1.
Rattlesnake Point (Canada)
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Rattlesnake Point is an eco-tourism area located in Milton, Ontario, Canada and is owned and operated by Conservation Halton. It is a scouting area. As urban sprawl continues to increase in Southern Ontario, new housing developments in Milton have begun to encroach upon Rattlesnake Point, Rattlesnake point is often visited by cyclists, hikers and climbers due to the array of beautiful caves and cliffs. Rattlesnake Point receives its name from the path cut by glaciers along the edges of the Niagara Escarpment. The Rattlesnake Point Conservation Area was established as an area in 1961 by the Halton Region Conservation Authority. It is a destination for hikers, backpackers, cyclists. The parks ten kilometres of cliff edge and forest trails connect with the Bruce Trail, the conservation area also has facilities for organized and family camping with 18 group campsites. Access to the Bruce Trail at Rattlesnake Point is available at several locations, other hiking and biking launch spots include Lowville, Kelso and Kilbride. Outdoor enthusiasts can connect to the long Lake Ontario Waterfront Trail and this hill was also used in the 2011 Mens Nationals Road Race took place in the conservation area. The limestone cliffs are popular with climbers and are fitted with bolts for top-rope anchors. Sport climbing routes are available towards the edge of the cliffs. To protect the ancient cedars that dot the area, there is a ban on slinging trees, Conservation Halton, Rattlesnake Point Rattlesnake Point, Photos and Updated Information
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Milton, Ontario
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Milton is a town in Southern Ontario, Canada, and part of the Halton Region in the Greater Toronto Area. Between 2001 and 2011 Milton was the fastest growing municipality in Canada, with a 71. 4% increase in population in 2006, in 2016, Miltons census population was 110,128 with an estimated growth to 228,000 by 2031. Milton is located 40 km west of Downtown Toronto on Highway 401, Milton is on the edge of the Niagara Escarpment, a UNESCO world biosphere reserve and the Bruce Trail. The town took root out of a settlement by Jasper Martin along the Sixteen Mile Creek, Martin immigrated from Newcastle, England with his wife Sarah and two sons on May 17,1818. Martin was granted 100 acres of land, from the Crown in 1820, designated Lot 14, Concession 2, Township of Trafalgar, Halton County, Martin later built a grist mill along the creek and created a pond, known as Mill Pond, to power his mill. The mill became the centre of settlement for others as they settled in the region, in 1837 the area had a population of approximately 100 people and was named Milton after the English poet John Milton. The town, as it is today, soon became known as Milton. The two principal property owners of the town were the Martins and the Fosters. The current site of Miltons town hall was donated from Mr. Hugh Foster, by 1855, the United Counties of Halton and Wentworth separated and Halton became a county. Its council consisted of members representing the townships of Esquesing, Nassagaweya, Trafalgar and Nelson, along with Acton, Georgetown, Milton, Burlington, Milton was then named as the county town, a decision that certainly created a lot of local controversy. The people in Oakville were very upset because Oakville was a place with a railway. Milton didn’t even have a railway, according to historian John McDonald, for 25 years there was this great rivalry. Every time county council tried to pass something to improve the Milton area, the Oakville councillors would often balk at it. A man named Hugh Foster donated four acres of land to the county to construct its administration building in Milton, Milton was incorporated into a town in 1857, after being chosen as county seat for Halton. In 1974, the present municipal structure was created when the Regional Municipality of Halton replaced Halton County, with the addition of the Niagara Escarpment lands, tourism, recreation, and heritage conservation have increased in importance. The Halton Region Museum which has a number of historic agricultural buildings. Five large parks operated by Conservation Halton reside in the town and it is also home to Maplehurst Correctional Complex, the Vanier Centre for Women and one of two criminal courthouses serving Halton Region. In 2015, the numbers on all signs entering Milton increased to 100,000 based on official estimates by Town planners
3.
