Hudson River: a Detailed and Comprehensive Geological History

Contents macrocosm.. 2 Hudson River Formation.. 5 Hudson canon12 diametrical report.. 14 Conclusion17 Bibliography18 Maps & Diagrams.. . 19 Hudson canon.. 19 geologicalal Processes. 2 1 foliate adit In 1872, a born(p)ist and surveyor by the name of Verplanck Colvin found the source of the Hudson River. It is a pure pond on the s bug outh western hemisphereern closelyerly slope of Mt. Marcy, the highest peak in the Adirondacks, c exclusivelyed Lake riptide of the Clouds. So little is Lake Tear of the Clouds that if no water was to predate it for s each the same daylights it would be reduced to just an empty catchment basin. N forevertheless, the Hudson starts by rights in its waters. One could say the Hudson River is divided into two distinct sections accompany to the fore by geology and eruptance.The first section winds its way through and through the Adirondack climbs spanning 166 naut mis from Lake Tear of the Clouds to the federal occlude in Troy. This se ction is un-navigable by gravy holder and in pissed to(prenominal) places somewhat rapid. The second section, which is quite diverse from the first, starts at the Federal Dam and runs for 149 miles through the rolling hills on the whole the way to the Narrows between Brooklyn and Staten Is prop up. Back up jointure at Lake Tear of the Clouds is fed by natural springs and runoff from the sheer unconscionableness of Mt. Marcy and other streams winding down from the high peaks of the Adirondacks.Throughout the unit of measurement Adirondack mountain range, the watershed drains and dumps runoff from 3,400 foot peaks into the clinical depression bolt downs less than 410 feet preceding(prenominal) ocean level. From Lake Tear of the Clouds in the space of a mile the river slashs 1,000 feet down a indistinct trench to join the Opalescent River1. A bit to a greater consequence than southwestwardward, the mohawk River drains lots of the runoff from central impudentlyfang led York into the Hudson. In f peak, e genuinelyplace fractional of the Hudson Rivers water volume lets from the Mohawk, and without it, the Hudson would be practically non-existent.Further south of capital of New York tri andaries head for the hills westward to the Hudson from the Taconic Mountains and vitamin Eboundboundward from the Catskills. Still further south the tributaries for the Hudson begin to appear rectangular, to the highest degree following the trend of the faults and 1 The Opalescent River is non a separate river from the Hudson but merely a section named by grey-haired immanent the Statesn tribes. 2Page ridges that run atomic number 10 to sou-west of the river succession other tributaries join at right angles to the faults on the pronounce planes.At this point in its lane, the river begins to occupy its original bedrock gorge organise millions of eld ago, flow everyplace rock l acuteness rapids and the coarse pave point bars2 that are ver y(prenominal) common from Mt. Marcy to Glens Falls, until it is air division blocked by mountains. It is here that the river makes a sharp turn to the east and flows through the Luzerne Mountain gorge in western in the altogether York and past emerges quickly onto fixed lake depositarys deposited in the Pliocene Glaciation and devises a very broad, al nigh meandering path on the lowlands (supported by shale) for the risely 130 miles to Newburgh.South of Newburgh the river cuts laterally through the hard gauzy rocks of the Hudson Highlands, shifting spinal column and forth in its vale (almost deal a cradle) until it emerges from the highlands and starts to exhibit fjord like characteristics within the towering rock walls nigh it. The rivers flight thus s combustly curves in front of the Palisades escarpment3, which towers more than 328 feet above the waters get on. At the Narrows the Hudson br for each iodinees its final barrier, the terminal moraine4 of the prevail glaciation (more on this in the Glacial Hi bilgewater section) earlier it reaches the Atlantic Ocean.At the Atlantic (although tidal) the Hudson be stomachs as any other river would and deposits its bed load (sediments carried by the river) and some of the fine-grained suspended load (basically fine grained sand and dirt drift in the water) into the form of sandbars. Over millions of days, these go contributed to mental synthesis up many an(prenominal) islands including Staten Island, Hoffman Island, Swinburne Island and many others. The very low slope of the Hudson plays a great intention in the amount of discharge and island buildup, too, as it only rises slightly 0. 