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Some other links of recent interest to Pasty Cam watchers:
• Ancestors 2006  • New Arrivals 2006
• The Hut Inn Re-opens
Eight years ago on the Pasty Cam: 12/08/98^{Printed on Recycled Internet}

The Pasty Cam paid a visit to McLain State Park eight years ago and caught this shot of the shoreline erosion. The erosion has escalated since, requiring the rerouting of a small portion of the campground road.

I remember in the late '70s there were campsites along the bluff overlooking the lake. Today, those sites have been washed away and the lake is now starting on the road.

Good Morning

Mornin'

Morning! Too bad a retaining wall was never built along that shoreline. It's a shame to lose the park.

Morning Everyone. Happy Friday to all of my friends out in Pastyland!

A retaining wall would have only been a quick fix to the real issue. While Lake Superior on the whole is nearing it's historic low for water level, the entire south shore water level is advancing while the north shore is receeding. This is due to glacial rebound in the entire Hudson Bay/James Bay region. In time, the entire Lake will shift south, albeit only by a few feet, but it will cause more erosion and beach degradation on the south shore.

Just as an interesting sidenote. Right after the glaciers receeded back to the Arctic, that region of Canada and the upper Great Lakes experienced some major (7+) earthquakes. Even today, every once in a while smaller EQ's can be felt (4.1 near Sudbury on 11/29, and 4.2 near Hearst just yesterday). The reason for this has nothing to do with faults like in California. Rather, it is the land still rising after 2 miles of ice pushed it down, and now the whole regional land surface is rebounding.

Good morning, I visit McLain Park every summer. It would be a shame to lose it to the Lake. I received my first order of pasty's Wednesday. I'm looking forward to many more, my family and I enjoyed them. Thank You

Very interesting Capt. Paul. I always enjoy a Geology lesson from you!
A cold good morning to you all!

Similarly, hasn't the Niagara Falls moved a mile or more over the years?

Fascinating stuff, Capt. Paul. I knew we had earthquakes in this part of the country, but didn't know they were not caused by faults.
What was the cause of the Missouri earthquake of 1811? I remember reading that it caused part of the Mississippi River to flow backwards.

Maybe we'll have to rename this site "Ask Capt. Paul".

I recall that we had a small earthquake in Lansing back in the early 80s or late 70s.

I used to camp at those camp sites as a child. Sad to hear that they are gone. A retaining wall would be so ugly along the beautiful lake.Like trying to cage something beautiful that needs to be free. Is there anymore room for the park system to purchase more land

The Missouri earthquakes (there were three of them) did occur along a fault zone called the New Madrid Fault zone. This is an ancient failed rift, meaning long ago, North America began splitting apart along that zone, but it didn't completely fininsh the spit. It did, however, leave behind the faults. The interesting thing is that a few years ago a professor from Stanford University, Mark Zoblock, suggested that the receding ice sheets created enough stress on those faults to trigger the earthquakes.

The New Madrid earthquakes are fascinating because rarely do such large events occur so close together (estimated moment magnitudes of 8.2, 8.1 and 8.3). Church bells rang in Boston due to the shaking a people near the epicenter report to have seen the ground moving in waves likes the ocean. It is such an interesting event, I actually use this series of earthquakes as a case study in one of my classes.

October 17, 1989, San Francisco, CA (late afternoon):

1. Unknown fan in Candlestick Park: "It would take an Act of God to keep
the Giants from losing here today."

2. Major earthquake hits the Bay Area, damaging the two stadiums, the
major freeway and bridge connecting them and, incidentally, postponing
the game.

3. Several million residents wish that the unknown fan would be more
precise in what he wishes for!

Capt. Paul.....my family tried a few retaining walls, we called them a revetment. Let me tell you, even THEY didn't stand up to the Great Lake! While I understand the poster saying it would be like caging something that should be free, when one continues to lose land and is forced to move the buildings back, you look for ways to slow the erosion!! Fortunately, we haven't lost much shoreline at South Entry in quite a while but for many years, the erosion was incredible!

Good day to all!

Today is JEAN SIBELIUSs birthday;

http://www.ainola.fi/english/lassoindex.lasso

Don't know if any study was ever done, but part of the problem at McLain is the shipping channel.
The piers block the natural NE progression of sand along the lake shore. While the sand and rocks on the McLain's side have continued their Norteast travel, very little has been replaced. Eventually when the stamp sands, that are now piling up on the SW side, reach the end of the pier there could be major problems with keeping the channel dredged.

Thanks Dr. Nat. After I read your post I startied looking around the internet and found some good stuff. Here is a link to one of the sites:
http://www.lib.niu.edu/ipo/2001/icl010810.html

stix ,Knowing the lake, in my minds eye I was picturing a retaining wall that would have to be a huge steel and concret structure to even begin to keep the lake back . It would block all view and beauty, but I can understand how you feel if the lake was washing my part away, I would be doing everything I could to fight back and hang on to it.
I cant even begin to understand how Things work along the shore line. I dont know it that well ,and this is just a thought that popped into my uninformed head, and also sounds like a very hard long massive job but what about the break wall. could it be made longer along the shore on each side of the canal down past the park. I suppouse that would just cause more problems farther down the shore.

Anytime there are structures constructed along a shoreline, there will be interference with the natural shoreline system. fy1 hit on it a little bit. Some structures (especially jetties and groins) prevent a process known as longshore drift from occurring. While these structures prevent erosion and encourage deposition in some places, they also can cause significant erosion in others.
In my environmental geology class I actually spend quite some time discussing the aspects of shoreline erosion (both natural and human induced).

From our experience; once you try to stop erosion, you're asking for trouble. It always seems to find another place to "eat up". We don't live on a lake, we live on sandy stripmine hills and it seems like if you tamper with the environment, you're just asking for trouble. The best solution is to just let nature take it's course and try to adjust.

I pulled a couple of satellite images of the north entry to give some idea of sediment transport along the Keweenaw





In the first photo, the whitish area along the shore is sediment being transported from southwest to northeast. You can really see how the breakwall at north entry stops the sediments from reaching McLain. The second photo shows the north entry a little closer. The reddish-gray area next to the breakwall is Breakers and a lot of stamp sand that has piled up behind the wall. Looking further up the coast, you can see that not much sediment is being deposited along McLain anymore.

Capt. Paul, what is the timeline between those two photos? One
year, five, ten?

Thanks, Japei. Just checked out the Sibelius site. I think my
favorite pieces by him, after "Finlandia,"of course, are his violin
concerto and second symphony. This has been a big week for
Finland what with Independence Day and Sibelius' birthday. My
dad went to the celebration on Sunday at the Finnish Center in the
Lower Peninsula.

Anybody from around Lake County Michigan?

If anybody knows a James Lee Orvis that passed away in feb. of 1991 please let me know. I am trying to find some family of my boyfriends that he has never had a chance to meet and would really love to meet them. He never had the chance to know his father....long story and sad. please let me know if somebody knew him or any of his family. He was in Lake County

It's actually the same picture Barb, the second photo is just zoomed into the north entry. I believe that shot was taken in 2004.