Hudson Valley Glaciation

Let’s take a trip back in time.

You are standing on a barren, grey landscape just south of where New York City will one day be 18,000 years from now, looking north. Rising up from the horizon, a hint of blue that goes on endlessly. Behind you, there’s no river or bay or ocean; the Atlantic is three hundred feet lower than today’s sea level. All that water is locked into an enormous ice sheet that covers all of Canada and much of the northern U.S., an enormous force that shaped the landscape and changed the course of human history.

This lesson teaches students what glaciers and ice sheets are, how the Laurentide Ice Sheet shaped the Hudson Valley, and how its geology and geomorphology (those historical accounts written into the landscape) impacted how humans have and will live in the Hudson Valley.

This lesson can be adapted to any other location affected by glaciation.

The lab and powerpoint will be accessible ASAP, but please email wecycleforscience@gmail.com if you need it sooner!