The debris-laden meltwater that flowed into valleys often deposited in them a considerable filling of sand and gravel. Some valleys were filled to a depth of as much as 100 feet. Such deposits are called valley fills or valley trains. Modern streams have cut their courses into many of these fills and even worn away large parts of them. Remnants of valley train deposits are now large terraces or benches along streams, many of them well above the present stream channels.
Where many small streams flowed from the glacier, they deposited sand and gravel as a large apron in front of the glacier. Such deposits are called outwash plains and many of them extend for miles.
Two other types of sand and gravel deposits made by glacial meltwaters also are significant. One was formed where water issued from the front of a glacier or poured into holes or crevasses in the ice. The sand and gravel in the water formed a deposit that now appears as a rounded hill associated with a terminal moraine and is called a kame. The second type of deposit was laid down in beds of streams flowing under, through, or on the glaciers and was left as a more or less continuous ridge of sand and gravel when the ice melted. Such a deposit is called an esker. Some eskers in Illinois are about a quarter of a mile wide and several miles long. Typical are the Kaneville Esker northwest of Aurora, the Adeline Esker south of Freeport, and the Exeter Esker west of Jacksonville.
The deposits of both the Illinoian and Wisconsinan glaciers are widely distributed throughout the state. Melting of the Illinoian glacier caused comparatively little flooding; consequently, extensive gravel deposits were formed in only a few places. The ice of the Wisconsinan glacier, however, melted rapidly and produced great floods laden with sand and gravel. Thus, most major gravel deposits in Illinois are related to the Wisconsinan glacier.
Wind sweeping across the sand and gravel deposits blew the sand into hills or sand dunes near such places as Havana, Prophetstown, Kankakee, and Watseka. Even today the wind shifts sand of long-forgotten glacial floods.
Studies of Glacial Deposits
The foregoing discussion of glaciers and their deposits is greatly simplified. For some time geologists of the Illinois Geological Survey have been mapping the moraines, valley trains, outwash plains, and other glacial deposits of the state. Because the Illinoian and Wisconsinan glaciers advanced and retreated several times, they built many moraines. The Survey has made a map ([fig. 18]) that shows the complexity of the moraines left by the Wisconsinan glacier. They are roughly concentric, indicating that the general shape of the glacier front remained about the same.
Principal Commercial Sources of Sand and Gravel
The sand and gravel industry is widely distributed throughout Illinois. The principal commercial sources of sand and gravel are valley trains and outwash plains. The Fox, Rock, Illinois, Mississippi, and Wabash Rivers and many smaller streams have terraces in their valleys that are parts of valley trains. In these deposits are some of the largest sand- and gravel-producing operations in the state.