List of prehistoric lakes
Encyclopedia
This a partial list of prehistoric lakes. Although the form of the names below differ, the lists are alphabetized by the identifying name of the lake (e.g., Algonquin for Glacial Lake Algonquin).
North America
- In North America, where the Great LakesGreat LakesThe Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...
are now:- Glacial Lake AdmiraltyGlacial Lake AdmiraltyAdmiralty Lake was a proglacial lake in the basin of what is now Lake Ontario.The shoreline of Admiralty Lake was about lower than Lake Ontario. The shoreline of Glacial Lake Iroquois, an earlier proglacial lake was much higher than Lake Ontario's, because a lobe of the Laurentian Glacier blocked...
at Lake Ontario - Glacial Lake AlgonquinGlacial Lake AlgonquinLake Algonquin was a 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 and inland portions of northern Michigan....
at Lake Huron - Glacial Lake Baraboo, communicating with Glacial Lake WisconsinGlacial Lake WisconsinGlacial Lake Wisconsin was a prehistoric proglacial lake that existed from approximately 19,000 to 15,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age, in the central part of present-day Wisconsin in the United States....
here - Glacial Lake ChicagoLake ChicagoThis article is about the prehistoric lake, For other geographic features with this name, see ChicagoLake 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....
at the southern portion of Lake Michigan - Lake Chippewa at Lake Michigan
- Glacial Lake DuluthGlacial Lake DuluthGlacial Lake Duluth was a proglacial lake that formed in the Lake Superior drainage basin as the Laurentide ice sheet retreated. The oldest existing shorelines were formed after retreat from the Greatlakean advance, sometime around 11,000 years B.P. Lake Duluth formed at the western end of the Lake...
at Lake Superior - Glacial Lake FrontenacGlacial Lake FrontenacLake Frontenac was a proglacial lake in the basin of what is now Lake Ontario.The sudden influx of fresh water into the Atlantic, as the retreat of the Laurentian Glacier triggered a sudden drop in the Lake's water level, may in turn have triggered the onset of the Younger Dryas, 1000 year period...
at Lake Ontario - Glacial Lake Grantsburg, draining through the Saint Croix River, here
- Glacial Lake IroquoisGlacial Lake IroquoisGlacial Lake Iroquois was a prehistoric proglacial lake that existed at the end of the last ice age approximately 13,000 years ago.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...
at Lake Ontario - Glacial Lake MaumeeGlacial Lake MaumeeGlacial Lake Maumee was a proglacial lake that was an ancestor of present-day Lake Erie. It formed about 14,000 years ago. As the Erie Lobe of the Wisconsin Glacier retreated at the end of the last ice age, it left meltwater in a previously-existing depressional area that was the valley of an...
at Lake Erie - Glacial Lake MinongGlacial Lake MinongGlacial Lake Minong was a proglacial lake that formed in the Lake Superior basin during the Wisconsin glaciation around 10,000 B.P. . This was the last glacial advance that entered Michigan and covered only part of the upper peninsula. Lake Minong occurred in the eastern corner of the Lake...
at Lake Superior - Lake Stanley at Lake Huron
- Glacial Lake WisconsinGlacial Lake WisconsinGlacial Lake Wisconsin was a prehistoric proglacial lake that existed from approximately 19,000 to 15,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age, in the central part of present-day Wisconsin in the United States....
at Lake Michigan
- Glacial Lake Admiralty
- Elsewhere in North America:
- Glacial Lake Agassiz in Manitoba, Ontario, Saskatchewan, Minnesota, North Dakota
- Glacial Lake AlbanyLake AlbanyGlacial Lake Albany was a prehistoric North American proglacial lake that formed during the end of the Wisconsinan glaciation. It existed between 15,000 and 12,600 years ago and was created when meltwater from a retreating glacier, along with water from rivers such as the IroMohawk, became ice...
in the valley of the Hudson River - Lake AllisonLake AllisonLake Allison was a glacial backwater floodplain lake created from naturally occurring ice dams in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. The lake is the main cause for the rich and fertile soil that Willamette Valley is now recognized for.-History:...
in Western Oregon - Lake BonnevilleLake BonnevilleLake Bonneville was a prehistoric pluvial lake that covered much of North America's Great Basin region. Most of the territory it covered was in present-day Utah, though parts of the lake extended into present-day Idaho and Nevada. Formed about 32,000 years ago, it existed until about 14,500 years...
in Utah and Idaho and Nevada - Lake CahuillaLake CahuillaPrehistoric Lake Cahuilla was an extensive freshwater lake that filled the Coachella, Imperial, and Mexicali valleys of southeastern California and northeastern Baja California during the centuries prior to Spanish entry into the region...
