Glacial History of Minnesota - Changes in The Course of Continental Rivers

Changes in The Course of Continental Rivers

As the ice sheets moved into the central portion of North America, the rivers that used to flow from the Rocky Mountains to the northeast into the Arctic Ocean found their valleys choked with ice. The rivers had to divert around the farthest extensions of the ice. When the ice retreated, the new valleys eroded into the landscape kept the rivers from moving back to their old positions.

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Famous quotes containing the word rivers:

    The whole tree itself is but one leaf, and rivers are still vaster leaves whose pulp is intervening earth, and towns and cities are the ova of insects in their axils.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)