In addition to the above ice margin features, a variety of other peculiar and intriguing LiDAR features were identified on VCGI, which may relate to the ice margin. However, at this point these are insufficiently understood to warrant further discussion here, beyond suggesting that these may include, for example, DeGeer moraines, iceberg dumps, and other, different markings possibly related to ice shelf grounding lines, and a variety of other oddities of unknown origin and significance. In the Newport area on the floor of the Memphremagog Basin, as marked or noted on VCGI, LiDAR imagery indicates a wide variety of features which appear to have formed at or near the ice margin, including a) narrow, low ridges, perhaps crevasse fillings, b) streak-like tonal differences, c) low, shallow benches following topographic contours,and d) peculiar ridges, several tens of feet in height. Whereas these features are believed to have formed by thin stagnant ice in the very low gradient terrain in the Newport area, in close conjunction with standing water, the mechanics of formation and significance of all of these needs further study. Some of these features are included in the detailed mapping of the Newport area for the Vermont Geological Survey by Wright.
Similarly, elsewhere, LiDAR imagery shows a variety of peculiar features of uncertain origin. For example, in places the terrain has a speckled appearance resembling a coarse sand paper, in some cases with scattered larger speckles. These are suspected to be glacial till with the speckles caused by large erratics, in contrast to stagnant ice and other fluvial deposits which have a much smoother appearance. Again, further, geologic analysis of such features is warranted, along with a better understanding of LiDAR signals, and their sensitivity, versus artifacts generated as background “noise.”
In many places streak-like tonal patterns on LiDAR imagery are believed to represent ice margins. In some places, as for example on the south side of the Missisquoi Basin, south of Enosburg Falls, these provide dramatic evidence documenting the receding ice margin, and in fact are cited as evidence. But in general, such features are not specifically identified here and included as specific ice margin markers, as further study is needed.
Finally, in the course of VCGI mapping it was recognized that in places surface water drainage patterns suggest possible modifications associated with ice margins. For example, in the Greens Corners area, in Locale CV6, the presence of ice margins is inferred by the diversion of small drainageways, which is part of the evidence for the identification of the ice margin presence. Another example is an alteration of the drainage pattern for the LaPlatte River in the proximity of the T7/T8 margin. This diversion is not specifically used as specific evidence for the ice margin presence and location but raises the possibility that further study may be fruitful.. For example, a similar pattern is noted for Little Otter Creek. However, no systematic effort to evaluate such patterns as evidence of ice margins has been made.