Lake Algonquin was a prehistoric

proglacial lake In geology, a proglacial lake is a lake formed either by the damming action of a moraine during the retreat of a melting glacier, a glacial ice dam, or by meltwater trapped against an ice sheet due to isostatic depression of the crust around th ...

that existed in east-central

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the C ...

at the time of the last

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gree ...

. Parts of the former lake are now

Lake Huron Lake Huron ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. Hydrologically, it comprises the easterly portion of Lake Michigan–Huron, having the same surface elevation as Lake Michigan, to which it is connected by the , Straits of Ma ...

Georgian Bay Georgian Bay (french: Baie Georgienne) is a large bay of Lake Huron, in the Laurentia bioregion. It is located entirely within the borders of Ontario, Canada. The main body of the bay lies east of the Bruce Peninsula and Manitoulin Island. T ...

Lake Superior Lake Superior in central North America is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. and the third-largest by volume, holding 10% of the world's surface fresh w ...

Lake Michigan Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that ...

Lake Nipigon Lake Nipigon (; french: lac Nipigon; oj, Animbiigoo-zaaga'igan) is part of the Great Lakes drainage basin. It is the largest lake entirely within the boundaries of the Canadian province of Ontario. Etymology In the Jesuit Relations the lake i ...

, and

Lake Nipissing Lake Nipissing (; french: lac Nipissing, oj, Gichi-nibiinsing-zaaga’igan) is a lake in the Canadian province of Ontario. It has a surface area of , a mean elevation of above sea level, and is located between the Ottawa River and Georgian ...

. The lake varied in size, but it was at its biggest during the post-glacial period and gradually shrunk to the current

and

. About 7,000 years ago, the lake was replaced by

Lake Chippewa Lake Chippewa was a prehistoric proglacial lake. The basin is now Lake Michigan. It formed about 10,600 years before present (YBP). The lake occupied the depression left by the Michigan Lobe of the Laurentide Ice Sheet.University of Wisconsin ...

and

Lake Stanley Lake Stanley, also called the ''Stanley unconformity'', is a postglacial freshwater lake that occupied part of what is now the basin of Lake Huron during a hydrologically significant period from 10,000 years Before Present (B.P.). The lake’s s ...

as the glaciers retreated and 3,000 years later by the current Lakes Michigan, Huron, and Superior.

Physiography

Glacial Lake beaches of the Lake Erie Basin

About 11,000 years before present, the Laurentian Glacier had retreated northward, forming a boundary across the northern edges of

and

. The water level was at above sea level, creating a single body of water in the three basins of

, Lake Huron and Lake Superior.Bulletin 4, The Glacial Lakes around Michigan; William R. Farrand, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan; 1988 The lake drained through three outlets, the Chicago Outlet River, the St. Clair-

Detroit River The Detroit River flows west and south for from Lake St. Clair to Lake Erie as a strait in the Great Lakes system. The river divides the metropolitan areas of Detroit, Michigan, and Windsor, Ontario—an area collectively referred to as Detr ...

, and through the Trent Valley.The Illinois Ice Lobe; Frank Leverett; U.S. Geological Survey, Monograph, #38; Government Printing Office; Washington, D.C.; 1899, Plate 21

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. * Early Lake Algonquin, 12,000 YBP, formed in Lake Huron Basin. Drained through Port Huron and ancestral

St. Clair River The St. Clair River (french: Rivière Sainte-Claire) is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed November 7, 2011 river in central North America which flows from Lake Huron int ...

Early Lake Erie Early Lake Erie was a prehistoric proglacial lake that existed at the end of the last ice age approximately 13,000 years ago. The early Erie fed waters to Glacial Lake Iroquois. The ancient lake was similar in size to the current lake during glac ...

. The Tolleston beach or Calumet beach of

Lake Chicago Lake Chicago was a prehistoric proglacial lake that is the ancestor of what is now known as Lake Michigan, one of North America's five Great Lakes. Fed by retreating glaciers, it drained south through the Chicago Outlet River. Origin The ci ...

drained across the Two Creeks waterway in central

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

, into the early Lake Algonquin.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 * Kirkfield Low Stage * Lake Chicago-Huron Stage * Main Lake Algonquin, 11,000 YBP, the main phase of Lake Algonquin formed across both the

and

basins, then overflowing the low lands of Michigan's

Upper Peninsula The Upper Peninsula of Michigan – also known as Upper Michigan or colloquially the U.P. – is the northern and more elevated of the two major landmasses that make up the U.S. state of Michigan; it is separated from the Lower Peninsula by t ...

. 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. 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 The Ottawa River (french: Rivière des Outaouais, Algonquin: ''Kichi-Sìbì/Kitchissippi'') is a river in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. It is named after the Algonquin word 'to trade', as it was the major trade route of East ...

. With water levels dropping, the two basins of Michigan and Huron, separated into individual lakes, entering the

low phase in the Michigan Basin and the

Low Phase in the Huron Basin.

Early Lake Algonquin

The Early Lake Algonquin covered only part of Lake Huron. It included Saginaw Bay, but did not include

or any of the Lake Michigan or Lake Superior basins.

was in the southern portion of

and Lake Duluth was in the western tip of the

basin. Lake water drained through the

Port Huron Port Huron is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of St. Clair County. The population was 30,184 at the 2010 census. The city is adjacent to Port Huron Township but is administered separately. Located along the St. Clair ...

outlet and down the St. Clair and

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

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 Alpena ( ') is the only city in and county seat of Alpena County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 10,483 at the 2010 census. After Traverse City, it is the second most populated city in the Northern Michigan region. The city i ...

, 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.

References

External links

* Glacial Lake Algonquin (estimated) shoreline map for a small part of northern

: http://geo.msu.edu/research_topics/geographic-information-systems/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Algonquin, Lake Former lakes of North America Geology of Michigan Proglacial lakes Glacial lakes of the United States Glacial lakes of Canada

Physiography

Outlets and stages

Early Lake Algonquin

See also

References

External links