Pembina Escarpment

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The Manitoba Escarpment (known in the United States as the Pembina Escarpment) is a scarp that marks the boundary of glacial Lake Agassiz.[1] It occurs in South Dakota, North Dakota, and Manitoba.

Originally formed by the undercutting of Cretaceous sandstones by the ancestral Red River, the escarpment was later steepened by glacial scouring. The vista today, of wooded hills with small farms tucked into valleys, is reminiscent of pastoral sections of New England. Streams flowing off the escarpment have high gradients and a cobble substrate.[2]

Native plants to the escarpment include burr oak, beaked hazel, high bush cranberry, serviceberry, and red osier dogwood.[2]

The scarp forms the eastern edge of Riding Mountain National Park and Duck Mountain Provincial Park in Manitoba.[1]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b Manitoba's Escarpment. Deerwood.
  2. ^ a b Pembina Escarpment. NPWRC Ecoregions of North Dakota and South Dakota.
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