Glacial Lake Iroquois

Short description: Prehistoric lake that became Lake Ontario

Lake Iroquois

This map shows the valley of the Mohawk River, through which Glacial Lake Iroquois crossed the mountains to the Hudson River Valley.

Lake Iroquois

Location| North America
Group| Great Lakes
Coordinates|  [ ⚑ ] : 43°42′N 77°54′W﻿ / ﻿43.7°N 77.9°W﻿ / 43.7; -77.9
Etymology| Iroquois or Haudenosaunee (/ˈhoʊdənoʊˈʃoʊni/; "People of the Longhouse")[1]
rivers, streams, precipitation">Primary inflows| Niagara River
rivers, streams, evaporation">Primary outflows| Mohawk River to the Hudson River
Basin countries| Canada
United States
Max. length| 196 mi (315 km)
Max. width| 57 mi (92 km)
Surface elevation| 345 ft (105 m)
References| United States Geological Survey, George Otis Smith, Director; The Pleistocene of Indiana and Michigan and the History of the Great Lakes; Frank Leverett and Frank B. Taylor; Department of the Interior, Monographs of the United States Geological Survey; Volume LIII; Washington; Government Printing Office; 1915

Glacial Lake Iroquois was a prehistoric proglacial lake that existed at the end of the last ice age approximately 13,000 years ago.[2]

## Contents

* 1 Description
* 2 Remnant shorelines
* 3 See also
* 4 References
* 5 External links

## Description

Stages of great lake development.

The lake was essentially an enlargement of the present Lake Ontario that formed because the St. Lawrence River downstream from the lake was blocked by the ice sheet near the present Thousand Islands. The level of the lake was approximately 30 m (~100 ft) above the present level of Lake Ontario.[3]

The lake drained to the southeast, through a channel passing near present day Rome, New York. The Rome Sand Plains has several sand ridges that geologists think were formed at this time. The channel then followed the valley of the Mohawk River to the Hudson River.[3]

The lake was fed by Early Lake Erie, as well as Glacial Lake Algonquin, an early partial manifestation of Lake Huron, that drained directly to Lake Iroquois across southern Ontario, along the southern edge of the ice sheet, bypassing Early Lake Erie.

The subsequent melting of the ice dam produced a sudden lowering of the lake to its present level, a potential trigger for the Younger Dryas episode.[4] The resulting flood also created the Narrows in New York City, destroying the part of the moraine then uniting Staten Island and Brooklyn.[5]

## Remnant shorelines

Two ancient shorelines in the Toronto area mark the existence of former glacial lakes. About 2 km inland from the shore, a ridge known as the Iroquois Shoreline can be discerned. The old shoreline runs west-east, running roughly parallel to Davenport Road just south of St. Clair Avenue West. Further east, the Scarborough Bluffs also formed part of the shoreline of the ancient lake.[6] In Mississauga, the shoreline is found south of Dundas Street and most visible with hills found east and west of Mavis Road.[7]

Another ancient shoreline exists between 2–4 km offshore of Toronto. It is known as the Toronto Scarp and formed the shore of Glacial Lake Warren or Admiralty Lake. From Bluffer's Park in Scarborough to just west of Hanlan's Point is an underwater bluff.[8]

In Hamilton, Ontario the Burlington Heights represents a sand and gravel bar formed across the mouth of Cootes Paradise, at the western end of Glacial Lake Iroquois.

In New York, Ridge Road and New York State Route 104 run from west to east along a ridge of the old shoreline of Lake Iroquois.[9]

## See also

* Lake Agassiz
* List of prehistoric lakes
* Lake Coleman

## References

1. ↑ Beauchamp, William Martin (1905). A History of the New York Iroquois. New York State Education Department. p. 165. Retrieved May 7, 2016.
2. ↑ Richard Foster Flint (2008). Glacial Geology and the Pleistocene Epoch. Read Books. ISBN 978-1-4437-2173-8. https://books.google.com/books?id=m6zLfVSAOJcC&q="Lake Frontenac" "Lake Ontario" glacier OR glacial&pg=RA2-PA261.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 {{cite journal |title=Review: Origin and Evolution of the Great Lakes |last1=Larson |first1=Grahame |last2=Schaetzl |first2=Randall

## External links

* History of Lake Iroquois
* Lake Iroquois and its shore cliff, showing map of the lake
* Deglaciation of the Central St. Lawrence Lowland

* 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

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