| Lake Algonquin | |
|---|---|
.JPG) Map of Glacial Lake Algonquin and its Correlatives (USGS) | |
  Lake Algonquin | |
| Location | North America |
| Group | Great Lakes |
| Coordinates | 47°N85°W / 47°N 85°W /47; -85 |
| Lake type | former lake |
| Etymology | Algonquin people |
| Primary inflows | Laurentide Glacier |
| 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 prehistoricproglacial lake that existed in east-centralNorth America at the time of the lastice age. Parts of the former lake are nowLake Huron,Georgian Bay,Lake Superior,Lake Michigan,Lake Nipigon, andLake Nipissing.
The lake varied in size, but it was at its biggest during the post-glacial period and gradually shrank to the currentLake Huron andGeorgian Bay. About 7,000 years ago, the lake was replaced byLake Chippewa andLake Stanley as the glaciers retreated and 3,000 years later by the current Lakes Michigan, Huron, and Superior.
About 11,000 years before present, theLaurentian Glacier had retreated northward, forming a boundary across the northern edges ofLake Superior andLake Huron. The water level was at 605 feet (184 m) above sea level, creating a single body of water in the three basins ofLake Michigan, Lake Huron and Lake Superior.[1] The lake drained through three outlets, theChicago Outlet River, theSt. Clair-Detroit River, and through theTrent Valley.[2]
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]
By 10,500 YBP the lake gained a lower outlet across the front of the glacier, creating theNorth Bay Outlet. Running in reverse to the modernFrench River, and across the divide into the ancestralOttawa River. With water levels dropping, the two basins of Michigan and Huron, separated into individual lakes, entering theLake Chippewa low phase in the Michigan Basin and theLake Stanley Low Phase in the Huron Basin.
The Early Lake Algonquin covered only part of Lake Huron. It included Saginaw Bay, but did not includeGeorgian Bay or any of the Lake Michigan or Lake Superior basins.Lake Chicago was in the southern portion ofLake Michigan andLake Duluth was in the western tip of theLake Superior basin.[2] Lake water drained through thePort Huron outlet and down theSt. Clair andDetroit rivers into Early Lake Erie. As the glacial front melted northward, the lake expanded in the Huron basin. When it retreated north ofAlpena, 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]
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