4 march onenesss per mile for the hold 150 miles of the rivers path. To give some perspective, the Mississippi river rises approximately 6 inches per mile during its course, and discharges well-nigh 700 million tons of sediment per year into the Gulf of Mexico 2 Coarse cobble point bars are essentially p ointed cobble that has been piled into bar like formations. These formations are generally become when sediments carrying cobble leave it behind. 3 Ground formed into a steep slope as dissociate of fortification. Moraine is a word used to find out the humanity, stones and debris a glacier deposits. Terminal describes that these items were deposited where the glaciers maximum extent was, in this slip-up keen-sighted Island. 3Page and its mouth is approximately a ? -mile wide. The Hudson River discharges almost 175 million tons of sediment per year and its mouth is about the resembling width at a ? mile. With a 2 inch increase in slope geologists predict the discharge rate of the Hudson would fascinate up to about 450 million tons per year and the mouth of it would close up to about 250 wide.This would place Manhattan downstairswater and greatly limit boat traffic as well as make prospicient Island more of a aline island separated from land by at least(prenominal) 3 mile s or so of water5. And so, the geography of the Hudson River directly ends here in Manhattan, but the geology of what lies underneath is oft more important. Continue adaptation if you must, and lodge into a conundrum of sequence and a lot of pushing and pulling. 5 Do not worry about this happening forthwith though because the rivers overall slope has not throwd more than a cen epochter in the last couple thousand old age and shows no signs of speeding up. 4Page Hudson River FormationThe Geology of the Hudson River is complex. Billions of geezerhood of folding, pushing, pulling, separating, and base nominate formed, deformed and reformed the Hudson River valley into what it is today, a giant palimpsest6, a great parchment on which the give way of nature has written and rewritten her bold signature for more than a one million million million days7. In the next section, I am going to bewilder to condense over a billion years worth of Geologic History into less than ten pages. Despite complex knowledge and funny words it is a ingenuous story of succession and rocks, contemptible and ever-changing the formation of the Hudson River and its valley.The Hudsons geological personality very much reflects its organise and the changes do on it, underneath it and all almost it from the crosspatch age glaciations8 . The bedrock foundation of the Hudson was established in the space of three oreganys (mountain building degrees) beginning over a billion years ago. These mountain-building episodes re-triggered languish intervals of hush-hush wearing and periodic submersion by the epicontinental seas (or seas) to help start forming the Hudson River vale. At a point much later in this story, glacial eroding reshaped the landscape of the HRV into what it appears as today.The first study mountain building episode, the Grenville Orogeny began about 1. 2 billion years ago. It was one of the biggest Oreganys and affected a broad orbit on the bank o f what was Ancient North America, from the northeast waters of Canada to northwestern Mexico. The mountains created by the Grenville Orogeny were most likely as tall-stalked as or taller than the Himalayas and were driven to these heights by a encounter of Laurentia (Ancient N. America) and Gondwana (Africa) in which Gondwana overrode Laurentia. The deep burial of Laurentia resulted in the first 7 compose upon, or engraved on more than once. The Hudson A History, Chapter 1 The River and the Land, pg. 10 8 A period of ice buildup to form glaciers, or the act of glaciation. 5Page metamorphism, partial laming of rock and the separation of the light and dark minerals found in the Adirondack gneisses9. Many blow thousand of years later in the proterozoic period as the continents periodically moved, basaltic vol muckleic rocks merged into the mountains cutting the anorthosites10 and gneisses laterally across.These gneisses are roughly one billion years old, while the Highland gneiss es may be a bit older. The Fordham gneisses are the youngest and can be dated to just under a billion years old. Over the millions of years, long episodes of wearing on the Grenville Mountains and constant lifting of the strongness have brought it to the surface. Later in the Proterozoic period, wear of this crust formed and provided a thick source of sedimentary deposits that partially submerged the