Lake Algonquin

Map of Glacial Lake Algonquin and its Correlatives (USGS)

Lake Algonquin

Location| North America
Group| Great Lakes
Coordinates|  [ ⚑ ]  47°N 85°W﻿ / ﻿47°N 85°W﻿ / 47; -85
Etymology| Algonquin people
rivers, streams, precipitation">Primary inflows| Laurentide Glacier
rivers, streams, evaporation">Primary outflows| St. Clair River
Basin countries| Canada
United States
First flooded| 11,000 years before present
Max. length| 586 mi (943 km)
Max. width| 591 mi (951 km)
Residence time| 3000 years in existence
Surface elevation| 295 ft (90 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

Lake Algonquin was a prehistoric proglacial lake that existed in east-central North America at the time of the last ice age. Parts of the former lake are now Lake Huron, Georgian Bay, Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Nipigon, and Lake Nipissing.

The lake varied in size, but it was at its biggest during the post-glacial period and gradually shrunk to the current Lake Huron and Georgian Bay. About 7,000 years ago, the lake was replaced by Lake Chippewa and Lake Stanley as the glaciers retreated and 3,000 years later by the current Lakes Michigan, Huron, and Superior.

## Contents

* 1 Physiography
* 2 Outlets and stages
* 2.1 Early Lake Algonquin
* 3 See also
* 4 References
* 5 External links

## Physiography

Summary of prehistoric beaches from the six glacial lakes that preceded the modern Lake Erie.

About 11,000 years before present, the Laurentian Glacier had retreated northward, forming a boundary across the northern edges of Lake Superior and Lake Huron. The water level was at 605 feet (184 m) above sea level, creating a single body of water in the three basins of Lake Michigan, Lake Huron and Lake Superior.[1] The lake drained through three outlets, the Chicago Outlet River, the St. Clair-Detroit River, and through the Trent Valley.[2]

## Outlets and stages

The first stage occupied only the south part of the basin of Lake Huron, including Saginaw Bay. It received tributary drainage from smaller lakes in the south part of the Georgian Bay and Lake Simcoe basins. Its existence is based on evidence of the establishment and erosion of its outlet through the distributaries of the St. Clair River at St. Clair, and on characters of the Niagara River and gorge. The steps of transition following this are simply physical and logical necessities, made so by the conditions of development from the first stage to the later fully developed Lake Algonquin, which included all three of the upper Great Lake basins.[2]

* Early Lake Algonquin, 12,000 YBP, formed in Lake Huron Basin. Drained through Port Huron and ancestral St. Clair River to Early Lake Erie. The Tolleston beach or Calumet beach of Lake Chicago drained across the Two Creeks waterway in central Michigan, into the early Lake Algonquin.[3]
* Kirkfield Low Stage
* Lake Chicago-Huron Stage
* Main Lake Algonquin, 11,000 YBP, the main phase of Lake Algonquin formed across both the Lake Michigan and Lake Huron basins, then overflowing the low lands of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Water levels continued to fluctuate. Four water tables existed long enough to form identifiable beaches. They include the Main Algonquin, Lower Algonquin, Battlefield and the Fort Brady beach levels.[3]

By 10,500 YBP the lake gained a lower outlet across the front of the glacier, creating the North Bay Outlet. Running in reverse to the modern French River, and across the divide into the ancestral Ottawa River. With water levels dropping, the two basins of Michigan and Huron, separated into individual lakes, entering the Lake Chippewa low phase in the Michigan Basin and the Lake Stanley Low Phase in the Huron Basin.

### Early Lake Algonquin

Stages of lake development.

The Early Lake Algonquin covered only part of Lake Huron. It included Saginaw Bay, but did not include Georgian Bay or any of the Lake Michigan or Lake Superior basins. Lake Chicago was in the southern portion of Lake Michigan and Lake Duluth was in the western tip of the Lake Superior basin.[2] Lake water drained through the Port Huron outlet and down the St. Clair and Detroit rivers into Early Lake Erie. As the glacial front melted northward, the lake expanded in the Huron basin. When it retreated north of Alpena, Michigan, the waters of Lake Chicago merged with Early Lake Algonquin. The two lakes were nearly the same level and no change of altitude. Each maintained its original outlets; the Port Huron outlet on the southeast and the Chicago outlet in the southwest.[2]

## See also

* Champlain Sea
* Lake Agassiz
* Lake Chicago
* Lake Maumee
* Last glacial maximum
* Midcontinent Rift System
* Niagara Escarpment
* Nipissing Great Lakes
* List of prehistoric lakes

## References

1. ↑ Bulletin 4, The Glacial Lakes around Michigan; William R. Farrand, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan; 1988
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 The Illinois Ice Lobe; Frank Leverett; U.S. Geological Survey, Monograph, #38; Government Printing Office; Washington, D.C.; 1899, Plate 21
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Geological History of Glacial Lake Algonquin and the Upper Great Lakes; Curtis E. Larsen; U.S. Geological Survey bulletin; 1801; United States Government Printing Office; Washington, D.C.; 1987

## External links

* Glacial Lake Algonquin (estimated) shoreline map for a small part of northern Michigan: http://geo.msu.edu/research_topics/geographic-information-systems/

* v
* t
* e

Ice ages

Quaternary /
Late Cenozoic|

| Quaternary|

* Antarctica
* Greenland
* Penultimate Glacial Period
* Last Glacial Period (Last Glacial Maximum)
* 1st: Würm, Wisconsin, Weichselian, Devensian/Midlandian, Pinedale/Fraser, Merida, Llanquihue
* 2nd: Riss, Illinoian, Saale, Wolstonian, Santa María
* 3rd–6th: Mindel, Pre-Illinoian, Elster, Anglian, Rio Llico
* 7th–8th: Günz, Pre-Illinoian, Elbe or Menapian, Beestonian, Caracol (2.5 to 0 Mya)

|

Pliocene
Miocene
Oligocene|

* Antarctic (34 to 2.5 Mya)

Carboniferous–Permian|

* Late Paleozoic icehouse (360 Mya to 260 Mya)

Late Ordovician glaciation|

* Andean-Saharan (460 Mya to 430 Mya)

Ediacaran|

* Gaskiers (579.88 to 579.63 Mya)
* Baykonurian (547 to 541.5 Mya)

Cryogenian|

* Sturtian (717 to 660 Mya); Marinoan (650 to 635 Mya)

Paleoproterozoic|

* Huronian (2.4 to 2.1 Gya)

Mesoarchean|

* Pongola (2.9 to 2.78 Gya)

Related topics|

* Greenhouse and icehouse Earth
* Great Oxygenation Event
* Snowball Earth
* Interglacial
* Milankovitch cycles
* Stadial

Timeline of glaciation

* 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

* 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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