This a partial list of prehistoric lakes. Although the form of the names below differ, the lists are alphabetized by the identifying name of the lake (e.g., Algonquin for Glacial Lake Algonquin). YBP = Years Before Present.
St. Lawrence River drainage, i.e., the Great Lakes
Champlain Sea; 11,800 – 8,200 YBP on the lower St. Lawrence, from Ottawa River to the Gulf of St. Lawrence
Lake Ontario basin: 8,400 YBPEarly Lake Ontario; 8,700 – 11,800 YBP
Lake Admiralty; 10,000 YBP
Lake Frontenac; 12,000 – 11,000 YBP covering the Ontario basin and to the northeast up the St. Lawrence Valley covering the low lands north to the Ottawa River and Montreal.
Glacial Lake Iroquois; 13,000 – 10,500 YBP and covered all of the Ontario basin and southward across central New York, reaching to the Finger Lakes.
Finger Lakes of New York plus 12 minor lakesDansville Lake in the Canaseraga valley
Scottsburg Lake in the Conesus valley
Naples Lake in the Canandaigua valley
Hammondsport Lake in the Keoka valley.
Watkins Lake in the Seneca valley
Ithaca Lake in the Cayuga valley
Lake Erie (8,400 YBP) basinEarly Lake Erie; 11,800 – 8,700 YBP in Ohio, Ontario, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New York and located in the Erie basin
Lake Lundy; 2,000 YBP in Ohio, Ontario, Pennsylvania, and New York
Lake Elkton stage of Lake Lundy @ 620 feet (190 m) above sea level
Lake Dana stage of Lake Lundy @ 590 feet (180 m) above sea level
Lake Grasmere stage of Lake Lundy @ 640 feet (200 m) above sea level
Lake Tonawanda; 10,000 YBP in western New York
Lake Wayne; ended by 12,000 YBP in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York, expanding from Lake Warren to cover most of the Erie basin
Lake Warren; 12,700 YBP in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York, covering southern portion of the basin
Lake Whittlesey; 13,000 – 12,700 YBP in Ohio, Ontario, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. It covered the western half of the Erie basin and north over southwest Ontario to the tip of Lake Huron.
Lake Arkona; 13,600 – 13,200 YBP in Ohio, Ontario, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. Covered two-thirds of the Erie basin, north across southwest Ontario to include the southern tip of Lake Huron, the ‘thumb’ of Michigan and low lands south and west of Saginaw Bay.
Lake Maumee; 14,000 – 13,000 YBP in Ohio, Ontario and Michigan. The western basin reaching to Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Lake Rouge in Michigan south of Detroit.
Lake St. Clair and the Detroit River:
Early Lake St. Clair: 12,500 – 5,500 YPB in Lake St. Clair; Michigan and Ontario.
Lake Huron basin
Later Lake Saginaw in Saginaw Bay on the lower peninsula of Michigan.
Nipissing Great Lakes; 5,500 - 4,500 YBP
Lake Nipissing; 8,400 – 5,500 YBP formed as the water bodies in the Superior and Huron basins merged across Sault Ste. Marie around 8,4000 YBP and then merged with the Michigan basin around 7,800.
Lake Stanley-Hough; 8,700 YBP, the water levels had risen to connect both Lake Stanley and Lake Hough into a single body of water.
Lake Stanley; 9,000 YBP covered only the northern and eastern portion of the main Huron basin with channels into Lake Hough.
Lake Hough; 9,000 YBP covered Georgian Bay, Ontario.
Glacial Lake Algonquin; 9,000 – 7,000 YBP
Lake Stanley; to 10,000 YBP
Lake Saginaw; 13,500 YBP 10,300 YBP along the southern shore of Saginaw Bay and the low lands to the southwest.
Lake Michigan (1,500 YBP) basin
Nipissing Great Lakes: 5,500 - 4,500 YBP
Lake Nipissing; 8,400 – 5,500 YBP formed as the water bodies in the Superior and Huron basins merged across Sault Ste. Marie around 8,4000 YBP and then merged with the Michigan basin around 7,800.
Glacial Lake Algonquin; 9,000 – 7,000 YBP
Lake Chippewa; 10,700 – 7,500 YBP, covered the lowest elevations in the Lake Michigan basin forming a linear lake in the middle, linked by a narrow proto-Straits of Mackinac and the Mackinac Falls to Lake Stanley.
