Ep01: The Great Lakes Cold Case
In this episode, Jamie follows a trail of clues starting from Toronto’s Scarborough Bluffs —and then going billions of years deeper into Earth’s past.
What begins as a question about where the Great Lakes came from becomes a story of ancient tropical seas, moving continents, enormous ice sheets, a failed continental rift, changing shorelines, and even the cosmic dance of our solar system.
The deeper lesson is personal: the familiar landscape around us can look ordinary until we learn how to read it.
Where We're Exploring
Further Reading
A few useful places to dig deeper into the science behind the episode:
USGS — The Geologic Story of the Great Lakes — How bedrock, ancient landscapes and glaciers came together to create the Great Lakes.
Read the USGS guideNational Park Service — How Glaciers Change the Landscape — A clear introduction to glacial erosion, plucking, abrasion and deposition.
Read moreNASA — Milankovitch Cycles — How eccentricity, obliquity and precession influence Earth's climate.
Explore the cyclesNASA — The Mechanics of Glacier Motion — What actually makes enormous sheets of ice move.
Learn how glaciers moveCanadian Museum of Nature — The Pakenham Whale — The remarkable story of the Ice Age beluga found beneath an Ontario farm.
Read the storyUniversity of Toronto — Prehistoric Toronto — Toronto's landscape during and after the Ice Age.
Explore Prehistoric TorontoUniversity of Toronto — Georgian Bay Geopark — Ancient rocks, mountain building, supercontinents and the deep geological history of the region.
Explore the Georgian Bay GeoparkUSGS — The Midcontinent Rift — The billion-year-old continental rift that helped shape the Lake Superior region.
Read about the Midcontinent RiftParks Canada — Fathom Five Geology — The ancient tropical seas and unusual rock formations around Tobermory and Flowerpot Island.
Explore Fathom Five's geologyCity of Toronto — Scarborough Bluffs — The history, geology and ongoing erosion of one of Toronto's most dramatic landforms.
Read about the BluffsOntario — Long Point Provincial Park — The dunes and shifting sand-spit landscape of Lake Erie.
Explore Long PointUSGS — Great Lakes Climate & Water Resources — A broader look at the Great Lakes today, including water levels, climate and changing conditions.
Read the USGS report