Road Rocks Ontario
Over 250 Geological Wonders to Discover
Author Nick Eyles ISBN 9781550418590 Binding Other Publisher Fitzhenry & Whiteside Publication Date June 06, 2013 Size 152 x 229 mmDuring the last 3 billion years Ontario has been witness to giant tectonic collisions as North America collided in turn with South America and Africa creating huge mountains now long gone. Many of Ontario's northern rocks originated as magma on ancient ocean floors long before life flourished. The province has been dented by fiery meteorites, drifted across the equator, been flooded by tropical seas rich in marine life and scraped bare by ice sheets.
Ontario's rich geologic history is illustrated here by short descriptions of more than 200 field sites ranging from Timmins in the north to Windsor in the south. These include the Sleeping Giant near Thunder Bay; Agawa Canyon; the Sudbury meteorite crater; Niagara Escarpment; the Falls and Gorge; numerous caves, the mineral-rich Bancroft area; and the high lakeshore cliffs at Scarborough Bluffs. Some sites are sacred to First Nations and are associated with spectacular rock art.
Also included are sites from adjacent parts of Quebec such as the Monteregian Hills near Montreal, the Gatineau Hills at Ottawa and a few sites in New York State, all of which add to the story of the geological evolution of Ontario and all of which are all within easy driving distance from Ontario. Each site features a short summary of its significance and is depicted on a map with GPS coordinates.
Take a drive through our geology and take a few moments to think of Ontario's long and varied history.
Nick Eyles
holds a Ph.D (East Anglia) and D.Sc. (Leicester) and is Professor of Geology at the University of Toronto. His prime research interest is in glacial sedimentology and has many years' experience with field work at modern glaciers. He has worked at the universities of Leicester, Newcastle upon Tyne and East Anglia in Great Britain, at Memorial University in Newfoundland and has been at Toronto since 1981 when he was awarded a prestigious NSERC University Research Fellowship. He has authored more than 150 publications in leading scientific journals on ice age geology and environmental geology and has conducted geological fieldwork from the Arctic to the Antarctic, including work with the Ocean Drilling Program onboard the drillship Resolution. Recent sabbaticals have been held in Brazil and Australia. His other books include Canada Rocks and Ontario Rocks.
Contents
Acknowledgements and Dedication
Preface
Introduction
CENTRAL
Limestone Islands
Pancake Islands
Depot Harbour
Parry Sound Shear Zone
Ontario's Anorthosites
The 30,000 Islands
Dikes
Great Gneiss Road
Canadian Shield
Star Struck at Torrance Barrens
Following the Meltwaters
Wye Marsh/Sainte-Marie among the Hurons
World Class Wasaga Beach
Ardtrea
Sacred Grandfather Rock and the Mnjikaning Fish Weir
CMBBZ
Granite barrens of the Southern Shield
Dartmoor
Rohallion Hill
Alvars
The Wacky World of Ordovician Reefs
Ontario's Ghost Fossils
Sandhills
Ganaraska
Sandbanks
Buckhorn
Eldorado
Marmora
Marmoraton Iron Mine
Marmora Ash Beds
Norwood and Omemee Eskers
Peterborough Drumlin Field and Serpent Mounds
Teetering Rock at Buckhorn
Warsaw Caves
Petroglyphs Provincial Park
Dummer Moraine
Bancroft
Nepheline Syenite at Blue Mountain
Huckleberry Rock
Canada Talc at Madoc
SOUTH
Frenchman's Bay and the Lagoons of Lake Ontario
Beare Road Dump
The Enigmatic Rouge Valley Faults
The Whitby Shale
The Seaton Trail
Hooking Stones
Scarborough Bluffs
Downtown Toronto
Casa Loma
Don Valley Brickworks
Father of Plate Tectonics
Oak Ridges Moraine
Mono Cliffs Park and the Violet Hill Meltwater Channel
Cheltenham Badlands
Earthquakes
Sixteen Mile Creek and Bronte Creek Canyon
Rattlesnake Point
Crawford Lake
Jollyg at the Jolley Cut in Hamilton and the Escarpment's Many Waterfalls
Burlington Heights
Queenston Heights
Lockport and the Erie Canal
Love Canal
Take a Hike
The Niagara Escarpment
Niagara Falls and Gorge
The Geology of Conflict
Welland Canal
Port Colborne Quarry
The Hole Truth
Rock Point
Hyde Park landfill
Devil's Hole
Eramosa Karst
Rock Fall!
Going Deep
Adam Beck Power Station and Niagara Gorge Geology View Point
In the Red
Niagara Wines
WEST
Long Point Provincial Park
Port Burwell Cliffs
Lake St Clair
Bothwell, Oil Springs and Petrolia
Arkona Fossils
Huron Rocks
Pinery Provincial Park
Goderich
Elora Gorge
Rockwood Potholes
Waterfalls
Metcalfe and Old Baldy
Scenic Caves
Craigleith Provincial Park
Griersville Cambers
Big Bay
Bioherms in Silurian Seas
Lion's Head, Skinner's Bluff and Flowerpot
Drowned Waterfalls
Giant Glacial Grooves of Kelleys Island
Walkerton
EAST
Barron Canyon
Marble Rocks
Bonnechere Caves
Graphite
Mazinaw Lake and Bon Echo
Pillow Lava
Kaladar Cobbles
Hell Hole Caves
Holleford
Unconformities - Burleigh Falls, Inverary, and Abbey Dawn
Geologic Columns
The Thousand Islands
Charleston Lake
Battle of the Windmill
Creeping Clays at Galop Canal
The Champlain Lookout over the Ottawa Graben
Ottawa River Stromatolites
Parliament Hill
Samuel de Champlain
Rideau Canal
Geological Survey of Canada
Ottawa Graben Faults
The Mystery of the Great Shelf Seas
Lemieux Quickclay
Eozoon Canadense at Côte St Pierre
Grenville
Oka
St Dorothée Sills
Lachine Canal
Mont Royal
Ile Ste-Hélène
Sugar Loaf Mountain
Champlain Sea
500 Million Year Old Sand Dunes of the Nepean Sandstone
Gull River Limestones at Kingston
White on Red
The Marble Cave at Portland Conservation Area
Tectonic Marble
NORTH
Brent Meteorite Crater
Split Rock
Cobalt
Lake Timiskaming, Devil's Rock, Dawson's Point Limestone, and Rock Walk
Gowganda Formation
Fault Scarp
Miner's Memorial, Toburn Mine and Harry Oakes's House
Vipond Pillow Lava, Pearl Lake Porphyry and Ancient Ocean Rocks
Timmins
French River Voyageurs
The Grenville Front Tectonic Zone on Highway 69, near Sudbury
Sudbury
Espanola, the La Cloche Mountains, and the Penokean Fold Belt
Clear Lake Earthquake
Killarney
The Whalebacks at Whitefish
Manitoulin Island
Elliot Lake Mining Museum
Bruce Mines
Desbarats Ripples
Copper Mine Point
Agawa Rock - Pictographs
Agawa Canyon
Marathon to Wawa
Potholes Provincial Park
Kama Bay
Pijitawabik Palisades
Ouimet Canyon
Panorama Amethyst Mine
Thunder Bay
Kakabeka Falls
Mount McKay Mesa
Pigeon River (High Falls)
Manitou Islands at North Bay
Rotten Rocks in North Bay
Abridged Glossary
GPS Coordinates and Map-Waypoint Index
Index
Winner of the 2013 Geoscience Information Society Best Guidebook Award