Sunday, July 13, 2014

Lake Agassiz wants to reclaim its place in the world.
One of the few lessons I remember from grade-school geography was the existence of an ancient glacial lake that covered a huge area of central Canada and down into the US. I suppose that, as a kid, this seemed very cool due to the fact that Winnipeg, where I lived at the time, would have been smack in the middle of  it. Its southern-most beach, or marshland delta, more like, would have been near present-day Fargo North Dakota. To The west, it covered most of eastern Saskatchewan, and to the east extended far into Ontario.This ancient shoreline is the source for the huge deposits of potash, left by the receding lake, that fuel much of Saskatchewan's economy. Much earlier iterations of the same geological features are responsible for the deeper deposits of shale oil comprising the Bakken formation.
More to the point here is the fact that the south-western portion of the lake pretty much defines the area that is currently being submerged by the rising waters of the Assiniboine River. This is the one currently causing such problems in southern Manitoba and, to a lesser extent, southern Saskatchewan. The once-in-three hundred year flood plain is threatening to become an annual event and, if the inflow exceeds the outflow for too long, something that looks a little like old Agassiz will be the result.
Doesn't speak well of the real estate values in Winnipeg, but properties on the shore of an inland lake in the Prince Albert area could be a good investment.