Lake Hitchcock
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Lake Hitchcock was a glacial lake that formed approximately 15,000 years ago in the late Pleistocene epoch. After the Laurentide ice sheet retreated, glacial ice melt accumulated at the terminal moraine and blocked up the Connecticut River, creating the long, narrow lake. The lake existed for approximately 3,000 years after which a combination of erosion and continuing geological changes likely caused it to drain. At its longest, Lake Hitchcock stretched from present-day Rocky Hill, Connecticut to St. Johnsbury, Vermont (about 320 km or 200 mi). It is an important part of the geology of Connecticut.
The glacial lake experienced annual layering of sediments, or varves: silt and sand in the summertime (due to glacial meltwater) and clay in the wintertime (as the lake froze). These varved lake deposits were later used by European settlers for brick-making. The lake was named after Edward Hitchcock, a geologist from Amherst College who had studied it.
