The Finger Lakes are a group of eleven long, narrow, roughly north–south lakes located in an area called the Finger Lakes region in New York State, in the United States. This region straddles the northern and transitional edge of the Northern Allegheny Plateau, known as the Finger Lakes Uplands and Gorges ecoregion, and the Ontario Lowlands ecoregion of the Great Lakes Lowlands.Bryce, S.A., Griffith, G.E., Omernik, J.M., Edinger, G., Indrick, S., Vargas, O., and Carlson, D., 2010, Ecoregions of New York: Reston, Virginia, U.S. Geological Survey, map scale 1:1,250,000.
The geological term finger lake refers to a long, narrow lake in an overdeepened glacial valley, while the proper name Finger Lakes goes back to the late 19th century.Mullins, H.T., Hinchey, E.J., Wellner, R.W., Stephens, D.B., Anderson, W.T., Dwyer, T.R. and Hine, A.C., 1996. Seismic stratigraphy of the Finger Lakes: a continental record of Heinrich event H-1 and Laurentide ice sheet instability. Geological Society of America Special Paper 311, pp.1-36 Kozlowski, A. L., and Graham, B. L., eds., 2014, Glacial geology of Cayuga County of the Eastern Finger Lakes–lakes, lore and landforms: Guidebook for the 77th Annual Reunion of the Northeastern Friends of the Pleistocene Meeting, Auburn, New York, 140 p. Cayuga and Seneca Lakes are among the deepest in the United States, measuring , respectively, with bottoms well below sea level. Though none of the lakes' widths exceed , Seneca Lake is long, and at is the largest in total area.
Name The origin of the name Finger Lakes is uncertain.Brewster, M., 2016a. How The Finger Lakes Was Named: Part 1. Exploring Upstate. Currently, the oldest known published use of finger lakes for this group of 11 lakes is in a United States Geological Survey paper by Thomas ChamberlinChamberlin, T.C., 1882, Preliminary paper on the terminal moraine of the second glacial epoch: Third Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey, pp.291–402. that was published in 1883. This paper was later cited and Finger Lakes formally used as a proper name by R. S. TarrTarr, R.S., 1893. Lake Cayuga a rock basin. Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, 5(1), pp.339-356. in a Geological Society of America paper published in 1893.Brewster, M., 2016b. How The Finger Lakes Was Named: Part 2. Exploring Upstate. Older usage of Finger Lakes in either maps, papers, reports, or any other documents remains to be verified.
Lakes The eleven Finger Lakes, from west to east, are: + Summary Name Elevation Area Length Maximum width Maximum depth Location Settlements Conesus Lake Livingston County: Conesus, Geneseo, Groveland, Livonia Lakeville Hemlock Lake Livingston County: Conesus, Livonia, SpringwaterOntario County: Canadice, Richmond Canadice Lake Ontario County: Canadice Honeoye Lake Ontario County: Canadice, Richmond Honeoye Canandaigua Lake Ontario County: Canandaigua, Gorham, South BristolYates County: Italy, Middlesex Canandaigua, Woodville Keuka Lake Steuben County: Pulteney, Urbana, WayneYates County: Barrington, Jerusalem, Milo Branchport, Hammondsport, Penn Yan Seneca Lake approx Ontario County: GenevaSchuyler County: Dix, Hector, ReadingSeneca County: Fayette, Lodi, Ovid, Romulus, Varick, WaterlooYates County: Benton, Milo, Starkey, Torrey Dresden, Geneva, Watkins Glen Cayuga Lake Cayuga County: Aurelius, Genoa, Ledyard, SpringportSeneca County: Covert, Fayette, Ovid, Romulus, Seneca Falls, VarickTompkins County: Ithaca, Lansing, Ulysses Aurora, Ithaca, Lansing Owasco Lake Cayuga County: Fleming, Moravia, Niles, Owasco, Scipio, Venice Auburn Skaneateles Lake Cayuga County: Niles, SemproniusCortland County: ScottOnondaga County: Skaneateles, Spafford Skaneateles Otisco Lake Onondaga County: Marcellus, Spafford Seneca, Cayuga, Skaneateles, Owasco, Keuka, and Canandaigua are considered the major Finger Lakes, while Conesus, Hemlock, Canadice, Honeoye, and Otisco are considered the minor Finger Lakes.
Numerous nearby lakes have been excluded from the traditional list of the lakes. All eleven are part of the Lake Ontario drainage basin. Waneta and Lamoka lakes, located southeast of Keuka Lake, are sometimes called the "fingernail" lakes, but are part of the Susquehanna River basin, draining into a tributary of the Chemung River. Silver Lake, which has the same geological characteristics as the Finger Lakes and is sometimes regarded as the "12th" Finger Lake, has traditionally been excluded due to its distance from the others, west of the Genesee River. Onondaga Lake and Cazenovia Lake to the east have similarly been excluded. Oneida Lake, to the northeast of Syracuse, is sometimes included as the "thumb", although it is shallow and somewhat different in character from the rest.
