page_title: List of Lake Erie Islands
section_title: Geology
hierarchical_section_title: List of Lake Erie Islands / Geology
caption_attribution_description: English: Lake Erie and Lake Saint Clair bathymetric shaded relief map contoured with interval 2 m (10 m with thicker lines). The deepest point is marked with "&#215;". For land the vertical datum is sea level, for bathymetry low water datum of the lake. The map was created using the Generic Mapping Tools, GMT, version 5.1.1.
context_page_description: The Lake Erie Islands are a chain of archipelagic islands in Lake Erie. They include Kelleys Island, Pelee Island, the Bass Islands, and several others. The majority of these islands are under the sovereignty of the State of Ohio in the United States. Pelee Island is the only major inhabited island within the province of Ontario, while the smaller Middle Island is the southmost point of land in Canada.
  Most of the larger islands are popular tourist attractions, served by car ferries running from the mainland and between some islands. Some small airports and numerous private marinas offer other ways for visitors to reach the islands. Combined with nearby Sandusky and Port Clinton, Ohio, the islands are part of the collective area known regionally as "Vacationland".
context_section_description: The Lake Erie Islands are geologically part of the Silurian Columbus Limestone. When the Pleistocene ice sheets carved out the basin of modern-day Lake Erie, these hard rocks proved more resistant to erosion than the shales in the east, and as a result, Lake Erie's western end is much shallower than the basins in the east, so that the islands remain above water.
  Quarrying operations on Kelleys Island revealed glacial grooves in the bedrock, which would in time be regarded as some of the best direct evidence of the Pleistocene ice sheets available anywhere. The glacial grooves are now protected as part of Kelleys Island State Park.
caption: Depth map showing the three basins of Lake Erie. The islands are in the westernmost, shallowest basin.
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