Lake Frontenac facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Lake Frontenac
Lake Frontenac Location in Ontario Show map of Ontario Lake Frontenac Location in New York Show map of New York
Location	North America
Group	Great Lakes
Coordinates	43°35′N 77°11′W / 43.58°N 77.19°W / 43.58; -77.19
Lake type	former lake
Etymology	Louis de Buade, Comte de Frontenac et de Palluau, GOvernor of New France, 1672-1682.
Primary inflows	Laurentide Ice Sheet
Basin countries	Canada United States
First flooded	10,000 years before present
Max. length	194 mi (312 km)
Max. width	57 mi (92 km)
Surface elevation	244 ft (74 m)

Lake Frontenac was a proglacial lake in the basin of what is now Lake Ontario. The sudden influx of fresh water into the Atlantic, as the retreat of the Laurentian Glacier triggered a sudden drop in the lake's water level, may in turn have triggered the onset of the Younger Dryas, 1000-year period of renewed cooling approximately 12000 years ago.

When the retreating ice opened a passage eastward around the north side of the Adirondack Mountains to the basin of Lake Champlain, the lake level fell and the outlet at Rome was abandoned. At this stage the ice barrier or dam rested about on the Frontenac axis of the pre-Cambrian rocks and the lake may therefore be called Lake Frontenac.