Lake Chicago; 14,000 – 11,000 YBP along the southern shore and growing slowly northward.
Lake Superior basin
Precursor Lakes, before the formation of basin wide bodies of water.Lake Ashland
Lake Brule
Lake Nemadji
Lake Ontonagon
Lake St. Louis
Nipissing Great Lakes: 8,400 – 5,500 YBP formed as the water bodies in the Superior and Huron basins merged across Sault Ste. Marie around 8,4000 YBP and then merged with the Michigan basin around 7,800.; - 5,500; - 4,500 YBP
Lake Houghton; 8,700 – 8,000 YBP covered the Superior basin in Ontario, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan.
Fenton Lake; 9,500 YBP occupied a shallow basin in the eastern side of Lake Superior after Lake Minong had shrunk below rock sills internal to the lake basin.
Lake Minong; 10,300 – 9,800 YBP covering most of the modern Superior basin.
Post-Duluth Lake; 10,600 YBP along the Wisconsin and Michigan shore, reaching less than halfway across the basin.
Lake Duluth; 11,500 – 11,000 YBP in the western half of the Superior basin.
Glacial Lake St. Louis occupied St. Louis Bay at the southern tip of modern Lake Superior.
Lake Keweenaw; 12,500 – 12,000 YBP in the western Superior basin.
Elsewhere in North America:
Atlantic Ocean drainage:
Lake Albany in the valley of the Hudson River.
Glacial Lake Block Island off the south coast of Rhode Island, west of Block Island.
Glacial Lake Cape Cod in Massachusetts.
Lake Colebrook on the border of Vermont and New Hampshire, crossing into Quebec.
Lake Coos on the border of Vermont and New Hampshire.
Lake Connecticut; 20,000 – 18,000 YBP, covered Long Island Sound.
Glacial Lake Hitchcock; 15,000 YBP in the valley of the Connecticut River.
Glacial Lake Nantucket Sound in Massachusetts.
Glacial Lake Narragansett covered Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island.
Lake Merrimack in New Hampshire in the Merrimack River valley
Lake Passaic; 19,000 – 14,000 YBP in New Jersey
Glacial Lake Rhode Island off the south coast of Rhode Island, east of Block Island
Lake Stowe; 15,000 YBP in central Vermont.
Lake Vermont in Vermont, New York states, and the province of Quebec.
Lake Winooski in Vermont.
Lubbock Lake in Texas (see Lubbock Lake Landmark)
Mississippi River basin
Glacial Lake Calvin in southeast Iowa
Illinois River basin
Lake Baroda in Michigan on the lower St. Joseph River.
Lake Dowagiac in Michigan on the lower Dowagiac River., now a branch of the St. Joseph River which now flows into Lake Michigan.
Lake Madron in Michigan at the junction of the St. Joseph River and the Dowagiac River.
Lake Kankakee; 13,600 – 13,200 YBP
Glacial Lake Ottawa in Illinois on the upper Illinois River.
Glacial Lake Pontiac in Illinois on the lower Vermillion River.
Glacial Lake Wauponsee in Illinois at the headwaters of the Illinois River.
Lake Watseka in Illinois on the Iroquois River.
Ohio River basin
Lake Monongahela, along the Allegheny, Monongahela and upper Ohio Rivers.
Glacial Lake Tight, named for William G. Tight along the Ohio and West Virginia border.
Upper Mississippi River basin
Lake Upham north of Duluth, Minnesota.
Lake Aitkin along the Mississippi River near Grand Rapids, Minnesota.
Lake Minnesota at the great bend in the Minnesota River at Mankato, Minnesota
Glacial Lake Baraboo, communicating with Glacial Lake Wisconsin here
Glacial Lake Grantsburg, draining through the St. Croix River,
Lake Oshkosh; 13,600 - YBP. on the central Wisconsin River.
Glacial Lake Wisconsin; 18,000 – 14,000 YBP in Wisconsin along the Wisconsin River.
Missouri River basin
Glacial Lake Great Falls; 17,000 – 13,000 YBP in Montana near Great Falls, Montana.
Lake Cutbank in Montana on the Marias River near Cut Bank.
Lake Choteau in Montana
Lake Musselshell in Montana on the Musselshell River.
Lake Jordan in Montana
Lake Glendive in Montana on the Yellowstone River, unstream from its junction with the Missouri River.
Lake Crow Flies High in North Dakota between Williston and New Town.
