Glacial Lake Wisconsin

Short description: Prehistoric lake in Wisconsin, United States

Glacial Lake Wisconsin

Glacial Lake Wisconsin

Location| North America
Group| Wisconsin
Coordinates|  [ ⚑ ] : 44°N 90°W﻿ / ﻿44°N 90°W﻿ / 44; -90
rivers, streams, precipitation">Primary inflows| Keewatin ice sheet
rivers, streams, evaporation">Primary outflows| Black River (Wisconsin)
Basin countries| United States
First flooded| 18,000 years before present
Max. length| 241 mi (388 km)
Max. width| 57 mi (92 km)
Average depth| 160 ft (49 m)[1]
Residence time| 4000 years in existence
Surface elevation| 160 ft (49 m)
Islands| Mill Bluff State Park and Roch-a Cri
References| Dott, Robert H. Jr; John W. Attig (2004). Roadside Geology of Wisconsin[2]
Glacial Lake Wisconsin 20,000 years ago with modern counties for geographical context.

Glacial Lake Wisconsin was a prehistoric proglacial lake that existed from approximately 18,000 to 14,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age, in the central part of present-day Wisconsin in the United States.

## Formation and demise

Before the last glacier, a somewhat different Wisconsin River drained the north-central part of the state, running around the east end of the Baraboo Hills. Around 18,000 years ago, the Green Bay lobe of the Laurentide ice sheet crept in from the east, abutting against the Baraboo Hills. With that outlet closed, the water backed up, filling the basin to the north and west, forming Glacial Lake Wisconsin.[3][4]

The water rose to as deep as 160 feet, with a surface area eight times the size of modern Lake Winnebago,[5] a large, cold lake that stretched north to the site of Wisconsin Rapids. Eventually it found a new outlet, flowing west to the Mississippi via the east fork of the Black River near City Point.[3] With water flowing out again, the lake stopped rising.

Islands poked up out of this icy lake, some of which remain today as the sandstone bluffs of central Wisconsin - Mill Bluff[6] and Roche-a-Cri, for example. The lake existed for thousands of years, with storms and ice scouring sand off those bluffs. Streams from the glacier to the north and east also carried in sand and silt which settled at the bottom of the lake, roughing in the flat sandy Central Plain that we see today when we follow I-90/94.

About 14,000 years ago, as the climate warmed, the glacier began to retreat. The lake water reopened the path around the Baraboo Hills. Once the trickle began, it quickly melted a larger channel through the ice and became a torrent. In a catastrophic flood, most of the huge lake probably drained out the south end in no more than a few weeks - possibly a few days. Upstream, the current cut new channels through the lake-bottom sand. After removing the lake-bottom sand, it cut canyons through the weak Cambrian sandstone beneath, which had existed long before the lake, forming the Dells of the Wisconsin River, that are now largely beneath the high water created by damming the river. Boat tours today show the portions that remain above water.[3]

The Dells were carved by the torrent when Glacial Lake Wisconsin drained.

This lake, during the last glacial period, was probably not the only Glacial Lake Wisconsin. The present day Wisconsin River travels from near the Upper Peninsula from its source Lac Vieux Desert over 420 miles until it meets the Mississippi at Prairie du Chien. Earlier glaciers probably blocked the Wisconsin River, producing earlier glacial lakes in central Wisconsin like Lake DuBay. After Lake DuBay, the Wisconsin river is blocked from going south for over twenty miles between Stevens Point and Wisconsin Rapids. A tall sandstone bluff is found on the south side of the river between these two cities. From Wisconsin Rapids to Nekoosa the river drops vertically 300 ft in just five miles and requires four dams. Rock outcroppings on the east side of the river at the Centralia dam, at the Bulls Eye Country Club and across the river from Port Edwards, suggest ancient flooding before the dams were built and the river reminds residents almost every year of its power to flood from the northern Wisconsin watershed. A large boulder just below the Nekoosa dam was obviously there in ancient times. Large Lake Petenwell above Necedah and Roche a Cri is now used to help control floods. Then after the Wisconsin Dells rock formations, 75-foot limestone bluffs carved by water exist as the Wisconsin merges with the Mississippi.

