICS (AGI CHART)

GRAIN SHAPE CHARACTERISTICS

(PREPARED BY GAMMA ZETA CHAPTER , SIGMA GAMMA EPSILON, KENT STATE UNIVERSITY - AGI CHART))

Roundness is the degree of smoothing due to abrasion of sedimentary particles. It is expressed as the ratio of the average radius of curvature of the edges or corners to the radius of curvature of the maximum inscribed sphere.

The sphericity of a particle is: the ratio of the surface area of a sphere (with the same volume as the given particle) to the surface area of the particle.

0X IMAGE (BACKGROUND IMAGE)

1X IMAGE

3X IMAGE

BEACH PEBBLE

BEACH PEBBLE

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