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The Valley Heads moraine in the Dryden Lake Harford through valley south of Dryden, N.Y. is composed of many thin, commonly discontinuous layers of'till, fine-grained lake deposits, and coarse sand or gravel. Lake deposits decrease in abundance upward, and none were deposited at land surface during the final retreat of the ice. The upper 100 feet of the moraine consists mostly of till (50 percent), sand and gravel (30 percent), and lake deposits (20 percent). North of the divide between the Susquehanna River and Lake Ontario watersheds (backside of the moraine), this interval is predominantly till and lake deposits with two to four sand or gravel layers that each are 1 to 15 feet thick. Near and south of the divide, this interval is mostly sand-and-gravel outwash with two or three layers of till and lake deposits that pinch out southward. At depths of 100 to 200 feet, the amounts of lake deposits and till are approximately equal; sand and gravel is subordinate. The drift contains both erratic stones carried by the glacier from outcrops several miles to the north and shale or siltstone clasts of local origin. The relative proportion of erratics tends to decrease upward and southward within the moraine, and is useful to some extent in correlating drift layers. The uppermost till in the southern part of the moraine is devoid of erratics. The moraine contains at least five confined water-bearing zones. The uppermost is thin, discontinuous, mostly interstadial alluvium and(or) inwash whose upper surface is 5 to 20 feet below land surface. The next zone, which is also thin and discontinuous, and whose upper surface is 20 to 45 feet below land surface, is probably a supraglacial or kame deposit. The third is semicontinuous; the upper surface lies 80 to 90 feet below land surface, and its origin is uncertain. The fourth is continuous; the upper surface lies 90 to 125 feet below land surface, and is highly undulating in a manner typical of kames. This zone has a high potentiometric surface that suggests a high-altitude recharge area such as the kame moraine south of Dryden Lake or kame terraces along the valley walls. The upper surface of the fifth zone lies 157 to 215 feet below land surface and slopes southeastward (away from the ice), which indicates that the zone is probably ice derived. The moraine also contains several small, discontinuous, and thinly saturated unconfined aquifers that consist of alluvial fan, outwash, and kame deposits. Sparse data from the Virgil Creek through valley, which joins Dryden Lake Harford valley east of Dryden, indicate that the Valley Heads moraine consists largely of till and resedimented diamict; lake deposits predominate between the moraine and the Susquehanna River-Finger Lakes divide. Outwash is lacking in the Virgil Creek valley, apparently because meltwater was diverted across an interfluve of lower altitude to the Dryden Lake Harford valley. INTRODUCTION The Valley Heads moraine, first identified by Chamberlin (1883), is a thick accumulation of glacial drift that was deposited at the terminus of the Wisconsin ice sheet when it occupied the major valleys at the north rim of the Allegheny Plateau in central New York (fig. 1). Parts or all of the older Valley Heads moraine segments in the central Finger Lakes region probably were formed during the Port Bruce stadial 13,500 to 14,500 years before present, whereas the youngest moraines of the Valley Heads system were formed from 10,400 to 13,320 years before present (Fullerton, 1980). The Valley Heads moraine extends across western and central New York and is the largest moraine in the State. Many communities and rural residences on or near the moraine obtain their water supply from sand and gravel zones within the moraine, but little is known about the origin or distribution of those zones, which have been described as scattered gravel layers within fine-grained sediment (MacNish and Randall, 1982, p. 23; Crain, 1974, p. 70-73). Well logs indicate that the moraine includes several sand and gravel zones interbedded with till and lake deposits. Crain (1974) mapped the extent of water-table and confined zones in the western Oswego River basin at a scale of 1:125,000, including parts of the Valley Heads moraine, but did not discuss the moraine in detail. Randall and others (1988) briefly described the geohydrology at 18 localities along the moraine but emphasized the surficial outwash aquifers immediately to the south of the moraine. In 1984, the U.S. Geological Survey began a hydrogeologic study of the Valley Heads moraine near the village of Dryden in the southeastern part of Tompkins County and the southwestern part of Cortland County (fig. 2). The study is part of the Survey's Regional Aquifer-System Analysis Program, which was established to determine the origin and distribution of glacial sediments that form the moraine, with emphasis on sand and gravel aquifers, in a representative setting in a north-flowing valley. The Dryden area was selected for study because well data are relatively abundant as a result