upland area of coastal Laurentia ( commitly this is the area south of and tally to the Appalachian Mountains).These deposits are now found mostly in the Appalachians, with almost all of them have been removed from the Hudson valley, leaving hard rock and remains for the Hudson River to rest on. In the early Paleozoic, the sand and gravel that was eroded from the mountains during the Proterozoic period became basal sandstone and conglomerate11, which is more commonly known as the Potsdam Sandstone in northern NY and the Lower Quartzite that is prized throughout the Hudson Highlands .As the Epicontinental sea inundated this (once) mountainous share the sandstone and Lower Quartzite were buried under a thick cover of devil dog limestone and shale, which was laid down in an elongated stadium that formed on the continental ledge where mountains had once been. The limestone was mostly deposited on the shallow edges of the trough while the shale solidified from the mud carried into the deeper seaward part of the trough. The solidified shale then created the bedrock between Glens Falls and the Highlands. 9Coarse, grained metamorphic rock composed of quartz, feldspar and mica. An igneous rock made up largely of soda-lime feldspar. 11 quaver composed of rounded fragments of various rocks cemented together in a bunch of hardened clay and sand, like a composite. 10 6Page In the Late Cambrian period,12 Laurentia once over again collided, but this time with the ancestral core of Europe, Baltica and a large fragment of what is thought to be the continental crust kno wn as Avalonia. This started the mountain building period known as the Taconic Orogeny, which lasted throughout the Ordovician Period.The Taconic Orogeny to a fault resulted in the new supercontinent Laurasia. plot of land much of the activity involving this collision took place well to the east it in addition affected the HRV. Island arc volcanic structures such as the Cortlandt Complex have been found in the Hudson Highlands. To the North and West in the mid-Hudson valley, the sedimentary rocks that were deposited in the early Paleozoic Period were folded (with the trend of the folds and faults already in place) reduplicate to the southwest to northeast facing the Appalachians.These folds and faults detailually became some of the paths of the HRV tributaries. Closer to the coast than these faults, thin sheets of rock were pushed several(prenominal)(prenominal) dozen miles west. This event is known as the Taconic Thrust and took place in the area where today exists the Taconic parkway. Because of this event, the fine-grained shale that was in that respect was crumpled (as if we crumple paper) and pushed into the narrow job of water west of the mountains close together(p) present day Croton. Over many years in that location afterwards blocks of limestone into the channel and were merged into a jumble of shale clumps.Today millions of years later the river flows past the western edge of the channel and then cuts into the disorganized deposits of shale as it continues south. As we go bad through time, sandstone, limestone, shale and Proterozoic bedrock from the Hudson Highlands became buried as Laurentias coastal margin was subducted13 close to where it and Europes surfaces met. The rocks that met each other from each plate partially mellowed and transformed into more gneiss, marble and schist14, which was then folded and moved once more to be in alignment 12 00 million years ago Subduction can be described as the action or process in plate tectonics of the edge of one crustal plate descending below the edge of another, almost like a controlled earthquake. 14 Schist is a metamorphic crystalline rock that has a closely foliated structure and can be split along approximately duplicate planes. 13 7Page with the Appalachians. This set the stage for the modern day continental shelf to form, although it would take millions of more years for it to happen. later on the two plates of Europe and Laurentia collided, there was a sort of tranquillize in activity around this area.This allowed streams in the lowlands to follow the valleys formed along the fault lines, or on the softer marble layers around Manhattan. The oceanic crust borders and the rocks around NYC and to the east more or less contained the streams around Manhattan, while the streams in the lowlands and around our area were free to roam and spread out. afterwards the Taconic Orogeny ended, a long interval of erosion began stripping away the trim crust as the new contine nt (modern North America, or Laurasia) was very slowly lifted by the foreshortenion of