DEFINITION OF GREAT LAKES, NORTH AMERICA

A group of five large interconnected

freshwater lakes located along the border between

the north-central United States and Canada. From west to

east the lakes include Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake

Huron, Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario, which feeds the St.

Lawrence River that flows to the North Atlantic Ocean. Niagara

Falls is located between Lakes Erie and Ontario. Cumulatively,

the lakes form the largest body of freshwater in the

world with a combined surface area of 95,000 square miles

(246,050 km2). The lakes formed at the end of the Pleistocene

glaciation when large ice-carved depressions were

filled with glacial meltwater as the glaciers retreated.

The first Europeans to settle in the area were the French

fur traders, including Etienne Brulé in 1612 and Samuel de

Champlain, who explored Lakes Huron and Ontario. Robert

LaSalle explored Lakes Erie and Michigan in 1679. Many

years of dispute over land ownership between the French,

British, Americans, and native tribes ensued until the War of

1812 was concluded. The region was then rapidly settled by

Americans, and the Erie Canal connected Lake Erie with the

Mohawk and Hudson Rivers in 1825, greatly increasing

development of the entire area.

In a general sense the Great Lakes occupy the geological

boundary between the Precambrian Canadian shield on the

north and the Paleozoic North American passive margin and

foreland basin sequences on the south. The Precambrian

basement areas include rich deposits of iron ore, especially

around Lake Superior. Together with an abundance of coal,

these resources led the region to be developed as a major

steel-producing area, which continues to this day.

See also CRATONS; PRECAMBRIAN.

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