North East of Stevens Point, Sunset Lake, Three Lakes and numerous other unnamed glacial pothole-like lakes exist. With plentiful surface water more work is needed to understand buried rock formations and the hydrology of water feeding these lakes in central Wisconsin.

## See also

* List of prehistoric lakes
* Lake Wisconsin

## References

1. ↑ "Geologic History" (http://lwr.state.wi.us/subcategory.asp?linksubcatid=440&linkcatid=481&li nkid=). Lower Wisconsin State Riverway Board. Retrieved 2012-05-20.
2. ↑ Dott, Robert H. Jr; John W. Attig (2004). Roadside Geology of Wisconsin. Missoula, Montana: Mountain Press Publishing Company. pp. 199–205. ISBN 0-87842-492-X.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Dott, Robert H. Jr; John W. Attig (2004). Roadside Geology of Wisconsin. Missoula, Montana: Mountain Press Publishing Company. pp. 199–205. ISBN 0-87842-492-X.
4. ↑ Spoolman, Scott (2018-04-12) (in en). Wisconsin State Parks: Extraordinary Stories of Geology and Natural History. Wisconsin Historical Society. pp. 201–203. ISBN 978-0-87020-850-8. https://books.google.com/books?id=N6xVDwAAQBAJ. Retrieved 2020-10-29.
5. ↑ "Geologic History". Lower Wisconsin State Riverway Board. http://lwr.state.wi.us/subcategory.asp?linksubcatid=440&linkcatid=481&linkid=.
6. ↑ Black, Robert F. (1974). "Chapter 8: Mill Bluff Pinnacles". National Park Service Scientific Monograph (National Park Service). http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/science/2/chap8.htm. Retrieved 2012-05-20.

* v
* t
* e

Pleistocene proglacial lakes and related seas

Africa|

* Lake Makgadikgadi

Asia|

* West Siberian Glacial Lake
* Lake Tengger

Europe|

* Ancylus Lake
* Baltic Ice Lake
* Lake Harrison
* Lake Komi
* Lake Lapworth
* Lake Pickering
* Littorina Sea
* Mastogloia Sea
* Yoldia Sea

North America|

| Nelson River drainage|

* Proglacial lakes of Minnesota
* Lake Agassiz
* Lake Bassano
* Lake Souris

|

James Bay drainage|

* Lake Ojibway
* Tyrrell Sea

Great Lakes|

* Lake Admiralty
* Lake Algonquin (Multiple basins)
* Lake Arkona
* Lake Chicago
* Lake Chippewa
* Lake Duluth
* Early Lake Erie
* Lake Frontenac
* Lake Houghton (glacial)
* Glacial Lake Iroquois
* Lake Lundy
* Lake Dana
* Lake Maumee
* Lake Minong
* Nipissing Great Lakes (Multiple basins)
* Early Lake Ontario
* Lake Saginaw
* Lake Stanley
* Lake Tonawanda
* Lake Warren
* Lake Wayne
* Lake Whittlesey
* Champlain Sea

Columbia River system|

* Lake Allison
* Lake Bonneville
* Glacial Lake Columbia
* Lake Lahontan
* Lake Lewis
* Lake Missoula

Puget Sound system|

* Glacial Lake Russell
* Glacial Lake Hood
* Lake Nisqually
* Lake Puyallup
* Glacial Lake Sammamish
* Lake Skokomish

Upper Missouri River|

* Lake Cut Bank
* Lake Chouteau
* Lake Great Falls
* Lake Circle
* Lake Jordan (Montana)
* Lake Musselshell
* Lake Glendive
* Lake McKenzie

Upper Mississippi drainage|

* Lake Kankakee
* Kankakee Outwash Plain
* Lake Wisconsin

Ohio drainage|

* Lake Monongahela
* Lake Tight
* Teays River

Hudson valley|

* Lake Albany
* Lake Passaic

New England|

* Lake Cape Cod
* Lake Connecticut
* Lake Hitchcock
* Lake Merrimack
* Lake Nantucket Sound
* Lake Stowe

