The Bay of Fundy Rocks

While Fundy’s large tides gradually erode the towering seaside cliffs and wash the shores, countless significant rocks, zeolites as well as semi-precious stones are often uncovered day after day. Our own Bay of Fundy absolutely is a rock hounder’s haven.

On the shores nearby Parrsboro, Nova Scotia, mineral treasures like amethyst and agate are common finds. Parrsboro is also where you will find the Fundy Geological Museum in which tourists are able to look at mineral terminals and then take a look at what are the earliest dinosaur bones in all of Canada as well as the world’s first reptiles.

Make a trip to New Brunswick’s Fundy National Park and take a look at two different tale-telling rock formations. Although the beige and gray rocks spotted at Owls Head are made from sandstone, the volcanic rocks near Point Wolfe show the moving of the continents, and they are made up of light quartz veins, swirling folds and criss-crossing cracks. The oldest rocks in the area can be found near Point Wolfe. The Caledonia Highlands, which date back to the Ice Age, are also found in Fundy National Park.

Some time ago, in the Fall months of 2010, an area in the region of Saint John, New Brunswick, became the very first UNESCO endorsed Geopark in Canada and the United States. The Stonehammer Geopark extends east from the Fundy Trail Parkway, west near the Lepreau Waterfalls and moves inland as far as Norton, Hampton and Grand Bay-Westfield.

Stonehammer’s tagline is “A Billion Years of Stories” which couldn’t be more proper. From an observation deck by the side of Saint John’s Harbour Passage, guests can look across the Reversing Falls gorge to notice 2 continents that slammed into each other thousands of years earlier. Looking across the gorge, the rocks on the left side are from around the Cambrian time period (approx . 500 million yrs. old) while the lighter grey rocks to your right hand side come from the Precambrian age (seven hundred and fifty million-1.2 billion years old). Stonehammer includes rocks from almost all of the geologic eras except for the Tertiary and Jurassic periods.

Other Stonehammer Geopark attractions include the Irving Nature Park, Rockwood Park, Dominion Park, Tucker Park, Fort Howe and King Square West. There’re over 200 areas of geological significance inside this 2800 km2 zone.

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