Evaluation of ERTS-1 imagery for mapping Quaternary deposits and landforms in the Great Plains and Midwest

The author has identified the following significant results. The main landform associations and larger landforms are readily identifiable on the better images and commonly the gross associations of surficial Quaternary deposits also can be differentiated, primarily by information on landforms and soils. Maps showing the Quaternary geologic-terrain units that can be differentiated from the ERTS-1 images are being prepared for 20-odd potential study areas in Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and South Dakota. Among the more distinct features are the major moraines and outwash channels of the last (Wisconsin) glaciation. Analysis of dissection/drainage patterns from the synoptic imagery is proving useful for detecting anomalies that may be caused by stream diversions and moraines of pre-Wisconsin glaciations, by variable loess deposition, by tectonism, and other factors. Numerous abandoned river valleys have been mapped. Trend-lines of several known pre-Wisconsin moraine systems have been identified in Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas, and also several similar trend-lines, that may indicate previously unknown moraine systems of middle and possibly early Pleistocene age, have been found in Iowa and Missouri. The area inundated by a major flood in southwestern Iowa also has been delineated from ERTS-1 imagery.