The great Lehigh Lake, Wind Gap, and the present day water gap.

[Catskill Mountain Man]

This is about geology and how bits of our area were formed.

If you don't want to read about it or are going to bitch about me posting this I suggest you go to the boring ole fly tying section of this site to help shake the winter blues.

The Wind Gap and Water Gap are more related than you may know. If you're not aware what the Wind Gap is, it's a "hole" on the top of a mountain where only wind passes.

That used to be very different.

The whole "Delaware" river once passed through that gap on the top of that mountain. It was the outlet of an ancient massive lake, Lake Lehigh. The lake encompassed the entire Lehigh valley and then-some.

Um-teen thousands/millions of years ago during a period of high water the lake filled to capacity and found another smaller outlet. Unfortunately for the lake, this new outlet sat on top of very weak stone.

Where was this weak stone located? Well the present day Delaware water gap of course!

The castle crumbled in what could have been a very catastrophic event; draining the entirety of the lake and leaving the lehigh valley and much of N/E PA dry with many little rivers.

It's funny how one high water event millennia ago affects us today.

I'm no lib, believe me but, how many highwater events have we seen?... for F---'s sake how many have we in the last 7 years? All over the world? I digress it could completely be the size of media now-a-days coupled with a bit of freakish weather

Imagine if that lake still existed. Imagine the dozens or maybe even hundreds of precious watersheds that would be nothing but a big eutrophic lake with bass, muskie, etc..

I wonder what effect the lake would have had on us settling the area and how the Delaware would be today.

There's your local geology for the day. For all you critics before you post a rant please refer to the top of this post, then take your online aggression and shove it

Edit: Adding discussion

 

[Trout Nazi]

Im no geologist, but I thought the gap was formed around the same time as the Appalachians were formed through subduction of the continental African plate with the North American.

And the alleged lake wouldn't have been eutrophic millennia ago because there was no fertilizer or cow shit to run off yet, and we were also at the end of an ice age.

 

[Catskill Mountain Man]

Im no geologist, but I thought the gap was formed around the same time as the Appalachians were formed through subduction of the continental African plate with the North American.

And the alleged lake wouldn't have been eutrophic millennia ago because there was no fertilizer or cow shit to run off yet, and we were also at the end of an ice age.

Your geological point MAY be correct (im not sure) but this lake was formed WAAAAY after Africa and North America collided and spread apart.

I believe the lake was drained during the last ice age. I refuse to look it up at the moment to keep my posts honest.

I love open discussion about geology. It's a subject that's (believe it or not) still being amended consistently, and the north east's geology is a very difficult thing to unravel because of its age.

If the lake stood here today, there would be tons cow shit and fertilizer in it I'm sure, that's the point I was trying to make; the lakes effect on human settlement both native and immigrant.

Who knows?! There could have been an Azetec-esq powerful civilization residing on the lake that may have driven out settlers.

Imagine the lake itself were here today.. No beautiful water gap and lehigh valley as we know it; settle-able land in the immediate area would have to be condensed around the shores, if there were any settlers at all!

The whole north east would have been vastly different and the center of population for PA COULD have been centered around such a massive lake. A great lake so very near to (today's) Northern NJ and NYC, instead of Philly.

All because one layer of rock decided that was his particular day to be a dolomite and granite the job to some gypsum he found off the street... Minerals

And don't get me started on the THANKFUL DEFUNCT army corps of engineers Tocks Island Project... http://delawarewatergap.org/TOCKS_ISLAND_DAM_PROJECT.html

THANK GOD FOR CHICKEN FARMS!!

Edit: Joke and stuff

 

[JeffK]

Geologically speaking most lakes are very short lived and they have been rare in most time periods - they generally silt in fairly rapidly, but natural dams erode away too. One reason we have so many natural lakes now is glacial scouring (glacier cutting a shallow groove in the land), potholes ( chunk of ice mixed with sediment that forms a hole when the climate warms and the ice melts), and dams (glacial deposits blocking the natural course of a stream) formed many of them about 10,000 years ago. This is of course a very short time for a geologist. And many glacial lakes are already gone. Glacial Lake Passaic disappeared when the erosion that near the falls of the Passaic broached the dam. The pre-glacial Passaic R went through the Watchung Mountains at the Short Hills Gap. That got filled with glacial deposits so a lake formed inside the Watchungs that then drained down Moggy Hollow, which roughly follows Rte 287 south from Morristown. Over time the area around Little Falls eroded lower so the river found its current course and the increase flow of water cut the gorges where the falls are. Over time, the falls will wear down too. A similar thing happened to the dam on the Pequest near Great Meadows. The terminal moraine for the last glacier dammed up the Pequest. However, the soft sediments eroded fairly quickly draining the lake and leaving the Great Meadows swamp. The lakes are gone, but they have left some swampy areas that over time will fill in and drain as the rivers erode deeper. Lake Lehigh also left swampy areas up on the Pocono Plateau. Budd Lake was also formed by the last terminal moraine. The moraine blocked a small trib that flowed into the Musconetcong. The resulting lake backed up until it found the low pass that drained the other way into the Raritan drainage and it now is the highest source for the South Branch.