the plates.As the upland area was eroded away the epicontinental sea gradually assumeed the Hudson Valley region from the low lying land of the coastal margin all the way west virtually three-quarters of the way to Pittsburgh. Later during the Silurian and into the early Devonian period shallow seas cover the area and left behind calcium carbonate sediments making the primer very rich. At around the same time rivers formed and flowed from the uplands carrying major amounts of sediment west to the sea to form marine sandstone.While the marine sandstone was being formed, at the shoreline a large delta15 formed over the junk that the marine sandstone left behind. By the midDevonian period, an alluvial plain16 had reached across much the western Catskill region and the shoreline had shifted slightly west about 15 miles or so. At this time, thousands and thousands of feet of sediment from mid-Pale ozoic times were piled up over the Hudson Valley and continental red sandstone (one reason why there is so much sandstone around here) from farther east inland were incorporated with the gray marine sandstone from the west closer to the coast.The closet of all this happening at once overturned the folds that were in place to the northwest ( draw unspoilt present day Schunemunk Mountain along the NYS thruway near Highland Mills) exposing the limestone that 15 A Delta is a triangular alluvial plain, ordinarily where a rivers mouth is. A level or gently coloured flat or a slightly undulating land surface resulting from panoptic deposition of alluvial materials by running water 16 8Page was buried slightly underneath the sediment that had accumulated over the years. This marked the end of the Devonian Period, and the start of the Acadian Orogeny.The Acadian Orogeny began as the North American plates started to compress again and lift up the eastern mountain ranges around New Engl and and western Pennsylvania. This Orogeny was to a fault partially caused and linked to the collision that happened between Laurentia and Gondwana that created Laurasia, and most likely, if this Orogeny had not happened the Hudson River would be a completely antithetic river, and possibly would be connected to the Mississippi River. As the plates began to compress each other again they created volcanic arcs and granite intrusions somewhat east of the Hudson Valley near the coast.Around this time in our little history story the seas started to retreat from the east to west and started to waylay the incredibly thick layer of sediment and rocks from the Acadian Mountains all the way to the Catskills. The final compressions dating back to the Paleozoic era continents and the Alleghenian Orogeny now ended and the earth came together to form Pangaea. Because of all this land being pushed up, the Epicontinental Sea move back from the Catskills to the Poconos in Pennsylvania leaving muc h of New York and New England prohibitionist once again.Now above sea level the strata from the Devonian period became subject to erosion for 250 million years. At some point during this time, the drainage patterns shifted and aligned the antiquated Hudson River along a NorthSouth line much like it is today. This was the biggest directional change the Hudson ever underwent. As the strata and sediment were worn away from this new path of drainage, it revealed the granite, marble and schist underneath which became the building materials for our modern world.With the Taconic Mountains now more to the east and the Catskill Mountains to the west the Hudson worked its way down deep into the sediment it was on circus tent of leaving behind a hard bedrock base nearly 5,000 feet deep in places17. This created a solid foundation and left the Hudson with a relatively stable path 17 Over the last several million years, and an Ice age this has all been filled in and now the Hudson has an aver age discretion of 32. 9Page that has not changed hugely since. The breakup of Pangaea followed soon thereafter and the coastline of North America began to resemble what it is now.At the same time, the Hudson was filling its banks basaltic magmas were merged along the fault lines and into the bedrock forming the Palisades Sill18. after(prenominal) that, compression and buildup of sediment and rock slowly built the Palisades up. Today the part of the Palisades that stands is almost like a canon above the Newark Basin. The tabular19 Palisades still slope to the west, and the eastern edge forms the escarpment, or palisade20 21 of rock joined vertically that we recognize today from miles around New York and from the air as we fly to new places and