Collingwood, Ontario
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Collingwood is a town in Simcoe County, Ontario, Canada. It is situated on Nottawasaga Bay at the point of Georgian Bay. The land in the area was inhabited by the Iroquoian Petun nation. They were driven from the region by the Iroquois in 1650, european settlers and freed Black slaves arrived in the area in the 1840s, bringing with them their religion and culture. The area originally had several other associated with it, including Hurontario, Nottawa. In 1855, the Ontario, Simcoe & Huron railway came into Collingwood, shipping produced a need for ship repairs, so it was not long before an organized ship building business was created. On May 24,1883, the Collingwood Shipyards, formerly known as Collingwood Dry Dock Shipbuilding, on September 12,1901, the Huronic was launched in Collingwood, the first steel-hulled ship launched in Canada. The shipyards produced Lakers and during World War II contributed to the production of Corvettes for the Royal Canadian Navy, Shipbuilding was one of the principal industries in the town, employing as much as 10% of the total labour force. Overseas competition and overcapacity in shipbuilding in Canada led to the demise of shipbuilding in Collingwood in September 1986, the creation of government incentive programs and a fully serviced industrial park made it possible for Collingwood to attract eleven new manufacturing firms to the town by 1971. Eight additional manufacturing companies had located in the town by 1983, today, Collingwoods industrial base, which includes Collingwood Ethanol L. P. Pilkington Glass of Canada, Goodall Rubber Company - Canada ULC, and VOAC Inc, Collingwood is also home to the distillery where Canadian Mist Whisky is produced. In June 2007, Collingwood Ethanol began production in the former Nacan facility, the company expected to produce 50 million litres of ethanol annually to satisfy regulatory requirements on ethanol content in gasoline mandated by the provincial and federal governments. Collingwood Ethanol also produces byproducts of the manufacturing process, including an organic corn gluten fertilizer. Before Collingwood Ethanol started production, however, Nacan also created a strong odour and this made many locals wonder why a housing development would be built across the road from an industrial part of town. In December 2012, Amaizeingly Green, filed for receivership of the plant, due to the higher cost of corn, the plant has not been in operation for some time. Blue Mountain itself is noted for skiing, and also for its Scenic Caves, the town is also a short distance from the popular Wasaga Beach Provincial Park, an attractive destination that received the title of Biosphere Reserve in 2004. Local media include the Collingwood Enterprise-Bulletin and Collingwood-Wasaga Connection community newspapers, the Barrie-based regional television station CKVR-TV maintains a bureau in Collingwood, and the Owen Sound-based Bayshore Broadcasting radio group also has an office in Collingwood. Collingwood is also known for its annual week-end Elvis Presley festival, the current mayor is Sandra Cooper
4.
Escarpment
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An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as an effect of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas of differing elevations. Usually escarpment is used interchangeably with scarp, but some sources differentiate the two terms, where escarpment refers to the margin between two landforms, while scarp is synonymous with a cliff or steep slope. The surface of the slope is called a scarp face. This is a ridge which has a gentle slope on one side. Scarps are generally formed by one of two processes, either by differential erosion of rocks, or by vertical movement of the Earths crust along a geologic fault. Most commonly, an escarpment is a transition from one series of rocks to another series of a different age. Escarpments are also formed by faults. When a fault displaces the ground surface so that one side is higher than the other and this can occur in dip-slip faults, or when a strike-slip fault brings a piece of high ground adjacent to an area of lower ground. More loosely, the term describes the zone between coastal lowlands and continental plateaus which have a marked, abrupt change in elevation caused by coastal erosion at the base of the plateau. Earth is not the planet where escarpments occur. They are believed to occur on other planets when the crust contracts, on other Solar System bodies such as Mercury, Mars, and the Moon, the Latin term rupes is used for an escarpment. When sedimentary beds are tilted and exposed to the surface, erosion, escarpments erode gradually and over geological time. The mélange tendencies of escarpments results in varying contacts between a multitude of rock types and these varying levels of erosion can lead to strange features forming in the exposed rock. Kinver Edge The Lincoln Edge Stanage Edge Wenlock Edge France La Côte dOr is famous for its wines and has given its name to a département, le Pays de Bray, a clay vale enclosed by chalk escarpments
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Cuesta
