Seneca Lake in New York's Finger Lakes hides dramatic glacial history: its bedrock was scoured 306 m (1,004 ft) below sea level, now filled two-thirds with sediment. Seismic surveys revealed rapid sediment deposition between 14,400 and 13,900 years ago — coinciding with meltwater pulse 1A and Heinrich event H1, when massive icebergs broke off the Laurentide Ice Sheet and flooded the North Atlantic with ice and freshwater.
Seneca Lake bedrock scoured 306m below sea level during Heinrich event H1
Key facts
- Seneca Lake (Finger Lakes, NY) has bedrock scoured 306 m (1,004 ft) below sea level, filled about two-thirds with sediment
- Up to 270 m of late Wisconsin sediment fills the basin
- Eight of the eleven Finger Lakes were surveyed via seismic reflection
- Sediment sequences 1-5 were deposited rapidly between 14,400 and 13,900 years ago
- Valley Heads Moraine marks the boundary; a drainage reversal is recorded in the sediment sequence
- Timing coincides with meltwater pulse 1A and Heinrich event H1 in the North Atlantic
- Source: "Seismic stratigraphy of the Finger Lakes, a continental record of the Heinrich event H1 and the Laurentide Ice Sheet instability"
- Heinrich events involve massive armadas of icebergs breaking off the Laurentide Ice Sheet and flooding the North Atlantic with ice and fresh water
Sources
Seneca Lake | World Lake Database - ILECwldb.ilec.or.jp
Seneca Lake is 56.6 km long, has a mean width of 3.10 km, and a mean depth of 88.6 m. Seneca Lake is by far the deepest of the Finger Lakes (198.4 m); with the ...
Seneca Lake (New York) - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
Seneca Lake is 38 miles (61 km) long, has a surface area of 66.9 square miles (173 km 2), a maximum depth of over 618 feet (188 m), and holds the most water of ...
Finger Lakes Region - Seneca Lake Pure Waters Associationsenecalake.org
At 38 miles long and over 600 feet deep, Seneca Lake is the largest and deepest of the Finger Lakes. It contains more water than all the other Finger Lakes ...
drift thickness of schuyler county, new yorknysm.nysed.gov
It is also mostly bisected by Seneca Lake. The resulting bedrock elevation map provides a detailed representation of bedrock topography across Schuyler County. ...
Geological History and Glacial Formation of the Finger Lakeslifeinthefingerlakes.com
Gradually, bed after bed of sand, mud, lime and salt accumulated and were compressed into rocks reaching a total depth of about 8,000 feet. Then ...
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