Long Island Sound

Long Island Sound is a marine sound and tidal estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. It lies predominantly between the U.S. state of Connecticut to the north and Long Island in New York to the south. From west to east, the sound stretches from the East River in New York City, along the North Shore of Long Island, to Block Island Sound. A mix of freshwater from tributaries, and saltwater from the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island Sound is at its widest point and varies in depth from . Major Connecticut cities on the Sound include Stamford, Norwalk, Bridgeport, New Haven, and New London. Cities on the New York side of the Sound include Rye, Glen Cove, New Rochelle, Larchmont and portions of Queens and the Bronx in New York City. The climate of Long Island Sound is warm temperate or Cfa in the Köppen climate classification. Summers are hot and humid often with convective showers and strong sunshine, while the cooler months feature cold temperatures and a mix of rain and occasional snow. About 18,000 years ago, Connecticut, Long Island Sound, and much of Long Island were covered by a thick sheet of ice, part of the Late Wisconsin Glacier. About thick in its interior and about thick along its southern edge, it was the most recent of a series of glaciations that covered the area during the past 10 million years. Sea level at that time was about lower than today. The continental ice sheet scraped off an average of of surface material from the New England landscape, then deposited the material (known as drift) from the Connecticut coast into the Sound, creating what is now Long Island (the terminal moraine). When the ice sheet stopped advancing 18,000 years ago (as addition of snow at the origin was in equilibrium with the melting at the southern edge), a large amount of drift was deposited, known as the Ronkonkoma Moraine, which stretches along much of southern Long Island. Later, another period of equilibrium resulted in the Harbor Hill Moraine along most of northern Long Island. The next moraines (recessional moraines) to the north were created just on and off the Connecticut coast.