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A cuesta is a hill or ridge with a gentle slope on one side, and a steep slope on the other. In geology the term is specifically applied to a ridge where a harder sedimentary rock overlies a softer layer. This results in a long and gentle backslope called a dip slope that conforms with the dip of resistant strata, where erosion has exposed the frontslope of this, a steep slope or escarpment occurs. The resulting terrain may be called scarpland, in general usage, a cuesta is a hill or ridge with a gentle slope on one side, and a steep slope on the other. The word is from Spanish, flank or slope of a hill, hill, mount, the outcrop of the caprock forms a steeper or even cliff-like frontslope, cutting through the dipping strata that comprise the cuesta. The surfaces of the hard, erosion-resistant rock strata form the caprock of the backslope of the cuesta, the frontslope of the cuesta consists of an escarpment that cuts across the bedding of the strata comprising it. Because of the dipping nature of the strata that forms a cuesta. Cuestas, homoclinal ridges, and hogbacks comprise a sequence of landforms that form a gradational continuum and these landforms differ only on the steepness of their backslopes and the relative differences in the inclination of their backslopes and frontslopes. These differences depend upon whether the dip of the strata from which they have been eroded are either vertical, moderately dipping. In addition, it also can be difficult to sharply distinguish immediately adjacent members of series of landforms because of their gradational nature. Two well-known cuestas in western New York and southern Ontario are the Onondaga escarpment, the dip of the Onondaga is about 40 feet per mile to the south. The escarpment edge faces north, and in its most populated section, the Gulf Coastal Plain in Texas is punctuated by a series of cuestas that parallel the coast, as are most coastal plains. In continental Europe, the Swabian Alb offers particularly good views of cuestas in Jurassic rock, in France, the term for a cuesta is the same as for a coastline, côte. Notable French cuestas are the regions of Côte dOr and Côtes du Rhône. The Machinchang Formation outcrops in the Langkawi islands off the coast of northwestern Malaysia, the formation is one of the oldest exposed rock units in Southeast Asia and has an extensive eroded anticline cuesta topography — dating back to Cambrian
6.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
7.
Canada
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Canada is a country in the northern half of North America. Canadas border with the United States is the worlds longest binational land border, the majority of the country has a cold or severely cold winter climate, but southerly areas are warm in summer. Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its territory being dominated by forest and tundra. It is highly urbanized with 82 per cent of the 35.15 million people concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, One third of the population lives in the three largest cities, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Its capital is Ottawa, and other urban areas include Calgary, Edmonton, Quebec City, Winnipeg. Various aboriginal peoples had inhabited what is now Canada for thousands of years prior to European colonization. Pursuant to the British North America Act, on July 1,1867, the colonies of Canada, New Brunswick and this began an accretion of provinces and territories to the mostly self-governing Dominion to the present ten provinces and three territories forming modern Canada. With the Constitution Act 1982, Canada took over authority, removing the last remaining ties of legal dependence on the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II being the head of state. The country is officially bilingual at the federal level and it is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many other countries. Its advanced economy is the eleventh largest in the world, relying chiefly upon its abundant natural resources, Canadas long and complex relationship with the United States has had a significant impact on its economy and culture. Canada is a country and has the tenth highest nominal per capita income globally as well as the ninth highest ranking in the Human Development Index. It ranks among the highest in international measurements of government transparency, civil liberties, quality of life, economic freedom, Canada is an influential nation in the world, primarily due to its inclusive values, years of prosperity and stability, stable economy, and efficient military. While a variety of theories have been postulated for the origins of Canada. In 1535, indigenous inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct French explorer Jacques Cartier to the village of Stadacona, from the 16th to the early 18th century Canada referred to the part of New France that lay along the St. Lawrence River. In 1791, the area became two British colonies called Upper Canada and Lower Canada collectively named The Canadas, until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, Canada was adopted as the name for the new country at the London Conference. The transition away from the use of Dominion was formally reflected in 1982 with the passage of the Canada Act, later that year, the name of national holiday was changed from Dominion Day to Canada Day
8.