 

[moosekid]

Fun Anecdote:

Early settlers of Manhattan wrote about a pond spanning much of little italy and chinatown that held an abundance of brook trout. As Manhattan rapidly developed into a center of commerce, property values sky-rocketed around the lake. Soon thereafter, the real estate powers of the day decided to dredge a channel to drain the lake into the hudson river--hoping to one-day develop that land that lay beneath the lake. Once all was said and done, the channel was dried up and used as a road--they called it canal street.

If anyone reading this has never been to Manhattan, (Vlad?? Whattup, dude.) Canal street remains one of the largest streets for travelling cross-town in lower-manhattan.

 

[Catskill Mountain Man]

Geologically speaking most lakes are very short lived and they have been rare in most time periods - they generally silt in fairly rapidly, but natural dams erode away too. One reason we have so many natural lakes now is glacial scouring (glacier cutting a shallow groove in the land), potholes ( chunk of ice mixed with sediment that forms a hole when the climate warms and the ice melts), and dams (glacial deposits blocking the natural course of a stream) formed many of them about 10,000 years ago. This is of course a very short time for a geologist. And many glacial lakes are already gone. Glacial Lake Passaic disappeared when the erosion that near the falls of the Passaic broached the dam. The pre-glacial Passaic R went through the Watchung Mountains at the Short Hills Gap. That got filled with glacial deposits so a lake formed inside the Watchungs that then drained down Moggy Hollow, which roughly follows Rte 287 south from Morristown. Over time the area around Little Falls eroded lower so the river found its current course and the increase flow of water cut the gorges where the falls are. Over time, the falls will wear down too. A similar thing happened to the dam on the Pequest near Great Meadows. The terminal moraine for the last glacier dammed up the Pequest. However, the soft sediments eroded fairly quickly draining the lake and leaving the Great Meadows swamp. The lakes are gone, but they have left some swampy areas that over time will fill in and drain as the rivers erode deeper. Lake Lehigh also left swampy areas up on the Pocono Plateau. Budd Lake was also formed by the last terminal moraine. The moraine blocked a small trib that flowed into the Musconetcong. The resulting lake backed up until it found the low pass that drained the other way into the Raritan drainage and it now is the highest source for the South Branch.

Awesome addition! Keep em coming!

 

[Catskill Mountain Man]

Fun Anecdote:

Early settlers of Manhattan wrote about a pond spanning much of little italy and chinatown that held an abundance of brook trout. As Manhattan rapidly developed into a center of commerce, property values sky-rocketed around the lake. Soon thereafter, the real estate powers of the day decided to dredge a channel to drain the lake into the hudson river--hoping to one-day develop that land that lay beneath the lake. Once all was said and done, the channel was dried up and used as a road--they called it canal street.

If anyone reading this has never been to Manhattan, (Vlad?? Whattup, dude.) Canal street remains one of the largest streets for travelling cross-town in lower-manhattan.

Awesome story. I also heard there's a road somewhere busy NYC (I believe Manhattan) that's not a straight line, like the rest. The cause? They built it over a river.

 

[BrownChickenBrownTrout]

The Verrazano narrows was once a terminal moraine. The Hudson's previous outlet was the current area next to the watchung mountains into Bound Brook. Possibly a large ice damn breach from glacial lake Albany sent a huge rush of water changing the land in a day forever.

 

[Catskill Mountain Man]

The Verrazano narrows was once a terminal moraine. The Hudson's previous outlet was the current area next to the watchung mountains into Bound Brook. Possibly a large ice damn breach from glacial lake Albany sent a huge rush of water changing the land in a day forever.

I never knew that, gotta love our geology!

 

[Rusty Spinner]

Wait around a few hundred thousand years and the KLG will be a silted in mess while Lake Hopatcong of today will be sick pocket water. It's all relative.

 

[Catskill Mountain Man]

Wait around a few hundred thousand years and the KLG will be a silted in mess while Lake Hopatcong of today will be sick pocket water. It's all relative.

Explain why?

 

[Rusty Spinner]

Explain why?

I'm just saying that in a relatively short time geologically speaking, our trout streams change radically. I live 1,140' above sea level, but a scant few million years ago, I could shark fish off my front porch:crap:

 

[golden beetle]

Im no geologist

You should have stopped there.

...subduction of the continental African plate

Remember how you started your post...

 

[golden beetle]

Everybody watchung tonight.

I think you meant wangchung.