<p>" Who's studied the glacial dam breaking South and having cleared the Hudson River valley, forming the Verrazano Narrows, NY Harbor, Staten and Long Island, and washing through to the Atlantic Continental Shelf?"</p>

<p>There's a USGS group at Woods Hole that's done a bit of work on this back in 2004: </p>

<p><a href="https://darchive.mblwhoilibrary.org/bitstream/handle/1912/1630/Thieler%20et%20al.pdf?sequence=1" rel="nofollow noreferrer">A catastrophic meltwater flood event and the formation of the
Hudson Shelf Valley</a>   -From the paper: </p>

<p><em>The ancestral Hudson River is generally thought to
have had a long history that began in the Late Cretaceous.
Uplift and tilting of the margin, resulting in
landward erosion and seaward growth, continued into
the Tertiary.</em> </p>

<p><em>The Hudson River was repeatedly downcut into Cretaceous
coastal-plain strata during periods of Pleistocene marine
regression.
Scouring of the lower Hudson River during the last
glaciation formed a fiord in the region north of New York
City.
More recent fluvial downcutting was amplified by
drainage of late Wisconsinan glacial lakes, culminating in the failure of the terminal
moraine dam at the Narrows, which is a break in the
Harbor Hill moraine between Staten Island and
Long Island, New York. Borehole data across the
Narrows suggest that more than 100 m of Pleistocene
and Cretaceous sedimentary material was eroded as a
result of this breaching event. Uchupi et al. (2001) proposed that deposition
of sediment lobes on the continental shelf and erosion of the HSV were a consequence of
this catastrophic drainage.</em></p>

<p>You might scour the references at the back of the paper and do some googling to find any more recent follow-up work they may have done. You could also try this guy at Woods Hole: Jeffrey P. Donnelly. He's first author on a paper titled: </p>

<p><a href="http://geology.gsapubs.org/content/33/2/89.abstract" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Catastrophic meltwater discharge down the Hudson Valley: A potential trigger for the Intra-Allerød cold period</a> </p>

<p>The paper is short on the drama of breached glacial dams, but long on how the sudden discharge of freshwater into an ocean alters circulation to cause a brief period of climate change. Fascinating stuff!</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-02-14T21:10:19.177Z
2017-02-14T21:10:19.177Z
Knob Scratcher
<p>Some have studied the Lake Missoula glacial dam breaking West and having created the Coulees of Eastern Washington.  Who's studied the glacial dam breaking South and having cleared the Hudson River valley, forming the Verrazano Narrows, NY Harbor, Staten and Long Island, and washing through to the Atlantic Continental Shelf?</p>

<geophysics><sea-level><regional-geology><dams>
What current evidence is there for a Glacial Hudson River Valley deluge?
hal Bauer
# What current evidence is there for a Glacial Hudson River Valley deluge?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-02-14)

Some have studied the Lake Missoula glacial dam breaking West and having created the Coulees of Eastern Washington. Who's studied the glacial dam breaking South and having cleared the Hudson River valley, forming the Verrazano Narrows, NY Harbor, Staten and Long Island, and washing through to the Atlantic Continental Shelf?

**Tags:** geophysics, sea-level, regional-geology, dams


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2017-02-14. Score: 1

" Who's studied the glacial dam breaking South and having cleared the Hudson River valley, forming the Verrazano Narrows, NY Harbor, Staten and Long Island, and washing through to the Atlantic Continental Shelf?"

There's a USGS group at Woods Hole that's done a bit of work on this back in 2004:

[A catastrophic meltwater flood event and the formation of the
Hudson Shelf Valley](https://darchive.mblwhoilibrary.org/bitstream/handle/1912/1630/Thieler%20et%20al.pdf?sequence=1) -From the paper:

*The ancestral Hudson River is generally thought to
have had a long history that began in the Late Cretaceous.
Uplift and tilting of the margin, resulting in
landward erosion and seaward growth, continued into
the Tertiary.*

*The Hudson River was repeatedly downcut into Cretaceous
coastal-plain strata during periods of Pleistocene marine
regression.
Scouring of the lower Hudson River during the last
glaciation formed a fiord in the region north of New York
City.
More recent fluvial downcutting was amplified by
drainage of late Wisconsinan glacial lakes, culminating in the failure of the terminal
moraine dam at the Narrows, which is a break in the
Harbor Hill moraine between Staten Island and
Long Island, New York. Borehole data across the
Narrows suggest that more than 100 m of Pleistocene
and Cretaceous sedimentary material was eroded as a
result of this breaching event. Uchupi et al. (2001) proposed that deposition
of sediment lobes on the continental shelf and erosion of the HSV were a consequence of
this catastrophic drainage.*

You might scour the references at the back of the paper and do some googling to find any more recent follow-up work they may have done. You could also try this guy at Woods Hole: Jeffrey P. Donnelly. He's first author on a paper titled:

[Catastrophic meltwater discharge down the Hudson Valley: A potential trigger for the Intra-Allerød cold period](http://geology.gsapubs.org/content/33/2/89.abstract)

The paper is short on the drama of breached glacial dams, but long on how the sudden discharge of freshwater into an ocean alters circulation to cause a brief period of climate change. Fascinating stuff!


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