At the peak of the last glaciation, some 18,000 years ago, ice covered our region to a depth of at least two or three several thousand feet. All that weight greatly compressed the land, causing it to sink. As the glaciers began to recede from our region starting about 12,000 years ago, that weight was removed, causing the land to rebound. Recent measurements using GPS have shown the land near Hudson Bay to be still rising about a half-inch per year. Because the glaciers left our region sooner, the land around here has stopped rising. This means that the slope of the land from here to Hudson Bay is slowly decreasing, a process that will eventually cause the Red River to stop flowing northward. Fortunately, this is likely thousands of years away.