heights.But to go steady how, we must travel to another time in this story, the Mesozoic Period. Some time in the late Mesozoic period, igneous rock deposits were moved until now again and placed along a line going northwestern unify St ates to southwest from Canada to New England lifting the mountains in its path by several hundred feet and in some cases over 1,000 feet. Because, as you might infer, rock takes up space, and as it lifted up the mountains and separated them, it started to separate North Americas continental plate away from the mid-ocean ridge22 and over a very hot area above the earths layer of magma near where the present day Appalachians exist.This caused what geologists conceptualise was a shot of magma that melted through that particular part of the plate (which was quite thinner than today) and uplifted the blue part of the Appalachians. This, in turn reactivated erosion and brought the domed like anorthosites to the surface which is most likely the reason that the Appalachian Mountains are not scraggly and sharp like the Alps, but more rolling with large boulders and abrupt expanses of rock. The Catskills and Adirondacks also experienced lifting, but in a much little amount. Almost at the same time as all this shake up was happening, a 18 19Think of this as the palisades foundation. L. Sirkin & H. Bokuniewics The Hudson River Valley geologic History, Landforms, and Resources pg. 17. 20 L. Sirkin & H. Bokuniewics The Hudson River Valley Geological History, Landforms, and Resources page 17 21 Palisade literally operator a fence of stakes for defense The Palisades are called the Palisades by Native American Tribes because they helped as defense for them from other tribes. 22 The mid-ocean ridge is a undersea mountain ridge that is where the North American and European plate meet. While this ridge has hardly ever changed, the plates do move.In this case it is the biggest moves it has ever made. 10 P a g e hole began to form from sinkholes on the western slope of Mt. Marcy and soon filled with water. This was Lake Tear of the Clouds. later Lake Tear of the Clouds formed and filled with water, the Newark basin reached its fullest capacity of water and the Hudson bega n to drive into its flood plain and carve out its gorge in the gneisses of the Highlands of gray New York. This area is now mostly between West school principal and Hastings on Hudson, but it continues as a much littler weaker gorge almost down to Fort Lee.The Hudson was now a true river, but would still undergo massive changes over the next several million years. At this time in the Hudson Rivers history, Long Island did not exist as what it does today. It was a tiny, almost alcove piece of land that was in no way an island. In addition to that, there was no opening to the Atlantic for the Hudson. At the place where the Hudson empties into the Atlantic at the Narrows was a big solid mass of land. The Hudson by definition was a lake. So, as the Hudson filled up and he water put immense mechanical press on the piece of landmass blocking it from the Atlantic it began to carve out and widen an outlet. It took only a some hundred years23 for the Hudson to make it to the Atlantic, o bstetrical de blisteringry with it thousands upon thousands of tons of sediment that had piled up in the Newark Basin. This created the new continental shelf to form the coastal plain we see today that stretches for about a hundred miles out to sea from New York, only in that time and age it stretched for nearly 425 miles, nearly halfway to Bermuda.The Hudson now had an outlet, and the waters started moving south digging, and bringing sediment to the mouth building up Long Island a little bit24, as well as separating it from the mainland with what is now the eastbound River. The sea levels around North America also dropped a some centimeters as the waters made their way up the Hudson forming the Hudson River estuary. This raised the Hudsons waters by a few centimeters and created its almost permanent banks that have 23This is an extremely short time in geologic history and greatly shows how much the pressure was on the landmass blocking the Hudson from the Atlantic. 24 Although Lo ng Island did get built up at this time, the majority of it was built up during the last ice age nearly 20,000 years ago. 11 P a g e not changed very much since. Because the sea levels were much lower in that time period the Hudson also began its shaft of the Hudson Canyon with the help of the naturally occurring currents (more on this in the Hudson Canyon section) and more than doubled its length to nearly 895 miles (about 1,440km) long.After nearly 500 million years the Hudson rivers formation had ended and all that was left to change it was its own water wearing away at its bottom and a glaciation that would come in a few million years. Hudson Canyon The Hudson Canyon is possibly the biggest mystery of the Hudson River. How did it form? When exactly did it form? Why did it form? These are all questions geologists and hydrologists ask when looking at it. Most people in incident have never heard of it. To them the Hudson is a river that starts in the Adirondacks and ends at the narrows.To the few that know of the Hudson Canyon, the Hudson River starts in the Adirondacks and ends nearly 925 miles south halfway to Bermuda right after falling over a half mile down a now underwater canon and then fanning out and spreading to the Atlantic Ocean. There, even though underwater it still carries small amounts of the Hudsons freshwater (out to sea), and most geologists still consider it a part of the Hudson. This makes the true length of the river from Lake Tear of the Clouds to the end of the Hudson Canyon 922 miles, more than double of what we consider the Hudson.As explained in the last section (Hudson River Formation) in the late Mesozoic Period the Hudson River broke the land barrier that held it from emptying into the Atlantic. When it broke the barrier it began to carve a new path out to sea towards Bermuda. At some point, it reached the Continental shelf and dug into it creating a canyon that eventually connected the shelf to the ocean basin, which is abo ut 1. 5-2. 5 miles deep. Technically the canyon begins as a natural channel many miles wide at the mouth of the Hudson in a depression about 12 feet deep in the rivers bed. It 12 P a g e ontinues then through the Hudson channel and under the Ambrose light25. Soon after the Ambrose light, it reaches the shelf and goes through the real canyon part of it that is called the Hudson Canyon proper. The Hudson Canyon proper is located about 100 miles east of Battery Park City and has walls almost ? mile in height, which can be compared to the Grand Canyon whose cliffs are about 1-1/8 mile deep. The Hudson Canyon is the largest submarine canyon in the united States, partially out-of-pocket to the currents that pass over, and carrying away sediment and rock, thus carving it deeper and deeper.Over the past 30 years since it was discovered, tracking equipment has logged a nearly 12-inch change in its depth and width making the Hudson Canyon also the fastest growing canyon in the Atlantic Oce an. At the same time it is growing wider and deeper, it is also getting closer to the magma underneath and behind the continental shelf. In simple damage, one day in the next couple hundred or thousand years it will break through and magma will come out creating a new island, possibly connecting the East Coast of the United States with a land bridge that extends more than halfway to Bermuda.Many tributaries around the canyon would be raised by the magma, creating a new network of rivers and streams on the land bridge that could host many kinds of wildlife as well as marsh like environments. In addition to this, the Hudson Canyon has large stores of methane hydrates which gibe to scientists is a very promising clean burning natural faculty source, and could help reduce oil consumption. It is a Canyon of great vastness to the Hudson River, and also a big clue into the Glacial history touch the HRV. 25The Ambrose light is the site of a Light House that ships going into the New York Harbor and other harbors in the area use for navigation purposes. 13 P a g e Glacial History The Glacial History of the Hudson River is probably the one of the most important geological event that happened in the Hudson Valley in the last 50,000 years. Evidence points mostly to the Pleistocene Glaciation, which was the last and only Glaciation to reach this far south into the United States for the change that happened on the Hudson River since it was originally formed.The topography of the Hudson Valley enabled the ice from the Pleistocene Glaciation to form a Lobate Ice margin26 about 50 miles north what is now Manhattan long island. Around 22,000 years ago the Ice over the Catskills and Taconic uplands thinned, while it inspissate in the Hudson Valley and expanded southward closer to the mouth of the Hudson. Scientists today doing Pollen analysis and radiocarbon dating have found that the clime back then right in front, and as the last Ice age started was much untougheneder than today. As one can expect, warmer conditions meant more plants, and the sea level was much higher than today27.When the climate cooled and the Glaciers expanded south all these trees, plants and debris were ground down and immense pressure pushed them into the ground, almost dissolution them into dirt. This not 26 Lobate means resembling of a lobe. In this linguistic context it is used to describe the shape of the edge of the Glacier, or its maximum extent which was a short of lobe shape. 27 Evidence shows that the waters might have been as far north Albany. 14 P a g e only made the area much more barren, but also flattened the Adirondacks, and Hudson Highlands down many thousands of feet.The glacier continued to expand 26,000 years ago and merged with smaller glaciers up north to form one big glacier known as the Laurentide Glacier28. This Glacier covered all of Ontario, the St. Lawrence River, Manitoba, Nunavut, and parts of Quebec, as well as the Great lakes down to Chicago where it almost ran parallel to the US/Canada border before dipping slightly down towards present day Manhattan and following the coast of the US up north. At the height of this glaciers enhance the ice most likely was more than 1,000 feet thick over the transcend of the Appalachians (if you do the math this means that it was over 1. miles deep) meaning immense pressure was being placed on everything flattening the landscape. This also meant that because there was so much pressure, and the water of the Hudson never froze 100%29 the Hudsons waters literally pushed the earth and mould the floor of the Hudson to a depth similar that of what it was before it broke its barrier at the Narrows. 30 The dirt being mean turned back into soft metamorphic rock, and created marble where none existed near Warrensburg.A few miles south at Glens Falls the Ice naturally deepened because of the drop in elevation and gained momentum31 carving out the fjord previously made even bigger, which create d Storm King, Beacon and Bear Mountain. All this rock carved out of the Fjord eventually made its way south where it was dumped over Manhattan and Long Island, somewhat accounting for all the Limestone and shale and schist around that area. At this time, the Hudson Canyon was also carved out by the glacial ice melt flowing through it with rocks and debris and became much deeper and wider.When the Laurentide glacier made it to the Narrows its front halt moving former, but its back kept on moving forward compressing everything together (Like an accordion) and melting a lot of the ice. Why this happened is not really known by Scientists because glaciers can float. This area became the Glaciers dumpster and the Terminal Moraine was formally formed. Long Island was 28 29 Yes, it was named after Laurentia, ancient North America. heart the whole time there was a glacier over this area, the Hudson was still flowing but now mostly with ice melt from the glacier itself. 0 Of course this al l filled back in as the glacier melted. 31 A glacier is always moving, whether it is 1 foot a year or 1 inch a year. 15 P a g e built up and out to its current state and the Moraine extended west into New Jersey and Pennsylvania, carrying with it glacial melt creating many of the glacial lakes in that area such as Lake Hackensack, Glacial Lake Hudson and many others. Clay also being carried was dumped all over the region (mostly on the current Rockland County side) and created a nice thick, slippery layer on which the glacier to slide on.This process of toss away and melting continued for many thousand years and started the recession of Laurentide. In a 2,000 year period from 26,000 years ago to 24,000 years ago Laurentide melted and receded so that all of Long Island, Staten Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and bonny much everything south of present day Hartford Connecticut was ice free. The Ice continued to melt over the next 4,000 years until everything south of Glens Falls wa s free of ice. The ground, sort of like a sponge when you fill it with water, rose a few meters and went nearly back to its state before the glacier.At Glens falls The glacier stopped for a thousand or so years and slowly melted providing the Hudson valley with a constant stream of fresh glacial water. Around 19,000 years ago the glacier started to recede from Glens Falls and the melt water created Glacial Lake Albany which continued to grow throughout the next several thousand years as Laurentide receded. At 15,500 years the climate suddenly got cold and the glacier advanced back south to near Poughkeepsie and created the Wallkill, Poughkeepsie, chromatic hook, Hyde Park ad Pine Plains moraine.As suddenly as the Climate got cold, it got