Geological Beginnings
Dr. Walter Boardman chronicled the geological beginnings of the area now known as Oceanside:
"The birth of Long Island came with the farthest advance of the Wisconsin Glacier of the last ice age. Our island took on character with the final retreat of the ice sheet that had covered all New England.
For thousands of years the vast mass of snow and ice had crept downward from the north bringing with it quantities of rock, sand and soil. It pushed across what is now Connecticut then out into the ocean. There the warmer waters melted the ice leaving the accumulate rock and minerals as a long mound running parallel to the shore. This mass at the front edge of the glacier, called a moraine, became the Long Island of today.
Finally, for reasons we do not know, the Earth became a little warmer and the glacier began its "retreat." The snow melted more during the summer than had gathered the previous winter, and each fall found the edge a little further back than the year before. It may have been but a few feet, but in the vastness of time this did not matter. It gradually drew back to the mountains of New Hampshire, then Maine and finally disappeared over eastern Canada.
As the glacier retreated, flowers pushed up almost at the snow line. A few years behind them came the white spruce and other trees that thrive on a cold damp soil. As the climate grew warmer, the great stands of white pine, hemlock and the softwoods took over. In vast areas the white pine held sway even to the coming of the White Man. In other regions, maple, oak and other hardwoods became dominant. On Long Island it was largely oak except in low areas along the shore where salt water sometimes came in killing or stunting their growth. Here holly, one of the most hardy and beautiful trees, flourished along with the oak.This was the forest of Long Island."
To learn more about geology, and Long Island's geological history, try:
All About Glaciers
Museum of Long Island Geologists
Newsday's Long Island Geology Page
SUNY Long Island Geology Site
Ice! All You Ever Wanted to Know!
