Volume 17 , Issue 40

1896 - How Old Is Niagara?

It was in The Times, dated 6 December 1896, Sunday, page 15, that they were asking the question: "How Old Is Niagara?" This question had bothered scientists and was unanswered still in 1896.

Found on Newspapers.com

From Knowledge - The Niagara river, which had first been a strait joining Lake Erie to the Ontarian gulf, gradually became a wide, shallow, rapid stream,a nd then, as the waters of the lower lakes subsided, its bed narrowed and its fall increased to 430 feet. But the river was soon greatly enlarged. The land was rising to the north of Ontario as well, and ultimately the outlet from Lake Huron to the Ottawa valley was blocked, and the surplus waters of the three greatest lakes flowed by their present course to Lake Erie, and thence to the Niagara river. With the continued rise of the land especially toward the east of Ontario,the water level rose until it attained its present elevation,a nd the fall of the river between the two lakes was reduced to the present 360 feet. Can dates be assigned to the events? The first estimate of the age of Niagara river was give by Elliott over a century ago at 55,400 years; Bakewell, in 1830, gave 12,000; Lyell's estimate of 35,000 was accepted for many years after 1841, but recent (1896) writers, using the mean rates of recession during forty-eight years as determined by surveys, make the value 9,000 years. Dr. Spencer had made a new and careful computation of the age of Niagara river and falls. He showed that the recent estimates had not taken into account the various changes that had occurred in the fall and volume of the river. His calculations result in a value nearly that of Lyell's.

Dr. Spencer believed the Niagara river was formed 32,000 years ago, and that a thousand years later the falls were in existence. For 17,200 years their height was about two hundred feet; thereafter the water fell 420 feet. Seven thousand eight hundred years ago the drainage of Lakes Superior, Michigan and Huron first flowed through the Niagara gorge, and three thousand years ago the waters rose in Lake Ontario until the level reached that of today (1896). The falls,then, were 31,000 years old. This estimate, calculated from eh rate of erosion, was confirmed by another made from he terrestrial movements. Two deductions may be given - one as to the past, the other concerning the future. The lakes came into existence after the glacial epoch, and Niagara after the lakes, and calculations based on the mean rate of rise of the beaches in the earlier period of the lakes' history showed that the close of the ice age may safely be placed at fifty thousand years ago. As to the future: With the present (1896) rate of calculated terrestrial uplift in the Niagara district, and the rate of recession of the falls continued, or even doubled, before the cataract shall have reached the Devonian escarpment at Buffalo, that limestone barrier shall have been raised so high as to turn the waters of the upper lakes into the Mississippi drainage by way of Chicago. An elevation of sixty feet at the outlet of Lake Erie would bring the rocky floor of the channel as high as the Chicago divide and an elevation of seventy feet would completely divert the drainage. This would require five to six thousand years at the estimated rate of terrestrial elevation.
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