The northern tip of Cape Cod—showing 8.5 miles (14 km) of its 65-mile (105 km) length... In terms of geological age, Cape Cod is young, having been laid down about 20,000 years ago by glaciers when these were at their fullest extent. Even though Cape Cod today has water on both sides, it consists of moraine and associated river deposits laid down by two large lobes of ice that extended into the area from Canada (i.e, out of the image upper left). Strange as it seems today, one great ice lobe lay to the seaward side of the cape, and another on the Cape Cod Bay side. Many ponds (image center) remain on Cape Cod as a result of the receding glacier (image center). Why is the cape shaped the way it is?