California|

* Lake Cahuilla
* Lake Corcoran
* Lake Harper
* Lake Manix
* Lake Manly
* Lake Mojave
* Lake Panamint
* Lake Russell
* Lake Tecopa
* Lake Thompson

New Mexico|

* Lake Palomas

Alaska|

* Lake Atna

South America|

* Lake Ballivián
* Cabana
* Lake Escara
* Inca Huasi
* Mataro
* Lake Minchin
* Ouki
* Sajsi
* Salinas
* Lake Tauca
* Great Tehuelche Paleolake

Summary|

* List of prehistoric lakes

* v
* t
* e

Continental glaciations

General|

* Cordilleran ice sheet
* Laurentide Ice Sheet
* Last Glacial Maximum
* Canadian Shield
* Glacial history of Minnesota
* List of prehistoric lakes
* Proglacial lake
* Lake Agassiz
* Lake Chicago
* Lake Tight
* Teays River
* Post-glacial rebound
* Timeline of glaciation

Landforms|

| Erosional|

* Fjord
* Glacial striae
* Ribbon lake
* Roche moutonnée
* Tunnel valley
* U-shaped valley

|

Depositional|

* Drumlin
* Erratic block
* Moraine
* Pulju moraine
* Rogen moraine
* Terminal moraine
* Till plain
* Veiki moraine

| Glacifluvial|

* Diluvium
* Esker
* Giant current ripples
* Kame
* Kame delta
* Kettle hole
* Outwash fan
* Sandur

|

North America|

| Canada|

* Arrowhead Provincial Park, Ontario
* Big Rock (glacial erratic), Alberta
* Cypress Hills (Canada), Saskatchewan
* Eramosa River, Ontario
* Eskers Provincial Park, British Columbia
* Foothills Erratics Train, Alberta
* Lion's Head Provincial Park, Ontario
* Origin of the Oak Ridges Moraine, Ontario
* Ovayok Territorial Park, Nunavut

|

United
States|

* Chippewa Moraine State Recreation Area, Wisconsin
* Coteau des Prairies, South Dakota
* Devil's Lake State Park, Wisconsin
* Glacial Lake Wisconsin, Wisconsin
* Glacial Lakes State Park, Minnesota
* Horicon Marsh State Wildlife Area, Wisconsin
* Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail, Idaho, Oregon & Washington
* Ice Age National Scientific Reserve, Wisconsin
* Ice Age Trail, Wisconsin
* Interstate State Park, Minnesota & Wisconsin
* Kelleys Island, Ohio
* Kettle Moraine State Forest, Wisconsin
* Lake Bonneville, Utah
* Lake Lahontan, Nevada
* Lake Missoula, Montana
* Mill Bluff State Park, Wisconsin
* Oneida Lake, New York
* Two Creeks Buried Forest State Natural Area, Wisconsin
* Withrow Moraine and Jameson Lake Drumlin Field, Washington
* Yosemite National Park, California

Eurasia and
Antarctica|

* Antarctica
* Hardangerfjord
* Killary Harbour
* Lambert Glacier
* Monte Rosa
* Ross Ice Shelf
* Svalbard

Time periods|

* Quaternary glaciation
* Illinoian Stage
* Interglacial
* Interstadial
* Penultimate Glacial Period
* Last Glacial Period
* Last Glacial Maximum
* Mousterian Pluvial
* Holocene glacial retreat
* Oldest Dryas
* Older Dryas
* Pleistocene
* Pre-Illinoian Stage
* Quaternary glaciation
* Sangamonian Stage
* Wisconsin glaciation
* Bølling-Allerød warming
* Late Glacial Interstadial
* Huelmo–Mascardi Cold Reversal
* Younger Dryas
* African humid period
* 8.2 kiloyear event
* 4.2 kiloyear event
* Piora Oscillation
* Little Ice Age

* Category

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