May 19, 2021 - The Mackinac Strait

    Follow @NASA_MODIS

   M
    Tweet
    Share

   Thousands of years ago, during the Wisconsin Ice Age, much of North
   America found itself buried under a vast sheet of ice which was as much
   as two miles (3.2 km) thick in some areas. While the continents were
   roughly the same size and shape as they were now, the landscape was
   being ground and shaped into valleys and mountains under the weight of
   the shifting ice.

   Eventually, the melting glaciers stopped grinding forward and began to
   retreat, slowly melting and filling basins with water. As the
   Laurentide ice sheet retreated northward, a massive lake formed over
   lands belonging to modern-day Canada and United States. Over time –
   lots of time – the slow lifting of the bedrock as it was freed from the
   weight of the ice sheet began to change the shorelines and Lake
   Superior, Lake Michigan, and Lake Huron emerged. About 3,000 years ago
   these lakes attained their present shape. Because of their positively
   glacial start, the North American Great Lakes are unique among the
   world’s large lakes in that their basins are linked together and form
   one continuous drainage basin. Together, they constitute the greatest
   freshwater system on Earth, covering an area larger than Texas and
   about half the size of Alaska. Starting in Lake Superior, the water
   flows out the lake’s southeastern tip down the St. Marys River into
   Lakes Michigan and Huron.

   On May 17, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on
   board NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired a true-color image nearly-centered
   on the Straits of Mackinac, a stretch of water five miles wide that
   separates Michigan’s lower and upper peninsulas. The strait connects
   Lakes Michigan (left) and Huron (right). Lake Superior, which connects
   to Lake Huron through the St. Mary’s River can be seen in the northwest
   (upper left).

   The gray smudges seen along the St. Mary’s River marks the twin cities
   of Sault Sainte Marie, Ontario, Canada (north) and Sault Sainte Marie,
   Michigan, USA (south). The boundary between Canada and the United
   States divides Lake Superior, St. Mary’s River, and Lake Huron.

   Image Facts
   Satellite:  Aqua
   Date Acquired: 5/17/2021
   Resolutions:  1km (169.7 KB),  500m (477.6 KB),  250m (1.3 MB)
   Bands Used: 1,4,3
   Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC



https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2021-05-19
 
