Other proofs of the same movement are drowned land forms which are
modeled only in open air. Since rivers cannot cut their valleys
farther below the baselevel of the sea than the depths of their
channels, DROWNED VALLEYS are among the plainest proofs of
depression. To this class belong Narragansett, Delaware,
Chesapeake, Mobile, and San Francisco bays, and many other similar
drowned valleys along the coasts of the United States. Less
conspicuous are the SUBMARINE CHANNELS which, as soundings show,
extend from the mouths of a number of rivers some distance out to
sea. Such is the submerged channel which reaches from New York Bay
southeast to the edge of the continental shelf, and which is
supposed to have been cut by the Hudson River when this part of
the shelf was a coastal plain.
WARPING. In a region undergoing changes of level the rate of
movement commonly varies in different parts. Portions of an area
may be rising or sinking, while adjacent portions are stationary
or moving in the opposite direction. In this way a land surface
becomes WARPED. Thus, while Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are now
rising from the level of the sea, Prince Edward Island and Cape
Breton Island are sinking, and the sea now flows over the site of
the famous old town of Louisburg destroyed in 1758.
Since the close of the glacial epoch the coasts of Newfoundland
and Labrador have risen hundreds of feet, but the rate of
emergence has not been uniform. The old strand line, which stands
at five hundred and seventy-five feet above tide at St. John's,
Newfoundland, declines to two hundred and fifty feet near the
northern point of Labrador.
THE GREAT LAKES is now under-going perceptible warping. Rivers
enter the lakes from the south and west with sluggish currents and
deep channels resembling the estuaries of drowned rivers; while
those that enter from opposite directions are swift and shallow.
At the western end of Lake Erie are found submerged caves
containing stalactites, and old meadows and forest grounds are now
under water. It is thus seen that the water of the lakes is rising
along their southwestern shores, while from their north-eastern
shores it is being withdrawn. The region of the Great Lakes is
therefore warping; it is rising in the northeast as compared with
the southwest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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