Lake MacKenzie in North Dakota from the Great Bend, south to the South Dakota border.
Arctic Ocean drainage
MacKenzie River basin
Lake MacKenzie in the Northwest Territories.
Lake McConnell; 11,800 – 8,400 YBP
Lake Agassiz; 12,875 – 8,480 YBP in Manitoba and Ontario, stretching south in the James River valley of North Dakota and Minnesota.
Modern: Lake Winnipeg, Cedar Lake (Manitoba), Lake Winnipegosis, Lake Manitoba, Lake of the Woods
Lake Edmonton in Alberta
Lake Peace in Alberta and British Columbia
Lake Regina
Lake Hind in southwestern Manitoba
Lake Souris across North Dakota and Manitoba
Hudson Bay drainage
Tyrell Sea; 7,000 – 6,000 YBP
Glacial Lake Ojibway; 8,500 – 8,200 YBP
Lake Antevs
Lake Nakina in Ontario, east of Lake Nipigon
Pacific Ocean drainage:
Lake Atna drained from present-day Copper River Basin
Glacial Lake Bretz drained north from present-day Puget Sound in Washington
Lake Cahuilla in Southern California at the Salton Sea and today's cities of Indio, Mexicali, and El Centro, CA
Glacial Lake Russell drained south from present-day Puget Sound in Washington
Glacial Lake Snoqualmie in Washington State
Columbia River basin:
Lake Allison in western Oregon in the Willamette River valley.
Lake Canadian on the Washington/Oregon border above the Dalles
Lake Lahontan; 12,700 – 9,000 YBP in Nevada, California and Oregon.
Glacial Lake Columbia in central Washington State
Glacial Lake Spokane in eastern Washington near Spokane.
Lake Lewis; 16,000 YBP in central Washington, new Yakima.
Lake Allison; 15,000 – 13, 000 YBP in the Willamette Valley of Oregon.
Glacial Lake Missoula; 15,000 – 13,000 YBP in western Montana.
Great Basin of California, Nevada, Utah, Oregon & Idaho:
Lake Alvord in Oregon and Nevada
Lake Amboy in California
Lake Bonneville; 32,000 – 14,500 YBP in Utah and Idaho and Nevada.
Lake Carpenter in Nevada
Lake Clover in Nevada
Lake Dixie in Nevada
Lake Franklin in Nevada
Lake Harney-Malheur in Oregon
Lake Klamath in California and Oregon
Lake Madeline in California
Lake Manly; 186,000 – 10,000 YBP, covered Death Valley
Lake Mojave in California
Lake Owens in California
Lake Panamint in California
Lake Railroad in Nevada
Lake Russell in Nevada and California
Lake Searles in California
Lake Spring in Nevada
Lake Steptoe in Nevada
Lake Toiyabe in Nevada
Lake Tulare in California
Lake Tule in California
Lake Waring in Nevada
Lake Komi, a proglacial lake formed in the vicinity of the present-day Russian Komi Republic
Baltic Ice Lake, freshwater period of the Baltic Sea
Ancylus Lake, freshwater period of the Baltic Sea
Lake Harrison in the Midlands in England
Lake Lapworth in Shropshire in England
Lake Orcadie of the Old Red Sandstone, Scotland
Lake Pickering between the North York Moors and the Yorkshire Wolds in England
Ebro endorheic lake system, in the Ebro Basin, (Spain)
Duero endorheic lake system, in the Duero Basin, (Spain)
Gjende Lake in the Jotunheimen mountains of Norway
Zechstein Sea covering all of central and Northern Europe (Saltwater)
Altiplano Cundiboyacense
Lake Humboldt, Pleistocene lake on the Bogotá savanna
Altiplano Boliviano
Cabana, a lake level highstand of Lake Titicaca
Lake Escara
Inca Huasi
Mataro, a lake level highstand of Lake Titicaca
Lake Minchin
Ouki
Sajsi
Salinas
Lake Tauca
West Siberian Glacial Lake
Lake Bandung in Indonesia
Lake Makgadikgadi in the Kalahari Desert in Africa
Chad Basin what is now Lake Chad
Lake Congo
Lake Carpentaria
Lake Bungunnia in the Murray Basin
Eromanga Sea in the Eromanga Basin
Lake Walloon, Lake Winton, and Lake Dieri, of which the modern Lake Eyre is a remnant
List of prehistoric lakes Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA