thumb '''Herman Beach''' is one of several beaches delimiting the shorelines of the prehistoric glacial Lake Agassiz.<ref name=McCollor>[http://www.und.edu/instruct/eng/fkarner/pages/rebound.htm Earthscapes: The Red River Valley: Tilted Shorelines and Rebounding Lake Beds] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061208044926/http://www.und.edu/instruct/eng/fkarner/pages/rebound.htm |date=2006-12-08 }} - Don McCollor, University of North Dakota (retrieved 2007-08-29).</ref> Of note is that the beaches of Lake Agassiz are presently not adjacent to bodies of water, and consequently, are no longer really beaches at all. Named for its proximity to Herman, Minnesota, Herman Beach was formed 11,700 years ago and runs for hundreds of miles through Minnesota and North Dakota.<ref name = McCollor/> It has been described as a smoothly-rounded beach ridge made of gravel and sand.<ref>[https://archive.today/20120709165855/http://library.ndsu.edu/exhibits/text/lakeagassiz/chapter5.html The Glacial Lake Agassiz, Chapter V, The History of Lake Agassiz] - Warren Upham (retrieved 2007-08-29).</ref>

In contrast to the lakebed along the northward-flowing Red River, this beach rises from the south to the north and east at a gradient of approximately 1:5000; this rise resulted from the isostatic rebound of the land after recession of the last ice sheet.<ref>Heinselman, [http://www.peatnet.siu.edu/Assets/Heinselman%201963.pdf ''Forest Sites, Bog Processes, and Peatland Types in the Glacial Lake Agassiz Region, Minnesota''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070723122521/http://www.peatnet.siu.edu/Assets/Heinselman%201963.pdf |date=2007-07-23 }}, p. 331. (Herman beaches rise both eastward and northward at about 1 ft. per mile.)</ref>

==References== <references />

{{NorthDakota-geo-stub}} {{Minnesota-geo-stub}}

Category:Geography of Minnesota Category:Geography of North Dakota