in Southern California at the Salton Sea and today's cities of Indio, Mexicali, and El Centro, CA - Glacial Lake Calvin in southeast Iowa
- Champlain SeaChamplain SeaThe Champlain Sea was a temporary inlet of the Atlantic Ocean, a paratropical subsea or epeiric sea created by the retreating glaciers during the close of the last ice age...
in Vermont, New York, Quebec and Ontario - Glacial Lake ColumbiaGlacial Lake ColumbiaGlacial Lake Columbia was the lake formed on the ice-dammed Columbia River behind the Okanogan lobe of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet when the lobe covered of the Waterville Plateau west of Grand Coulee in central Washington state during the Wisconsin glaciation. Lake Columbia was a substantially...
in central Washington State - Lake Edmonton in Alberta
- Glacial Lake Great FallsGlacial Lake Great FallsGlacial Lake Great Falls was a prehistoric proglacial lake which existed in what is now central Montana in the United States between 15,000 BCE and 11,000 BCE. Centered on the modern city of Great Falls, Montana, Glacial Lake Great Falls extended as far north as Cut Bank, Montana, and as far south...
in Montana - Glacial Lake Hind in southwestern Manitoba
- Glacial Lake HitchcockLake HitchcockLake Hitchcock was a glacial lake that formed approximately 15,000 years ago in the late Pleistocene epoch. After the Laurentide ice sheet retreated, glacial ice melt accumulated at the terminal moraine and blocked up the Connecticut River, creating the long, narrow lake...
in the valley of the Connecticut River - Lake LahontanLake LahontanLake Lahontan was a large endorheic Pleistocene lake of modern northwestern Nevada that extended into northeastern California and southern Oregon...
in Nevada - Lubbock Lake in Texas (see Lubbock Lake LandmarkLubbock Lake LandmarkLubbock Lake Landmark, also known as Lubbock Lake Site, is an important archeological site and natural history preserve in the city of Lubbock, Texas. The preserve is 336 acres and is a protected state and federal landmark. There is evidence of ancient people and extinct animals at Lubbock Lake...
) - Lake ManlyLake ManlyLake Manly is a pluvial, former freshwater, endorheic, rift lake that filled the Death Valley basin of Inyo County, California through the Holocene before the area's climate changed to desert. Following its isolation from the Colorado River system, Lake Manly receded by evaporation with Badwater...
covered Death Valley - Glacial Lake McConnell in Alberta, Northwest Territories, and Saskatchewan
- Glacial Lake MissoulaGlacial Lake MissoulaGlacial Lake Missoula was a prehistoric proglacial lake in western Montana that existed periodically at the end of the last ice age between 15,000 and 13,000 years ago...
in Montana - Glacial Lake OjibwayGlacial Lake OjibwayGlacial Lake Ojibway was a prehistoric lake in what is now Northern Ontario and Quebec in Canada. Ojibway was the last of the great proglacial lakes of the last ice age. Comparable in size to Lake Agassiz , and north of the Great Lakes, it was at its greatest extent c. 8,500 years BP.Lake Ojibway...
in eastern Canada - Glacial Lake PassaicGlacial Lake PassaicGlacial Lake Passaic was a prehistoric proglacial lake that existed in northern New Jersey in the United States at the end of the last ice age approximately 19,000-14,000 years ago...
in New Jersey - Lake Peace in Alberta and British Columbia
- Glacial Lake Regina
- Glacial Lake Saginaw
- Glacial Lake SourisGlacial Lake SourisThe Glacial Lake Souris occupied the basin of the Souris River from the most southern portion of this river's loop in North Dakota to its elbow in Manitoba, where it turned sharply northward and passed through the Tiger Hills. The length of Lake Souris was about 170 miles, from latitude 48° to...
across North Dakota and Manitoba - Glacial Lake TightGlacial Lake TightLake Tight, named for geologist William G. Tight, was a glacial lake located in what is present-day Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia, during the Ice Age of the early Pleistocene Kansan glaciation.-History:...
, named for William G. TightWilliam G. TightWilliam G. Tight was an American geomorphologist who became president of the University of New Mexico .Tight was one of the first to decipher the glacial drainage histories of the Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia area, specifically the long gone Teays River system and... - Glacial Lake TonawandaGlacial Lake TonawandaGlacial Lake Tonawanda was a prehistoric lake that existed approximately 10,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age, in Western New York, United States....
in New York state - Glacial Lake Vermont in Vermont, New York states, and the province of Quebec
- Glacial Lake WisconsinGlacial Lake WisconsinGlacial Lake Wisconsin was a prehistoric proglacial lake that existed from approximately 19,000 to 15,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age, in the central part of present-day Wisconsin in the United States....
in Wisconsin - Glacial Lake Snoqualmie in Washington State
Europe
- Lake KomiLake KomiLake Komi was a prehistoric periglacial lake formed in the region of the present-day Russian Komi Republic when the Barents Sea outlet of the Pechora River was blocked by ice during the Weichselian Glaciation.-External links:...
