Lake Agassiz
Large lake in central North America at the end of the last glacial period / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about Lake Agassiz?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
Lake Agassiz (/ˈæɡəsi/ AG-ə-see) was a large proglacial lake that existed in central North America during the late Pleistocene, fed by meltwater from the retreating Laurentide Ice Sheet at the end of the last glacial period. At its peak, the lake's area was larger than all of the modern Great Lakes combined.[2] It eventually drained into what is now Hudson Bay, leaving behind Lake Winnipeg, Lake Winnipegosis, Lake Manitoba, and Lake of the Woods.
Lake Agassiz | |
---|---|
Location | Manitoba, Ontario, and Saskatchewan in Canada; Minnesota and North Dakota in the U.S. |
Coordinates | 51°N 97°W |
Lake type | proglacial lake |
Etymology | Louis Agassiz |
Primary inflows | Laurentide Ice Sheet |
Primary outflows | Glacial River Warren, the Vermilion River, the Wanapitei River, and the Montreal River valley[1] |
Basin countries | Canada, United States |
First flooded | 12,875 years before present |
Max. length | 475 mi (764 km)[1] |
Max. width | 296 mi (476 km)[1] |
Surface area | 260,000 km2 (100,000 sq mi)[1] |
Surface elevation |
|
First postulated in 1823 by William H. Keating,[3] it was named by Warren Upham in 1879 after Louis Agassiz, the then-recently deceased (1873) founder of glaciology, when Upham recognized that the lake was formed by glacial action.[4]