An Introduction to the
Geology of the North Shore
Jim Miller
Associate Professor, Adjunct
University of Minnesota, Duluth
The geology of the North Shore of Lake Superior tells the story of an aborted
attempt by the North American continent (Laurentia) to break apart about 1.1
billion years ago. Continental rifting is a common and recurring process in the
history of the earth that leads to break-up of continents and the formation of
ocean basins. A geologically recent example is the ongoing expansion of the
Atlantic Ocean that began with the breakup of the supercontinent Pangea about 200
million years ago. The Midcontinent Rift began to form 1109 million years ago
along a 2000-km-long arcuate break that extended in two arms from the Lake
Superior region - one to the SW to Kansas; the other to the SE to Lower Michigan.
As the crust broke and thinned, basaltic magma generated 50 to 100 kilometers deep
in the earth rose to the surface. Most of this magma erupted layer upon layer of
lava flow into an ever widening and deepening rift valley. We now see some of
these lavas as the North Shore Volcanic Group.
Sometimes the magma ponded and slowly solidfied in chambers within the lava pile
to form coarse-grained igneous intrusions, some of which we now see as the Duluth
Complex. After almost complete separation of the originally 40-km-thick
continental (granitic) crust and its replacement by ocean (basaltic) crust,
magmatic activity and rifting abruptly ceased about 1086 million years ago for
reasons not completely understood. The cooling of dense lava rocks caused
continued downwarping of the rift valley and led to its infilling with sediments.
We now see these sediments as the sandstones of east-central Minnesota and
northwestern Wisconsin (Bayfield Peninsula). Buried beneath a blanket of sand, the
Midcontinent Rift became a scar on the face of Laurentia. Its role in shaping the
landscape of Minnesota was not done, however.
The creation of the Lake Superior basin and the ruggedness of its shoreline
reflects the erosive power of continental glaciers that advanced and retreated
over Minnesota several times in the past 2 million years. However, the exact shape
of Lake Superior can be directly correlated with the geology of the Midcontinent
Rift and the relative erodability of the lavas, intrusions and sandstones
contained within it. The awesome erosive power of mile-thick ice sheets found it
easy to erode loosely cemented sandstone that filled the axis of the rift valley,
but encountered more resistance from the crystalline igneous rocks forming the
flanks of the rift - now the margins of the lake basin. In the final retreat of
the ice from the Lake Superior basin about 11,000 years ago, meltwaters filled the
scoured-out sandy core of the rift. As the last glacier retreated west to east
across the basin, meltwaters at times filled the lake to as high as 500 feet above
the current level; at other times, water drained from the lake to levels about 250
feet below the present 600' elevation. Elsewhere in the state, the older bedrock
geology did not exert such a strong control on the glacial landscape.
 The Duluth area displays all elements of these geological events. The lava flows
that erupted into the Midcontinent rift are exposed along the shore northeastward
from downtown. The deeply-formed igneous intrusions of the Duluth Complex are
exposed along the rocky escarpment between Bardon Peak and Radio Tower Hill. The
sandstone that buried the igneous rocks of the rift are exposed near Fond du Lac
in the stream bed of Mission Creek. The glacial history is recorded in the blanket
of sediment that covers much of the old bedrock throughout the Duluth area. Even
the higher glacial levels of Lake Superior are evident in the beach sand deposits
and and eroded notches found along the escarpment. In fact, Skyline Parkway
roughly follows one of the highest stands of the lake called the Glacial Lake
Duluth level. In a very real sense, the Duluth area and most of northeastern
Minnesota can be said to have been born of fire and ice. Visit our page in the
Community section on the
geology of Duluth
for more details and pictures.
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