Onega Canal Onega Canal The Onega Canal () is a canal that runs along the southern banks of Lake Onega in Vytegorsky District of Vologda Oblast and Podporozhsky District of Leningrad Oblasts in Russia. It was built 1818 - 1820 and 1845 - 1852 as a part of Mariinsk Canal System, to allow small riverboats to avoid Lake Onega, where storms are frequent and where many boats had perished through the centuries. The canal is long and runs between the Vytegra River in the east and Svir River in the west. It is around wide, and lies between and from the shores
Lake Onega the last Ice Age, about 12,000 years ago: In the Paleozoic Era (400–300 million years ago) the entire territory of the modern basin of the lake was covered with a shelf sea lying near the ancient, near-equatoric Baltic continent. Sediments at that time – sandstone, sand, clay and limestone – form a layer covering the Baltic Shield which consists of granite, gneiss and greenstone. The retreat of the Ice Age glaciers formed the Littorina Sea. Its level was first higher than at present, but it gradually lowered, thereby decreasing the sea area and forming several lakes in the Baltic region.