Quaternary geology
These glacial finger lakes originated as a series of northward-flowing streams. Around two million years ago, the area was glaciated by the first of many continental glaciers as the Laurentide Ice Sheet moved southward from the Hudson Bay area. During the glacial maximums, subglacial meltwater and glacial ice widened, deepened, and accentuated the existing river valleys to form subglacial tunnel valleys.Mullins, H.T. and Hinchey, E.J., 1989. Erosion and infill of New York Finger Lakes: Implications for Laurentide ice sheet deglaciation. Geology, 17(7), pp.622-625. Glacial debris, possibly terminal moraine left behind by the receding ice, acted as dams, allowing lakes to form. Despite the deep erosion of the valleys, the surrounding uplands show little evidence of glaciation, suggesting the ice was thin, or at least unable to cause much erosion at higher elevations. The deep cutting by glacial erosion left some tributaries hanging high above the lakes—both Seneca and Cayuga have tributaries hanging as much as above the valley floors. Based on sediment cores, seismic stratigraphy, and radiocarbon dates, the finger lakes became ice-free about 14,400 BP calendar. At this time scouring by ice and meltwater ceased and these lakes filled initially with proglacial lake rhythmites. The deposition of proglacial lake rhythmites occurred between 14,400 and 13,900 BP calendar. After the margins of the Laurentide Ice Sheet retreated into the Ontario lowlands after 13,900 BP calendar, the accumulation, at first, of massive gray clays followed by dark gray to black, laminated, organic-rich muds, accumulated without interruption until present within the Finger Lakes.Ellis, K.G., Mullins, H.T. and Patterson, W.P., 2004. Deglacial to middle Holocene (16,600 to 6000 calendar years BP) climate change in the northeastern United States inferred from multi-proxy stable isotope data, Seneca Lake, New York. Journal of Paleolimnology, 31(3), pp.343-361.
Detailed studies of Marine Isotope Stage 3 and 4 age sediments exposed at a locality called the Great Gully on the eastern flank of the Cayuga Lake, near Union Springs, New York, record the presence of a paleolake that existed prior to Cayuga Lake. This paleolake, which is called Glacial Lake Nanette, was a proglacial lake that filled the bedrock valley currently occupied by Cayuga Lake from about 50,000 BP (calibrated) until it was overridden by a glacial readvance that occurred prior to 30,000 BP (calibrated) and buried it beneath younger glacial till. This research shows that bedrock valleys, in which the Finger lakes lie, existed prior to the Last Glacial Maximum and developed over multiple glaciations.Kozlowski, A.L., Bird, B., Mahan, Shannon, F., Robert, Teal, C., and Leone, J., 2018, Glacial Lake Nanette–a middle Wisconsin (MIS 4 – 3) proglacial lake in the Cayuga Basin, in Thorleifson, L. H., ed., Geologic Mapping Forum 2018 abstracts: Minnesota Geological Survey Open-File Report, 18-1, p. 41.
Finally, although sub-glacial scour during the Last Glacial Maximum removed the majority of pre-existing sediment down to the bedrock bottoms of the Finger Lakes, patches of interglacial deposits are likely preserved locally within or near hanging valleys on the margins of their valleys. For example, the principal site that has been well-studied is the Fembank exposure of interglacial deposits on the west margin of Cayuga. This deposit provides direct evidence that some version of Cayuga Lake and its bedrock valley existed prior to Last Glacial Maximum.Knuepfer, P.L.K., Hensler, S.M., 2000. A5: Proglacial Lakes, Southern Cayuga and Seneca Valleys. In Guide Book to Field Trips [of The] 72nd Annual Meeting New York Geological Association. September 29 - October 1, 2000. pp. 75-90.Karrow, P.F., Bloom, A.L., Haas, J.N., Heiss, A.G., McAndrews, J.H., Miller, B.B., Morgan, A.V. and Seymour, K.L., 2009. The Fernbank interglacial site near Ithaca, New York, USA. Quaternary Research, 72(1), pp.132-142.
Ecological concerns Much of the Finger Lakes area lies upon the Marcellus Shale and the Utica Shale, two prominent natural gas reserves. Due to the recent increase in fracking technology, the natural gas is now accessible for extraction. While some large landowners have leased their lands, and a number of small landowners would like to follow suit, many residents of the Finger Lakes oppose the fracking process due to concerns about groundwater contamination and the industrial impact of the extraction-related activities. The first direct actions and local legislative actions against fracking occurred in the Finger Lakes bioregion. In December 2014, the government of New York banned all fracking in the state, citing pollution risks.
Trash from New York City is also sent to landfills in the area.
Since 2017, all of the Finger Lakes have experienced at least one outbreak of toxic algae, and for most of the lakes it has become an annual occurrence.
History
The Finger Lakes region is a central part of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) homeland. The Haudenosaunee tribes include the Seneca and Cayuga nations, for which the two largest Finger Lakes are named. The Tuscarora tribe lived in the Finger Lakes region as well, from ca. 1720. The Onondaga and Oneida tribes lived at the eastern edge of the region, closer to their namesake lakes, Oneida Lake and Onondaga Lake. The easternmost Haudenosaunee tribe was the Mohawk.
The Finger Lakes region contains sites of unknown cultural affiliation and age. The Bluff Point Stoneworks is one such site as its age and who may have constructed these enigmatic stone structures has not been determined.
During colonial times, many other tribes moved to the Finger Lakes region, seeking the protection of the Haudenosaunee. For example, in 1753, remnants of several Virginia Siouan tribes, collectively called the Tutelo-Saponi, moved to the town of Coreorgonel at the south end of Cayuga Lake near present-day Ithaca and lived there until 1779, when their village was destroyed by the Sullivan Expedition.
Haudenosaunee towns in the Finger Lakes region included the Seneca town of Gen-nis-he-yo (present-day Geneseo), Kanadaseaga (Seneca Castle, near present-day Geneva), Goiogouen (Cayuga Castle, east of Cayuga Lake), Chonodote (Cayuga town, present-day Aurora), Catherine's Town (near present-day Watkins Glen) and Ganondagan State Historic Site in Victor, New York.
The Haudenosaunee were able to prevent European colonization of the Finger Lakes region for nearly two centuries after first contact, often playing the French off against the British interests in savvy demonstrations of political competence. The adaptability of the Haudenosaunee people were key tools of resistance against hostile European powers rapidly spreading throughout North America, eager to dominate and increasingly brutal toward Native Americans in the Finger Lakes and beyond.