Geology of the Red River Floodplain

As the people of Fargo, North Dakota continue to watch the Red River and pile up the sandbags, a review of the geology of the river explains its tendency to overflow. See the Minneapolis Star Tribune for March 24, 2009: Blame the Ice Age glacial lake that left the river in a flat, wide valley, by Richard Mayhew. The Fargo Flood homepage maintained by the North Dakota State University Geosciences department includes a thorough consideration of the geology of the area.