Shaded Drift-Thickness Map of Ohio

State of Ohio

The drift-thickness map of Ohio depicts the thickness and distribution of glacially derived sediments (called drift) and post-glacial stream sediments overlying the buried bedrock surface. This map was produced by subtracting bedrock-surface elevations from land-surface elevations to produce a residual map of drift thickness. Colors portray thickness intervals of glacial and modern sediments, which can range up to several hundred feet.

The bedrock-surface component is one of the products resulting from a multiyear effort by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Geological Survey, to map the bedrock geology of Ohio. Bedrock-topography maps are required to determine the relief on the bedrock surface beneath thick layers of glacial drift. These maps were created for all 788 7½-minute topographic quadrangles in the state as part of a process to produce accurate bedrock-geology maps for glaciated portions of Ohio and for those areas beyond the glacial boundary where valleys are infilled with sediment. Data concentration and contour intervals on the original, hand-drawn bedrock-topography maps vary widely across the state in response to changing geologic and topographic conditions. During the course of mapping, over 162,000 data points were interpreted for bedrock-surface elevation and in some cases drift thickness. These points were plotted on maps and used as control for the bedrock-topography lines.

Courtesy of Donovan Powers, Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Geological Survey.

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