New York (state)
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New York is a state in the northeastern United States, and is the 27th-most extensive, fourth-most populous, and seventh-most densely populated U. S. state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south and Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont to the east. With an estimated population of 8.55 million in 2015, New York City is the most populous city in the United States, the New York Metropolitan Area is one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. New York City makes up over 40% of the population of New York State, two-thirds of the states population lives in the New York City Metropolitan Area, and nearly 40% lives on Long Island. Both the state and New York City were named for the 17th-century Duke of York, the next four most populous cities in the state are Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers, and Syracuse, while the state capital is Albany. New York has a diverse geography and these more mountainous regions are bisected by two major river valleys—the north-south Hudson River Valley and the east-west Mohawk River Valley, which forms the core of the Erie Canal. Western New York is considered part of the Great Lakes Region and straddles Lake Ontario, between the two lakes lies Niagara Falls. The central part of the state is dominated by the Finger Lakes, New York had been inhabited by tribes of Algonquian and Iroquoian-speaking Native Americans for several hundred years by the time the earliest Europeans came to New York. The first Europeans to arrive were French colonists and Jesuit missionaries who arrived southward from settlements at Montreal for trade, the British annexed the colony from the Dutch in 1664. The borders of the British colony, the Province of New York, were similar to those of the present-day state, New York is home to the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of the United States and its ideals of freedom, democracy, and opportunity. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. On April 17,1524 Verrazanno entered New York Bay, by way of the now called the Narrows into the northern bay which he named Santa Margherita. Verrazzano described it as a vast coastline with a delta in which every kind of ship could pass and he adds. This vast sheet of water swarmed with native boats and he landed on the tip of Manhattan and possibly on the furthest point of Long Island. Verrazannos stay was interrupted by a storm which pushed him north towards Marthas Vineyard, in 1540 French traders from New France built a chateau on Castle Island, within present-day Albany, due to flooding, it was abandoned the next year. In 1614, the Dutch under the command of Hendrick Corstiaensen, rebuilt the French chateau, Fort Nassau was the first Dutch settlement in North America, and was located along the Hudson River, also within present-day Albany. The small fort served as a trading post and warehouse, located on the Hudson River flood plain, the rudimentary fort was washed away by flooding in 1617, and abandoned for good after Fort Orange was built nearby in 1623. Henry Hudsons 1609 voyage marked the beginning of European involvement with the area, sailing for the Dutch East India Company and looking for a passage to Asia, he entered the Upper New York Bay on September 11 of that year
9.
Ontario
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Ontario, one of the 13 provinces and territories of Canada, is located in east-central Canada. It is Canadas most populous province by a margin, accounting for nearly 40 percent of all Canadians. Ontario is fourth-largest in total area when the territories of the Northwest Territories and it is home to the nations capital city, Ottawa, and the nations most populous city, Toronto. There is only about 1 km of land made up of portages including Height of Land Portage on the Minnesota border. Ontario is sometimes divided into two regions, Northern Ontario and Southern Ontario. The great majority of Ontarios population and arable land is located in the south, in contrast, the larger, northern part of Ontario is sparsely populated with cold winters and is heavily forested. The province is named after Lake Ontario, a thought to be derived from Ontarí, io, a Huron word meaning great lake, or possibly skanadario. Ontario has about 250,000 freshwater lakes, the province consists of three main geographical regions, The thinly populated Canadian Shield in the northwestern and central portions, which comprises over half the land area of Ontario. Although this area mostly does not support agriculture, it is rich in minerals and in part covered by the Central and Midwestern Canadian Shield forests, studded with lakes, Northern Ontario is subdivided into two sub-regions, Northwestern Ontario and Northeastern Ontario. The virtually unpopulated Hudson Bay Lowlands in the north and northeast, mainly swampy. Southern Ontario which is further sub-divided into four regions, Central Ontario, Eastern Ontario, Golden Horseshoe, the highest point is Ishpatina Ridge at 693 metres above sea level located in Temagami, Northeastern Ontario. In the south, elevations of over 500 m are surpassed near Collingwood, above the Blue Mountains in the Dundalk Highlands, the Carolinian forest zone covers most of the southwestern region of the province. A well-known geographic feature is Niagara Falls, part of the Niagara Escarpment, the Saint Lawrence Seaway allows navigation to and from the Atlantic Ocean as far inland as Thunder Bay in Northwestern Ontario. Northern Ontario occupies roughly 87 percent of the area of the province. Point Pelee is a peninsula of Lake Erie in southwestern Ontario that is the southernmost extent of Canadas mainland, Pelee Island and Middle Island in Lake Erie extend slightly farther. All are south of 42°N – slightly farther south than the border of California. The climate of Ontario varies by season and location, the effects of these major air masses on temperature and precipitation depend mainly on latitude, proximity to major bodies of water and to a small extent, terrain relief. In general, most of Ontarios climate is classified as humid continental, Ontario has three main climatic regions
10.
