Acadia National Park - Geologic Formations

Perhaps the most obvious reminder of Acadia"s glacial legacy is the Somes Sound Fjord (the only feature of its kind on the U.S. Atlantic Coast) with its deeply carved head and shallow mouth of glacial deposits. Several other interesting geological features were formed when the sea level rose as the glacier melted, flooding today"s coastline to a depth of about 300 feet. The earth"s crust, freed of its burden of ice, started to rebound. Terrestrial deposits of marine clays, raised shorelines like the cave on the Cadillac Cliffs trail of Gorham Mountain, and raised cobble stone beaches are all examples of the effects of this glacially caused depression and rebound.