Herman Beach is one of several beaches delimiting the shorelines of the prehistoric glacial Lake Agassiz.[1] Of note is that the beaches of Lake Agassiz are presently not adjacent to bodies of water, and consequently, are no longer really beaches at all. Named for its proximity to Herman, Minnesota, Herman Beach was formed 11,700 years ago and runs for hundreds of miles through Minnesota and North Dakota.[1] It has been described as a smoothly-rounded beach ridge made of gravel and sand.[2]
In contrast to the lakebed along the northward-flowing Red River, this beach rises from the south to the north and east at a gradient of approximately 1:5000; this rise resulted from the isostatic rebound of the land after recession of the last ice sheet.[3]
References
edit- ^ a b Earthscapes: The Red River Valley: Tilted Shorelines and Rebounding Lake Beds Archived 2006-12-08 at the Wayback Machine - Don McCollor, University of North Dakota (retrieved 2007-08-29).
- ^ The Glacial Lake Agassiz, Chapter V, The History of Lake Agassiz[permanent dead link] - Warren Upham (retrieved 2007-08-29).
- ^ Heinselman, Forest Sites, Bog Processes, and Peatland Types in the Glacial Lake Agassiz Region, Minnesota Archived 2007-07-23 at the Wayback Machine, p. 331. (Herman beaches rise both eastward and northward at about 1 ft. per mile.)
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