Georges Bank:
A Brief History of the Past 26,000 Years

Once, when thick sheets of ice covered North America, the sea was much lower than it is today. Then, the area we call Georges Bank was part of the mainland. It stretched into the Gulf of Maine from the end of what is now Cape Cod. Geologists call that early form of the Bank Georges Cape.

Twenty-six thousand years ago, the ice that covered Georges Cape began to melt. After about 1,000 years, the surface was fully exposed. But the air was so cold that the only life that could survive there was tundra. Georges Cape measured 53,000 square km, a little more than one-third bigger than the area Georges Bank encompasses today.