Glacial age marsh, Lafayette Park, Washington, D.C.

Organic sediments beneath historic Lafayette Park mark the site of a freshwater marsh which bordered the Potomac River when it was 15 meters above its present level. Plant microfossils and ice-rafted boulders indicate a climate much colder than now. The carbon-14 age of more than 45,000 years and palynological studies suggest an early Wisconsin age.