by Rex Trulove

Created on: December 13, 2011   Last Updated: December 18, 2011

Glacier National Park is a large park in northern Montana that is well known for its rugged beauty, mountains, streams and lakes. It isn't uncommon, when visitors see the area, for them to wonder just how such a spectacular and scenic place was formed.

The beginning

The formation of the area as we know it today,  began thousands of years ago, back when all of what is now Canada and much of the US was covered by an ice sheet. The enormous glaciers moved from higher country to lower land, just as they do today in various places in the world. It is unlikely that the movement was very rapid, perhaps a foot or two a day or less. However, this was the beginning of the formation, as the ice gradually sculpted the Rocky Mountains that were already there. The mountains were formed even longer ago, as much as

170 million years in the past. 

Sculpting

Glaciers have an enormous ability to change the landscape. As the ice flows, it carries boulders and rocks along with it. This grinds and gouges away at the land like a giant's sandpaper. At the time, the ice sheet was over a mile thick in places, exerting a tremendous force because of the enormous weight. The transient boulders were forced by the weight into anything below. 

As the ice worked downhill, it turned steep 'V' shaped valleys into broader 'U' shaped ones, from the grinding action. At the same time, it carried a great deal of the material downhill as well. The glaciers also eventually crushed the gigantic boulders into smaller ones, then into smaller ones, gradually pulverizing the rock into sand.

Lakes

Besides gouging out depressions, in places the ice dropped tons of rocks and sand, called moraines. This is the ground rocks and dirt left behind when the glacier retreats. When the sediment is deposited around depressions, the subsequent melting of the ice produces an inflow of water, eventually filling the depression and creating a moraine lake. Such lakes exist in the park today.

Forests

The deposits of rich soil left behind as the massive ice sheet melted allowed the diversity of trees, bushes and plants found growing at Glacier National Park now. This, in turn, gave rise to an abundance of animals, both in numbers of individuals and numbers of species. 

Ongoing formation

The formation hasn't ended. Glaciers still exist at the park, and though they are much smaller than the ice mass that once covered the region, they are still carving away and still forming the park. The melt-off and springs also produce hundreds of streams, which are also changing the landscape, little by little. The park formation will almost certainly continue far into the future.

Glacier National Park began to be formed many thousands of years ago. By some estimates, formation began well over 11,000 years ago, during the last ice age. The mountains are over ten times older. The formation continues today, and the result is over 1,500 square miles of incredibly beautiful land. It might be quite interesting to see what it looks like a thousand years from now.

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