What If the Western Interior Seaway Returned

90 million years ago, a sea ran straight through the middle of North America, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic. What would it take to bring the Western Interior Seaway back today? We raise the sea step by step using real elevation data: at around +50 m New England becomes an island, at about +185 m the Gulf of Mexico meets the Great Lakes and the eastern US is cut off, and at about +300 m the ocean breaks through near Browns Valley, Minnesota, splitting North America in two from the Gulf to Hudson Bay. DATA & METHOD • Elevation: NOAA NCEI, ETOPO 2022 Global Relief Model (15 arc-second, resampled to 30 arc-second) • Flooding is computed with a priority-flood (depression filling) algorithm: an area floods only when it connects to the ocean. • Satellite imagery: NASA Blue Marble Next Generation, via NASA GIBS • Lakes and borders: Natural Earth (public domain) • The Cretaceous shoreline shown is a simplified, approximate reconstruction. • Narration voice: Kokoro TTS (Apache-2.0). Music: original, generated for this video. PHOTO & VIDEO CREDITS - Wikimedia Commons (full list with links in the pinned comment) • Bart Everson (CC BY 2.0) • Corbin Rainbolt (CC BY 4.0) • David Wipf (CC BY 2.0) • Dean Hochman (CC BY 2.0) • Dmitry Bogdanov (CC BY 3.0) • Eden, Janine and Jim (CC BY 2.0) • FunkMonk (CC BY 3.0) • Gail's Pictures (Flickr) (CC BY 2.0) • Gareth Milner (CC BY 4.0) • Guywelch2000 (CC BY 4.0) • Haunost, Riebesell, D'Amario et al. (CC BY 4.0) • J Sery Films (CC BY 3.0) • Jakub Hałun (CC BY 4.0) • James St. John (CC BY 2.0) • Jonathan Chen (CC BY 4.0) • Joseph Norton and Ronald Frazier (CC BY 2.0) • Liz Mc (CC BY 2.0) • Mark P. Witton (CC BY 4.0) • Massimo Catarinella (CC BY 3.0) • MrAyrit (CC BY 3.0) • Neil G. Pezzoni (CC BY 4.0) • Quintin Soloviev (CC BY 4.0) • Qwexcxewq (CC BY 4.0) • Rennett Stowe (CC BY 2.0) • Ryan from Toronto (CC BY 2.0) • Sam valadi (CC BY 2.0) • Sauroarchive (CC BY 4.0) • Sean Korbitz (CC BY 3.0) • Sheila Sund (CC BY 2.0) • Thomas R Machnitzki (CC BY 3.0) • Tony Webster (CC BY 2.0) • TotalDino (CC BY 4.0) • Trougnouf (Benoit Brummer) (CC BY 4.0) • Tyler Vigen (CC BY 4.0) • William L. Farr (CC BY 4.0) • Public domain / CC0: A,Ocram, Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, Bernard Spragg, Carol M. Highsmith, DiBgd, Don McCulley, Donald E. Davis, E. D. Cope (1869), Edmund Rozell, Frederick Gutekunst, Gary Todd, IcedCowboyCoffee, Joe deSousa, Joey Kyber jtkyber1, Jorge Morales Piderit, Joseph H. Hartman, Ken Thomas, Ludraman, Mathew Brady, Mostafameraji, NASA, NASA Earth Observatory, NASA Goddard, NASA Johnson, NASA MODIS, NASA/Christy Hansen, NOAA, NPS, NPS / Gary Anderson, NPS / Mark Hoffman, Opittman, Patsy Lynch, Shwemyotaw, Smithsonian Institution Archives, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, USDA, USFWS, USGS / Melanie Moreno, USGS / Yellowstone NPS, Wistar92 This is a hypothetical scenario for educational purposes. Diagrams are simplified and not to scale. #WhatIf #WesternInteriorSeaway #Geography