Scientists have traced the formation of the Five Great Lakes and Niagara Falls to their inception. These Lakes grace the northern borders of the United States, and are the largest body of fresh water in the world. Many water supplies are gleaned from these incredibly beautiful natural phenomena.
The shape of the body of water that creates the powerful Niagara Falls is changing. It is getting larger and the northeastern edge of it is moving outward toward the ocean.The expected results of a larger shoreline is that the body of water, spread out over a greater area, will become too shallow to provide the driving force that has kept Niagara Falls as a significant source of power. Because the power of the falls generates mass amounts of electricity, the shallower lake basin became an item of concern some years back.
Researchers have finally concluded that the origin of the Lakes derives from two different glaciers that moved down from the North Pole. As it were, when these huge glaciers moved southward, they picked up land mass dragging heavy rock and earth along their path.
As this happened the tons and tons of ice became even heavier. As they moved and scraped the rock surfaces, the weight also compressed the earth and stone it picked up along the way. In turn, the freshwater left behind by the melting ice created these wondrous lakes.
The St. Laurence Seaway leads from the Atlantic Ocean, and was once used as a path of travel for early settlers in the New World.
Over the past fifteen years, the Niagara Falls as well as the five Great Lakes have seemed to be getting lower water levels. Naturally, the first thought about this was that the water is evaporating, or that there hasn't been enough rainfall. However, the cause is more complicated than that.
The new theory is that the compression of the earth which created the lake basins is loosening up, rising, and changing the depth of the water. Is it because of global warming?
After substantial research, scientists found evidence of lava rocks in the northern areas of the lakes. From this discovery, the deduction is that the St. Laurence seaway is the result of a fissure, or a fault line that also filled with water flowing in from the Atlantic Ocean.
Though they only could speculate, geologists do sense that a heat source lays deep below this ancient fault line that may have erupted after the glaciers went through. In any event, the scientists and geologists feel that heat rising from inside the earth, is causing the land below the Great Lakes to expand upward.
As the lakes become more shallow, due to the expansion of the earth, new anticipations regarding a faultline are up for review. Exploration of the oceans and waters of the earth accounts for only three percent of the scientific knowledge concerning the earth, our planetary home.
