Early Lake Erie

Early Lake Erie
Glacial Lakes Chippewa, Stanley, Early Erie and Early Ontario. Low-level lake stages during the end of the Wisconsin Glacial era in North America. Based on Larsen map, 1987.
Early Lake Erie
Location	North America
Group	Great Lakes
Coordinates	42°36′N 79°42′W / 42.6°N 79.7°W / 42.6; -79.7
Lake type	former lake
Etymology	Lake Erie from the Erie Indians
Primary inflows	Detroit River
Primary outflows	Niagara River Welland Canal
Basin countries	Canada United States
First flooded	13,000 years before present
Max. length	241 mi (388 km)
Max. width	57 mi (92 km)
Residence time	300 years in existence
Surface elevation	476 ft (145 m)[1]
References	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.

Early Lake Erie was a prehistoric proglacial lake that existed at the end of the last ice age approximately 13,000 years ago. The early Erie fed waters to Glacial Lake Iroquois.

The ancient lake was similar in size to the current lake during glacial retreat, but for some period the eastern half of the lake was covered with ice.

Early-period Lake Erie was made up of smaller lakes (Lakes Warren, Wayne, Maumee and Lundy) with lower depths. Much of the ancient lake bed is now northern Ohio.