Champlain Sea

The Champlain Sea was an estuary of the Atlantic Ocean, which was at the end of the last glacial period ( Wisconsin called glaciation in North America ) formed by receding glaciers. It covered parts of the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec and parts of the U.S. states of New York and Vermont.

The ice masses of the continental ice sheet had depressed over the millennia the underlying rock. In the melting of the glaciers, the valleys of the St. Lawrence River, the Ottawa River and the Rivière Richelieu were still below the sea level. They were flooded by the Atlantic when the ice posed no obstacle. The Champlain Sea existed 13,000 to 10,000 years ago before. During this time, it reduced continuously since the onset of postglacial land uplift the bedrock gradually raised again. At the time of its greatest extent reached the Champlain Sea to Lake Champlain and up in the area west of Ottawa. Limited it was by the Laurentian Mountains in the north, the Appalachian Mountains in the southeast, the Adirondack Mountains to the south and the Opeongo Hills in the southwest.

Can demonstrate the existence of the Champlain Sea in the form of whale fossils (white whales, fin whales, Greenland whales) and shell molluscs, which were found near the cities of Ottawa and Montreal.