| Lake Warren | |
| Coordinates: | 42.2°N -81.2°W |
| Location: | North America |
| Group: | Great Lakes |
| Lake Type: | former lake |
| Etymology: | Warren Upham |
| Inflow: | Laurentide Ice Sheet |
| Outflow: | Mohawk River |
| Basin Countries: | Canada United States |
| Date-Flooded: | 12,700 years before present |
| Length: | 290miles |
| Width: | 110miles |
| Residence Time: | 200 years in existence |
| Elevation: | 6900NaN0 6800NaN0 6750NaN0[1] |
| Reference: | Lewis CFM, Cameron GDM, Anderson TW, Heil CW Jr, Gareau PL. 2012. Lake levels in the Erie Basin of the Laurentian Great Lakes. Journal of Paleolimnology 47:493-511. |
| Pushpin Map: | Ontario#Ohio |
| Pushpin Label Position: | “right” |
Lake Warren was a proglacial lake that formed in the Lake Erie basin around 12,700 years before present (YBP) when Lake Whittlesey dropped in elevation. Lake Warren is divided into three stages: Warren I 690feet, Warren II 680feet, and Warren III 675feet, each defined by the relative elevation above sea level.[2]
Lake Warren followed Lake Wayne. It covered the basin of Lake Erie, part of Lake Huron, including Saginaw Bay and the lowland, which separates Lake Huron from Lake Erie. It included a part of the Lake Ontario basin and the lowland between Lakes Ontario and Erie. Lake Warren included the Saginaw basin and the Huron-Erie basin. Its outlet was through the Grand River to Lake Chicago. The beach stands at 680feet above sea level west of the hinge line, unaffected by the isostatic rebound. It is marginally above the outlet, at 670feet. Lake Warren was preceded by a lower stage, which had its outlet through the Mohawk valley.[2] Lake Warren came into existence when its waters were raised from Lake Wayne by an advancing ice front. The ice both compacted the area where the melt water could be held, raising the water level, while blocking the lower outlet from Lake Wayne.[3]
Lake Warren was about half the size of the present day Lake Erie, lying in the southern half of the basin.
The beach rises to the north of the Grand River outlet at 2feet per mile until it reaches 800feet near Gladwin. It is also nearly 800feet on the point of the "Thumb" in Huron county north of Bad Axe. The beach is horizontal from Lenox, in St. Clair county, around the west end of Lake Erie, then along the south shore through Ohio to the Pennsylvania line, a distance of 300miles. Between there and Batavia, New York, it rises 200feet in the next 150miles.[2] The beach marks a lake level which lasted a considerable period of time, shorter than either the Arkona or the Lake Whittlesey durations. The delta deposits are not as extensive as Lake Arkona. Its shore deposits vary, where the lakebed was till or gravelly material, a gravelly beach was formed. Where the lakebed was sandy it is a sandy ridge.[2]
The relatively strong but discontinuous multiple sand and gravel beach ridges occurring as close as 40 feet and as much as 100 feet below the Whittlesey strand line in western New York (between 750feetand865feetft (andft) are correlated with Glacial Lake Warren. These ridges occur at the foot of the Allegheny Plateau. They are frequently associated with deltas. The ridges are well developed in a few areas well beyond the Plateau in the Lakes Erie and Ontario lowlands. In many cases, the ridges and deltas are underlain by silts of Lake Whittlesey lakebed.[4]
Proglacial lakes of the Lake Erie Basin