, a proglacial lakeProglacial lakeIn geology, a proglacial lake is a lake formed either by the damming action of a moraine or ice dam during the retreat of a melting glacier, or by meltwater trapped against an ice sheet due to isostatic depression of the crust around the ice...
formed in the vicinity of the present-day Russian Komi RepublicKomi RepublicThe Komi Republic is a federal subject of Russia .-Geography:The republic is situated to the west of the Ural mountains, in the north-east of the East European Plain...
. - Baltic Ice LakeBaltic ice lakeThe Baltic ice lake is a name given by geologists to a freshwater lake that gradually formed in the Baltic Sea basin as glaciation retreated from that region at the end of the Pleistocene. The lake, dated to 12,600-10,300 BP, is roughly contemporaneous with the three Pleistocene Blytt-Sernander...
, freshwater period of the Baltic SeaBaltic SeaThe Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and... - Ancylus LakeAncylus LakeAncylus lake is a name given by geologists to the body of fresh water that replaced the Yoldia Sea after the latter had been severed from its saline intake across central Sweden by the isostatic rise of south Scandinavian landforms. The dates are approximately 9500-8000 BP calibrated, during the...
, freshwater period of the Baltic SeaBaltic SeaThe Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and... - Lake HarrisonLake HarrisonLake Harrison is the name given to a huge lake that in parts of the Ice Age covered much of the Midlands in England around Warwick and Birmingham and Leicester. It was formed when ice from Wales and the north blocked the drainage and trapped a lake between the ice front and the Cotswolds...
in the MidlandsEnglish MidlandsThe Midlands, or the English Midlands, is the traditional name for the area comprising central England that broadly corresponds to the early medieval Kingdom of Mercia. It borders Southern England, Northern England, East Anglia and Wales. Its largest city is Birmingham, and it was an important...
in EnglandEnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental... - Lake LapworthLake LapworthLake Lapworth existed in England in the Ice Age when ice from Wales and the north blocked the outlet of the River Dee near the site of Chester. The Dee backed up, forming Lake Lapworth, until it overflowed southwards and cut the Ironbridge gorge, permanently diverting part of the Dee drainage into...
in Shropshire in England - Orcadian LakesOrcadian LakesThe Orcadian Lakes are a series of lakes which existed during the Devonian period in the region which is now northern Scotland, Orkney and Shetland. The sedimentary rocks they left behind have been studied since the 1830's...
of the Old Red SandstoneOld Red SandstoneThe Old Red Sandstone is a British rock formation of considerable importance to early paleontology. For convenience the short version of the term, 'ORS' is often used in literature on the subject.-Sedimentology:...
, ScotlandScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the... - Lake PickeringLake PickeringLake Pickering was an extensive proglacial lake of the Devensian glacial. It filled the Vale of Pickering between the North York Moors and the Yorkshire Wolds, when the ice blocked the drainage, which had hitherto flowed north-eastwards past the site of Filey towards the Northern North Sea basin...
between the North York MoorsNorth York MoorsThe North York Moors is a national park in North Yorkshire, England. The moors are one of the largest expanses of heather moorland in the United Kingdom. It covers an area of , and it has a population of about 25,000...
and the Yorkshire WoldsYorkshire WoldsThe Yorkshire Wolds are low hills in the counties of East Riding of Yorkshire and North Yorkshire in northeastern England. The name also applies to the district in which the hills lie....
in England - Ebro endorheic lake system, in the EbroEbroThe Ebro or Ebre is one of the most important rivers in the Iberian Peninsula. It is the biggest river by discharge volume in Spain.The Ebro flows through the following cities:*Reinosa in Cantabria.*Miranda de Ebro in Castile and León....
Basin, (Spain) - Duero endorheic lake system, in the Duero Basin, (Spain)
- GjendeGjendeGjende is a lake in the Jotunheimen mountains in Norway's Jotunheimen National Park. The proglacial lake shows typical characteristics of glacial formation, being long and narrow—in length 18 km and in breadth 1.5 km at the broadest point with steep walls...
Lake in the JotunheimenJotunheimenJotunheimen is a mountainous area of roughly 3,500 km² in Southern Norway and is part of the long range known as the Scandinavian Mountains. The 29 highest mountains in Norway are all in Jotunheimen, including the very highest - Galdhøpiggen...
mountains of Norway