Huddersfield Geology Group Articles


Features - Nova Scotia (Summer 2003)

Several members of the group went to Nova Scotia this summer to enjoy walking and geology in this eastern province of Canada. The scenery is not dramatic but the coastlines are rocky with low cliffs and so have plenty to offer.
	Most of the central areas are covered by forests and bogs, which have their own charms, but do not expose many rocks. So we went around the coast, enjoying seafood restaurants all the way and staying in a variety of self-catering log cabins and motels. The old basement of Nova Scotia is made of schists and slates of two small Precambrian and Lower Palaeozoic plates, which have been intruded by large granite plutons to produce brown hornfels from which the capital, Halifax, is built. The granites produce rocky headlands, many of which have beautiful lighthouses on them. See photo on left of a lighthouse on pyroclastics at Louisbourg.
These plates were caught up in the closure of the Iapetus Ocean during the Lower Palaeozoic and the collision with Laurentia, which now forms the Canadian shield. Regionally metamorphosed rocks, including migmatites, are exposed along the road cuttings of the Cabot Trail on Cape Breton Island, which has been recently opened to provide access to the under-populated but spectacular northern part of the island.

Cabot trail, Cape Breton	Permo-Trias desert sandstone at Cape Chignecto
Carboniferous rocks lie unconformably on top of the basement rocks and are similar to those of the UK, except for great thicknesses of anhydrite which are exposed in spectacularly white road cuttings and river cliffs. The first terrestrial reptiles are found in vertical tree trunks in the Coal Measure rocks at Joggins on the Fundy shore. Permian and Triassic rocks in the Fundy Bay have many dinosaur bones and footprints well-displayed in the museum at Parrsboro.

Rising tide in the Bay of Fundy	Gypsum at Marbou Harbour
We did some sight-seeing as well as rock-hounding and enjoyed observing moose, black bears, whales and many North American birds while out walking. Watching the tide rise so rapidly in the Bay of Fundy with its 16m tidal range was a pleasure while we were staying in the splendidly named settlement of Economy. Canadians give their visitors a great welcome and that added to the enjoyment of the rocks and landscape that we went to see.

Features - Nova Scotia (Summer 2003)