Lake erie is the fourth largest of the five Great Lakes and the 12th largest freshwater lake in the world. The history of Lake Erie is complex. Approximately 2 million years ago, a basin, or lowland, in the present-day Erie basin served as the valley of a once east-flowing Erigan River. This drainage system was destroyed by the first of several major glacial advances that deepened and enlarged the basin. The problem for geologists was that each successive glacier destroyed the evidence of the preceding one, making a complete and thorough history virtually impossible.

A more detailed history of Lake Erie can be traced as far back as the retreat of the Wisconsinan—the last Pleistocene glacier—some 14,500 years ago. Scientists using radiocarbon-dated sentiments, detrital transport, hardwater, ...