of suburban development on the moraine. The glacial history of the Valley Heads episode as described herein provides a basis for determining the approximate location, extent, and geometry of aquifers in this geologic setting and includes information that could be used in the development and protection of these aquifers. Purpose and Scope This report describes the geologic setting; the types of sediments that form the Valley Heads moraine; the processes of their deposition; their stratigraphy; and the origin, geometry, and distribution of aquifers in the study area. It also contains tables of water levels and data on wells completed in the aquifers and three plates showing (1) locations of wells and test holes, (2) surficial geology, and (3) geologic sections. Methods The work included a review of previous investigations, a well inventory, test drilling, examination of drill cuttings, lithologic counts of pebbles in the till and gravels collected from outcrops and split-spoon samples, field mapping, and water-level measurements. In addition, 25 wells were surveyed to obtain accurate elevations of stratigraphic units and water levels. Examination of drift lithology is a potentially useful method for correlating stratigraphic units. MacClintock and Apfel (1944) and Moss and Ritter (1962) used differences in lithology to distinguish areas of Olean drift from Valley Heads drift in central New York. Moss and Ritter (1962) found that Valley Heads drift is "bright," whereas Olean drift is "drab" in the uplands and in minor valleys but is "bright" in some major through valleys. In this report drift is considered drab if more than 90 percent of the pebble and granule components consist of local rocks (in this case dark-gray shale and silts tone), moderately drab or moderately bright if 85 to 90 percent of the pebble and granule component consists of local material, and bright if less than 85 percent of the pebble and granule component consists of local rocks. Bright drift refers to rocks foreign to the study area. The relatively colorful appearance of bright drift is caused by numerous pebbles of limestone, chert, quartzite, crystalline rock, and other rocks foreign to the Allegheny Plateau. Valley Heads ice did not cover the uplands southeast of Dryden. The drift on these hills consists of drab Olean deposits. Streams that drain the uplands 79° 78° 77° 76° 43° %&£&&M&&mf#&&&£$s£ii^Xi^W$-M?mi!t EXPLANATION AREA COVERED BY VALLEY HEADS ICE ICE FRONT Allegheny Plateau 42° a Base from U.S. Geological Survey State base map, 1 :500.000, 1956 Figure 1. -Physiographic features and the southernmost extent of Valley Heads ice in central and western New York. have eroded drab Olean drift and bedrock and transalluvium) should be distinguishable from bright ported these sediments to the valley, where some Valley Heads drift, which is found in the valleys, bright Valley Heads deposits are found. Therefore, Rough pebble counts of selected split-spoon samples the drab upland drift and fluvially transported upland and sediment from streams and outcrops are given in material (inwash, interstadial alluvium, and Holocene table 4 (at end of report). 76°17130" v.yi-Jl8 % i / ^"ratl \ ITOMPKINS COUNTY | ^^b. : -] L 1~1-.J TIOGACO. ! a&XKScai ? ?. r° M«-Es Kf^Ml L < I \jmr CHEMUNQCO.! "ff^f] 25' Bu« from U.S. Geological Survey. Dryden. 1868. and Harford, 1948. N.Y. 1:24.000 Figure 2. Major physiographic features in the study area. Description of Study Area The study area occupies 8.9 mi2 in the Virgil Creek and Dryden Lake Harford valleys in the southeastern part of Tompkins County and southwest part of Cortland county in central New York (fig. 2). Location and Physiographic Setting Most of the study area drains north into the Oswego River, which flows into Lake Ontario (fig. 3). The southeastern part of the study area (Harford valley) drains south into the Susquehanna River basin (fig. 3). The study area is in the through-valley section at the north rim of the Allegheny Plateau (fig. 1) that consists of rounded bedrock hills whose valley walls rise as much as 600 ft above the valley floor. The valleys may contain more than 300 ft of unconsolidated sediments, most of which were deposited during deglaciation. North of the study area (fig. 1) is the Finger Lakes region, characterized by relatively lowlying hills and elongated and roughly parallel troughs that contain the Finger Lakes. Geologic Setting Glacial deposits. Deglaciation of the Finger Lakes region during late Wisconsin time was interrupted by intervals of readvances and stillstands. Most of the upper glacial sediments in the Finger Lakes region were deposited during deglaciation of the last readvance of ice (Valley Heads), which overrode the area 13,500 to 14,500 years before present and deposited a large moraine known as the Valley Heads moraine in many through valleys near its terminus at the

water-resources investigations report

Glacial geology and the origin and distribution of aquifers at the Valley Heads moraine in the Virgil Creek and Dryden Lake-Harford Valleys, Tompkins and Cortland Counties, New York