Lake Albany

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Lake Albany
Glacial Lakes Albany, Champlain, Hitchcock, Winsooski, & Merrimack.jpg
Proglacial and prehistoric lakes of New England during the end of the Wisconsin Glacial Epoch of the Pleistocene Era
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Lake Albany
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Red pog.svg
Lake Albany
Locationbetween Poughkeepsie, New York at its northern-most tip to near Glenn Falls, New York at its southern-most end
Coordinates 42°43′06″N73°51′52″W / 42.7183°N 73.8644°W / 42.7183; -73.8644
Type Proglacial lake
Primary inflows Lake Vermont
Primary outflows Hudson River
Basin  countriesUnited States
Max. length160 miles (260 km)
ReferencesCoordinates approximated using details in International Oaks [1]
Location
Lake Albany

Glacial Lake Albany was a prehistoric North American proglacial lake that formed during the end of the Wisconsinan glaciation. [2] [3] 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 dammed in the Hudson Valley. [2] [4] [5]

Contents

Organic materials in Lake Albany deposits have been carbon dated to approximately 11,700 years ago. [6] The lake spanned approximately 160 miles (260 km) from present-day Poughkeepsie to Glens Falls. [2] [4] [7]

Lake Albany drained about 10,500 years ago through the Hudson River due to post-glacial rebound. [2] [7] [8] When the lake drained it exposed the sandy and gravelly glaciolacustrine deposits left by the glacier, along a broad plain just west of Schenectady, where the Mohawk emptied into the lake. [9] Dune and deltaic sands, containing lenses of silty sand, silt and clay, [10] compose the topsoil which now underlies the Albany Pine Bush. [11] Beneath the surficial deposits are lake-bottom silt and clay, which overlie till and shale bedrock. [10] A small rill caused by the lake's drainage created Patroon Creek, Sand Creek, Lisha Kill, Shaker Creek, Delphus Kill and the Salt Kill in the town of Colonie, New York. [12]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "The Albany Pine Bush: a Local Oak Hotspot in Upstate New York | International Oak Society". www.internationaloaksociety.org. Retrieved 21 April 2025.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Origins of the Albany Pine Bush". Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission. 2005. Archived from the original on 24 August 2006. Retrieved 21 April 2025.
  3. ↑ "Catastrophic Flooding from Ancient Lake May Have Triggered Cold Period". Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. 20 December 2004. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 21 April 2025.
  4. 1 2 "How did this land form?" (PDF). State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. August 2001. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 June 2010. Retrieved 21 April 2025.
  5. ↑ De Simone, David J.; Wall, Gary R.; Miller, Norton G.; Rayburn, John A.; Kozlowski, Andrew L. (May–June 2008). "Glacial Geology of the Northern Hudson through Southern Champlain Lowlands" (PDF). University of Maine. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 July 2011. Retrieved 21 April 2025.
  6. ↑ "Late Quaternary History of Northeastern New York and Adjacent Vermont and Quebec" (PDF). Northeast Friends Of The Pleistocene. June 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 July 2011. Retrieved 21 April 2025.
  7. 1 2 "Geological History of the New York Area". Skidmore College. 2004. Archived from the original on 26 September 2004. Retrieved 21 April 2025.
  8. ↑ "State University of New York at Albany - Edward Durrell Stone's architecture, atmospheric science, and the geology under it". University at Albany, SUNY. Archived from the original on 2010-06-15. Retrieved 2010-10-17.
  9. ↑ "Surficial Geology: Sand Dunes". New York State Geological Survey. Archived from the original on 2010-10-19. Retrieved 2010-10-17.
  10. 1 2 Williams, John H.; Lapham, Wayne W.; Barringer, Thomas H. (1993). "Application of Electromagnetic Logging to Contamination Investigations in Glacial San-and-Gravel Aquifers". Groundwater Monitoring & Remediation. 13 (3). USGS: 130–131. Bibcode:1993GMRed..13c.129W. doi:10.1111/j.1745-6592.1993.tb00082.x.
  11. ↑ Burger, Joanna (2006). Whispers in the Pines: a Naturalist in the Northeast. Rutgers University Press. p. 29. ISBN   978-0-8135-3794-8 . Retrieved 2010-10-17.
  12. ↑ "Town of Colonie: A Draft Comprehensive Plan" (PDF). Town of Colonie. May 2005. p. 23. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-09-22. Retrieved 2010-10-20.

Further reading

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