How did glaciers impact the Canadian Shield during the Pleistocene Epoch?

Written and fact-checked by

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

During the Pleistocene Epoch, glaciers scraped the land bare, depositing material south and creating rocky, ice-smoothed hills and basins. As the climate warmed and the glaciers retreated, large deposits of ice remained in these depressions and scars, which later melted to form a complex of lakes and swamps linked by rivers and streams.