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The lake's modern-day remnants, the largest of which is Lake Winnipeg, dominate the geography of Manitoba. Forming around 11,700 years ago, the lake came to cover much of Manitoba, western Ontario, northern Minnesota, northern North Dakota, and Saskatchewan. At its greatest extent it may have covered as much as 440,000 square kilometers, larger than any lake currently in the world (including the Caspian Sea).
The lake drained at various times south into the Minnesota River (part of the Mississippi RiverThis page is about the river in the United States; for other uses, see Mississippi River (disambiguation). The Mississippi River is the second-longest river in the United States; the longest is the Missouri River, which flows into the Mississippi. Taken t system), into the Great Lakes, or west through the Yukon Territory and AlaskaOn January 3, 1959, Alaska was admitted to the United States as the 49th state. The population of the state is 626,932, as of 2000. The name "Alaska" is most likely derived from the Aleut word for "great country" or "mainland. The natives called it "Alyes. A return of the ice for some time offered a reprieve, and after retreating north of the Canadian border about 9,900 years ago it refilled. These events had significant impact on climate, sea level and possible early human civilizations.
The last major shift in drainage occurred about 8,500 years ago, when the lake took up its current watershed, that of Hudson BayHudson Bay is a large body of water in northeastern Canada. It drains a large portion of the northern areas of Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba and the southeastern area of Nunavut. A smaller offshoot of the bay, James Bay, lies to the south. The placename us. The lake drained nearly completely over the next 1,000 years or so, leaving behind Lake Winnipeg, Lake WinnipegosisLake Winnipegosis (52°30'N 100°W) is a large (5370 sq²) lake in central North America, in Manitoba, Canada, some 300 km northwest of Winnipeg. It is Canada's eleventh-largest lake. The elongated (195 km from north to south) lake is the second-largest of t, Lake ManitobaLake Manitoba is a large (4 624 sq. lake in central North America, in the Canadian province of Manitoba. It is located about 75 km northwest of the province's capital, Winnipeg, at 51°N 98°45'W. The irregularly shaped lake, about 200 km long, is the small, and Lake of the Woods, among others. These lakes are still shrinking slowly, due to isostatic rebound.
While mostly gone along with the ice sheet that fed it, Lake Agassiz left marks over a wide geographic area. Apparent beaches, miles from any water, can be found in many locations—these mark the former boundaries of the lake. Several modern river valleys, including the Red River, the Assiniboine River and the afore-mentioned Minnesota River, were originally cut by water entering or leaving the lake. The Red River Valley agricultural region also exists because of the silt that sank to the bottom of the lake.