Great Lakes Basin Great Lakes Basin The Great Lakes Basin consists of the Great Lakes and the surrounding lands of the states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin in the United States, and the province of Ontario in Canada, whose direct surface runoff and watersheds form a large drainage basin that feeds into the lakes. It is generally considered to also include a small area around and beyond Wolfe Island, Ontario, at the east end of Lake Ontario, which does not drain into the Great lakes, but into the Saint Lawrence River. The basin is home to 33
Nipissing Great Lakes both Lake Erie and Niagara Falls would lack the volume of water needed to cut the channel through the Niagara limestone cap rock. Lake Erie was a nonglacial lake in this period. The third stage of nonglacial development ended the Lake Algonquin. A fourth stage was initiated when the upper lakes entered the Nipissing Great Lakes stage and that volume of water was diverted through the outlet at North Bay, Ontario. At this low stage, Lake Erie was to lower than present lake level and which lasted throughout the time of the Nipissing Great Lakes. The Lake Algonquin period of