Looking at the route of the Merrimack, it’s hard to miss the sharp, left-hand turn it takes just over the border with Massachusetts. That bend wasn’t always there.
I’m Sam Evans-Brown with this Merrimack River Minute.
About a two hundred thousand years ago, the Merrimack River pretty much headed straight south and drained into the Atlantic Ocean near Boston.
Since then, we’ve had two ice ages and they changed everything..
When glaciers retreat, they leave behind a lot of rock and sand. When the second most recent ice age ended, a hundred and 35 thousand years ago if you’re keeping count, that debris began to fill in the original river valley. At the end of the most recent ice age, a mere 15 thousand years ago, the valley got another dump of rocky fill.
Rivers are lazy. They like to find the path of least resistance. With the new landscape, the Merrimack meandered to the east and made its way to the Atlantic at its current outfall in Newburyport, Massachusetts.
With this Merrimack River Minute, I’m Sam Evans-Brown
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