About 20,000 years ago Ontario was covered by a great glacier, the fourth glaciation in this region within the past million years. The melt waters from these giant ice-sheets filled the Lake Superior basin and progressively developed new drainage patterns which gradually lowered the level of the lake. As the waters receded from old shorelines more recent lake deposits were exposed and new shorelines established. This process produced a succession of terraces, separated from one another by escarpments of shore cliffs formed by wave erosion. Flat terraces, composed mainly of sand and gravel deposits, are found at various places around the Lake Superior shoreline and their prominence gave Terrace Bay its name.

Location

In Centennial Park, Highway 17, Terrace Bay

Themes

• Environment