Lacustrine features include sand dunes, embayments with complexes of parallel beach ridges and swales, and extensive conifer-dominated wetlands on sand or bedrock. Average annual precipitation is 30 to 32 inches across the entire sub-subsection. Annual snowfall averages 60 to 80 inches, uniform across the sub-subsection. The resistant Niagaran series dolomite and limestone of Silurian age form the Niagaran Escarpment, which is locally exposed as cliffs and limestone pavement along the Lake Michigan shoreline from the Stonington Peninsula in the west to Drummond Island at the far eastern edge of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and eastward to Cockburn Island, Manitoulan Island, and the Bruce Peninsula of Ontario. Various landforms of glacial lacustrine origin characterize the sub-subsection, including flat lake bed, deltaic deposits of sand, parabolic dune fields, and shallow embayments containing transverse dunes.
Large areas consist of lacustrine sand deposits that have flat to gently undulating surfaces.
On this topography, only a few inches of elevation change can greatly alter drainage conditions. Drainage conditions also depend on depth to underlying bedrock or fine-textured substrate. Ground moraine is locally present. Exposed limestone and dolomite bedrock forms flat, pavement-like areas, and breccia chimneys are locally exposed. Several large lakes.