warm again and by 13,000 years the glacier was receded north of present day Quebec City. When the climate got warmer again the sea levels rose, this time to near Albany, and caused Glacial Lake Albany to drain. For the next couple thousand years a s the climate cooled, the Hudson was tidal up to Poughkeepsie and as the Sea retreated. This brought the tides down with it to near Peekskill where it stayed for many thousands of years until around 6,000 years ago it began to go north to nearly 20 miles past Troy32 by 2,000 years ago the sea was at its present place, and the Hudson was in its present 2 The exception to this is the Troy Dam if it wasnt built the Hudson would still be tidal nearly 20 miles north of it. 16 P a g e state. Long Island was as it is now, and the coast was pretty much the same besides what natural erosion as taken away since then. This was the final Glaciation, and the final change to the Hudson River. After nearly 1. 2 billion years, several different Oreganys, Hundreds of changes, 4 different climate changes and a whole lot of pushing and pulling and moving the Hudson River was finished being formed and all it needed was for Henry Hudson to come sailing to name it. ConclusionIf you have gotten this far along into this history story then you will know that the Hudson River didnt just appear, it doesnt formally end at the Narrows between Brooklyn and Staten island and it isnt just a river. It is the close of 1. 2 billion years (and counting) of the earth doing its shtick33 on the world we live on. It took 7 different continents to pull this off, and it worked out beautifully creating a river of outer(prenominal) importance to our lives, lives before us, and lives to come. I like most of you out there reading this paper did not know a thing about the Geology of the Hudson River when I started this project.It probably took me a proportionate amount of time to learn this as it did to create the whole Hudson. Now, after early 3 months of reading words I dont know, looking at diagrams I cant even understand and writing technical terms that I cant pronounce I have versed what it took, and takes to create the Hudson. Like they say, it takes a village to raise a tyke it took a whole wor ld and 1. 2 billion years to create this river, a river of small nature compared to others around us such as the Nile, or Amazon which are nearly 5 times the length of the Hudson and took a very disproportionate amount of time to create. 3 serviceman, or thing in Yiddish 17 P a g e So, as I leave you with this 20 page Essay, think about the next time you go to the Hudson and pick up a handful of sand, and know, just know that that handful of sand has been moved around for 1. 2 billion years to end up at your feet. Bibliography L. Sirkin & H. Bokuniewics (2006) The Hudson River Valley Geological History, Landforms and Resources Wikipedia (http//en. wikipedia. org/w/index. php? title=Hudson_Canyon&oldid=453958227) Hudson Canyon Data SIO, NOAA, U. S.Navy NGA, GEBCO (2010) Google Earth United States Geological Survey (USGS) (2004) Sea Floor Topography & Backscatter Intensity of the Hudson Canyon Region Offshore of New York & New Jersey (http//pubs. usgs. gov/of/2004/1441/html/inte rp. html) Phil Stoffer & Paula Messina (2008) Introduction to the Geologic History of the New York Bight (http//www. geo. hunter. cuny. edu/bight/Geology. html) Phil Stoffer & Paula Messina (2008) The Highlands Region (http//www. geo. hunter. cuny. edu/bight/highland. html) R. G.Wilkins Booth (1970) The Ontario Water resources commission Geology of the upper part of the Severn River basin and the Severn River basin lying within the Hudson River Lowlands. Steven H. Sehimmrich Geology of the Hudson Highlands Region (www. environmentalconsortium. org) Access Genealogy Geology of the Hudson (http//www. accessgenealogy. com/newyork/hudson/geology_hudson. html) Charles Merguerian (2010) Geology 133 Field propel 18 P a g e Dick Goodman (2013) Geologist in California, gave much information and advice on this project United States Navy Geological Services (2013) Maps, Graphs Bradford B.Van Diver (1985) Roadside Geology of New York John F. Shupe (1996) National geographical Atlas of the World Revised sixth edition Kevin Hile (2009) The Big watchword of Answers Tom Lewis (2005) The Hudson A History Maps 19 P a g e The maps presented here on the next couple of pages are all ones used in this essay as reference. They are from many different sources and show many of the things I talked about, visually. Hudson Canyon 20 P a g e 21 P a g e 22 P a g e Geographical Diagrams 23 P a g e 24 P a g e 25 P a g e