Eridanus (geology)

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The name Eridanus or Eridanos, derived from the ancient Greek Eridanos, was given by geologists to a river which flowed where the Baltic Sea is now. The geological Eridanos was most important about one million years ago, when it was about 2700 kilometres long, a little shorter than the modern Danube. It began in Lapland, and then flowed through the area of the modern-day Gulf of Bothnia and Baltic Sea to western Europe, where it had an immense delta which spanned almost the entire current North Sea. It was comparable in size to the current-day Amazon River.

The Eridanos began about 40 million years ago. About 12 million years ago the river reached the North Sea area, where it began to build an immense delta with its sediments. The Eridanos disappeared during the first Ice age of 700,000 years ago, which completely covered its valley. When the ice caps retreated the ancient river valley had been scoured out into a deep hollow which became the Baltic Sea.

Remnants of the Eridanos are found all through northern Europe, from the Netherlands at its western end to sediments in northern Lapponia.