What was the great lakes formed by

Thus the sites of these two lakes were predestined by events that occurred more than million years ago. The location and shape of Lake Superior was determined by events in Keweenawan time, some 1,, million years ago. This material has been compiled for educational use only, and may not be reproduced without permission.

As seen from space, the Great Lakes constitute one of the most identifiable features of the North American continent as well as Earth. Together, they constitute the greatest freshwater system on Earth, covering an area larger than Texas and about half the size of Alaska.

Marys River into Lakes Michigan and Huron, which actually are two halves of one lake. From there, the water flows southward from the southern tip of Lake Huron down the St. Clair and the Detroit River to Lake Erie. It then flows northeast down the St. Lawrence River — the last link in a 2,mile-long waterway that ultimately connects Minnesota to the Atlantic Ocean. However, this stair-step arrangement of basins is relatively new and resulted from the slow rise of the land as it rebounded from the depressing weight of the mile-thick ice sheets.

It was the result of significantly lower lake levels, referred to as the Chippewa low levels. There is now a gorge that was carved by the Lake Chippewa outflow that lies submerged below the straits of Mackinac. The present day Great Lakes have six quadrillion gallons of water, with only the polar ice caps and Lake Baikal containing more. Lake Superior has the deepest point, at a depth of 1, feet.

This continuous path is important for shipping because it provides direct access to the Atlantic Ocean via the St. Lawrence Seaway. Thanks to Emily Shaw , Contributing Writer, for compiling this information.

People love movies. People love the summer in Traverse City. This Michigan bucket list item is brought to you by Mari Vineyards. Plus, there are hundreds of thousands of smaller lakes, rivers, ponds, and connected waterways within the , square miles of drainage basin that today extends all the way to the Atlantic Ocean via the channels and locks of St.

Lawrence Seaway. The Great Lakes form a natural border between Canada and the United States, and since the signing of a treaty between the two countries, no fortifications or military warships patrol the water border. The formation and location of the Great Lakes is a direct result of ancient glaciation and geology, yet the precise age of the lakes is not known.

Scientists estimate that they are anywhere between 7, to 32, years old, with the lakes changing in shape and size throughout the millennia. But all agree the process began millions of years before that with the movement of continents and a series of enormous glaciers that cut across the landscape.

Beginning in the Palaezoic Era which included the Cambrian, Ordovician, and Silurian Periods wherein new life forms began to appear, large inland seas divided portions of North and South America, submerging the landforms we know today completely under water.

As the Palaeozoic seas withdrew, powerful geographic forces continued to shift the continents and alter the landscape.