1,100,000,000 B. C.
New York
A shallow ocean deposits sediments that become Lake George bedrock.
520,000,000 B. C.
Shallow sea water at the western edge of the Iapetus sea lays
down sandstone along the proto-Hudson River in the Ausable Chasm
and Troy, New York, areas.
460,000,000 B. C.
The approach of the African continent causes the thrusting up
of the Vermontia land mass, a period known as the Taconic Orogeny
or the Greenville event. The Taconics, Berkshires, Adirondacks,
Blue Ridge, and Green Mountains are created as a result.
450,000,000 B. C.
New York
Pushed westward into New York, New England bedrock creates the
Rensselaer Plateau.
North America
The central part of the land mass lies in the tropics. Today's
east coast faces south and a chain of volcanic islands begins
colliding with the coast. They will be submerged and compressed
to become the bedrock beneath Long Island.
430,000,000 B. C.
The Taconic Orogeny period draws to a close.
420,000,000 B. C.
The Niagara Escarpment is formed.
400,000,000 B. C (Late Silurian)
State
The Salina Group of shale and dolostone, containing thick deposits
of salt and gypsum, is laid down
200,000,000 B. C.
Part of the ocean bottom is uplifted to form New York's Finger
Lake region.
100,000,000 B. C.
A second uplift in the New York region forms the valleys of the
Cayuga and Seneca rivers.
60,000,000 B. C.
The Magothy aquifer, the third layer from the bottom of gravel,
sand and silt beneath Long Island, is laid down by glacial action.
30,000,000 B. C.
The Jurassic Period. The Palisades are formed.
2,000,000 B. C.
The Kansan glaciation period begins in North America, lasts for
about a million years. The ice begins advancing down the Champlain-Hudson
valley.
25,000 B. C.
New York
The Manhattan area is inundated by the sea.
22,000 B. C.
The last glacier, the Laurentide, reaches Long Island.
20,000 B. C.
North America's most recent glaciers begin retreating. At their
zenith the northern half of Long Island is covered. ** The Allegheny
River's bed is formed at the glacier's edge.
18,000 B. C.
New York
The glacier begins receding from the Allegheny River. ** Glacial
Lake Albany is formed by retreating glaciers.
17,500 B. C.
The retreating glacier leaves a long lake (Glacial Lake Connecticut)
behind - the future Long Island Sound.
16,000 B. C.
A global warming trend begins. The glacier recedes in the southern
tier to the Angelica area and remains stationary, depositing the
Angelica Morraine and impounding Lake Wellsville. The lake extends
southward for 13 miles, draining by way of Honeoye and Oswayo
creeks into the Allegheny River.
14,000 B. C.
New York
The lake at the site of today's Long Island Sound dries up after
the glacial ice sheet recedes.
13,500 B. C.
New York
The glacier at Angelica begins receding, depositing a moraine,
exposing Black Creek Valley and lowering Lake Wellsville 80 feet
to form Lake Belfast-Fillmore.
13,000 B. C.
Niagara Falls is created as the glaciers retreat north and Lake
Tonawanda's waters pool up at its western end. ** Rising seas
begin breaking into the lengthy depression in the earth that will
become Long Island Sound. ** Paleo-Indian peoples begin arriving
in the New York area and in the sandstone Meadowcroft Rockshelter,
near today's Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
12,000 B. C.
New York
The Genesee Valley glacier ice recedes to the Portageville area.
11,000 B. C.
Glacial Lake Albany dries out.
10,000 B. C.
Long Island becomes an island when waters break through on the
western end to the interior lake. ** Nomadic hunters from the
north begin entering the Long Island area. ** The approximate
date the Wisconsinian glacier retreats from the central part of
the state.
9,070 B. C.
New York
A mastodon dies in the Cohoes area.
9,000 B. C.
New York
The first humans, PaleoIndians, arrive in the Genesee Valley.
6,300 B. C.
New York
The approximate date man re-appears in the area.
6,000 B. C.
Deciduous plants make their appearance on Long Island.
4,500 B. C.
Cedar trees are traced back to this period at Montauk, Long Island.
New York City
A second wave of humans inhabit the area.
4,000 B. C.
The use of pottery is widespread through the North America continent
by this time. ** The Algonquin Indians migrate from Asia.
3,500 B. C.
The approximate date the Laurentian Algonquins enter the state.
The Lamoka subculture also begins forming around this time.
3,000 B. C.
The approximate date Indians, of the Algonquin tribes, begin spreading
out across Long Island.
2,200 B. C.
Cedar trees grow on Long Island at Mashomack.
2,000 B. C.
The rate of the rise of sea level begins to slow. Marshes develop
along the shores of Long Island.
1,100 A. D.
City
The approximate date of Indian settlements in the Brooklyn area.
1,000 A. D.
The approximate date Long Island's aquifer system begins to form.
© 2005 David Minor / Eagles Byte