| Caniapiscau Reservoir |
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| lakes of quebec | |
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The natural lakes of the region were formed about nine thousand years ago as Glacier s left Québec after having scoured the Canadian Shield for ninety thousand years. The prototype of these lakes was an Ice Dam lake that drained southwards into the Gulf Of Saint Lawrence at a time when areas further north ( Nunavik ) were still glaciated. As Post-glacial Rebound elevated the southern part of the Canadian Shield more rapidly than the north, the region began to drain northward into the Caniapiscau River, a tributary of the Koksoak River , and ultimately into Ungava Bay . The Caniapiscau Reservoir, which covers 4,318 km&2, or about four times the size of the natural lakes it flooded during impoundment from 1981 to 1984, fills a depression in the highest part of the Laurentian Plateau of the Canadian Shield. The total catchment area is about 36,800 km&2. The area surrounding the reservoir is vegetated entirely with Taiga , or boreal forest. It is in the zone of discontinuous Permafrost and is accessible by Bush Plane and, since 1981, by a gravel road from James Bay (''la Route Transtaïga ''). At the very end of this road, near the Duplanter spillway, is the former worksite of the Société d'énergie de la Baie-James, named Caniapiscau . SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
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