12 Facts About Erie Plain

Erie Plain is a lacustrine plain that borders Lake Erie in North America.

The Erie Plain was used in the United States as a natural gateway to the North American interior, and in both the United States and Canada the plain is heavily populated and provides very fertile agricultural land.

Erie Plain is a lacustrine plain consisting largely of sediment laid down by a series of proglacial lakes.

In some places in Pennsylvania and Ohio, the Erie Plain is broken by the very slight former shoreline of Lake Warren.

Erie Plain begins just east of Auburn, New York, where the Onondaga Escarpment meets the Portage Escarpment.

Related searches

The Erie Plain extends into Michigan where the Marshall Escarpment forms the inland boundary between the Erie Plain and the interior uplands.

The Erie Plain covers most of the Southern Ontario peninsula between Lake Erie and Lake Huron.

In Ohio, the combined Huron-Erie Plain begins at a mean altitude of 573 feet above sea level, and gradually rises in a series of slight, rolling hills to more than 1,000 feet above sea level.

Erie Plain lacks distinguishing features, except for occasional recessional moraines, and the remnants of proglacial lake beaches and lakeside cliffs.

Erie Plain connects with the Mohawk Valley in the east, and provides the only natural, low-lying route north of the Gulf Coast to the North American interior from the Atlantic seaboard.

Settlement of Ohio largely occurred along the Erie Plain, following the natural barrier of the Portage Escarpment.

However, the large cities which line Lake Erie Plain tend to create urban heat islands which can cause local instabilities.