Michigan
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Michigan /ˈmɪʃᵻɡən/ is a state in the Great Lakes and Midwestern regions of the United States. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, Michigan is the tenth most populous of the 50 United States, with the 11th most extensive total area. Its capital is Lansing, and its largest city is Detroit, Michigan is the only state to consist of two peninsulas. The Lower Peninsula, to which the name Michigan was originally applied, is noted to be shaped like a mitten. The Upper Peninsula is separated from the Lower Peninsula by the Straits of Mackinac, the two peninsulas are connected by the Mackinac Bridge. The state has the longest freshwater coastline of any political subdivision in the world, being bounded by four of the five Great Lakes, as a result, it is one of the leading U. S. states for recreational boating. Michigan also has 64,980 inland lakes and ponds, a person in the state is never more than six miles from a natural water source or more than 85 miles from a Great Lakes shoreline. What is now the state of Michigan was first settled by Native American tribes before being colonized by French explorers in the 17th century, the area was organized as part of the larger Northwest Territory until 1800, when western Michigan became part of the Indiana Territory. Eventually, in 1805, the Michigan Territory was formed, which lasted until it was admitted into the Union on January 26,1837, the state of Michigan soon became an important center of industry and trade in the Great Lakes region and a popular immigrant destination. Though Michigan has come to develop an economy, it is widely known as the center of the U. S. automotive industry. When the first European explorers arrived, the most populous tribes were Algonquian peoples, which include the Anishinaabe groups of Ojibwe, Odaawaa/Odawa, the three nations co-existed peacefully as part of a loose confederation called the Council of Three Fires. The Ojibwe, whose numbers are estimated to have been between 25,000 and 35,000, were the largest, French voyageurs and coureurs des bois explored and settled in Michigan in the 17th century. The first Europeans to reach what became Michigan were those of Étienne Brûlés expedition in 1622, the first permanent European settlement was founded in 1668 on the site where Père Jacques Marquette established Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan as a base for Catholic missions, missionaries in 1671–75 founded outlying stations at Saint Ignace and Marquette. Jesuit missionaries were received by the areas Indian populations, with relatively few difficulties or hostilities. In 1679, Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle built Fort Miami at present-day St. Joseph, in 1691, the French established a trading post and Fort St. Joseph along the St. Joseph River at the present day city of Niles. The hundred soldiers and workers who accompanied Cadillac built a fort enclosing one arpent, cadillacs wife, Marie Thérèse Guyon, soon moved to Detroit, becoming one of the first European women to settle in the Michigan wilderness. The town quickly became a major fur-trading and shipping post, the Église de Saint-Anne was founded the same year
11.
Wisconsin
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Wisconsin is a U. S. state located in the north-central United States, in the Midwest and Great Lakes regions. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, Wisconsin is the 23rd largest state by total area and the 20th most populous. The state capital is Madison, and its largest city is Milwaukee, the state is divided into 72 counties. Wisconsin is second to Michigan in the length of its Great Lakes coastline, Wisconsin is known as Americas Dairyland because it is one of the nations leading dairy producers, particularly famous for its cheese. Manufacturing, especially paper products, information technology, and tourism are major contributors to the states economy. The word Wisconsin originates from the given to the Wisconsin River by one of the Algonquian-speaking Native American groups living in the region at the time of European contact. French explorer Jacques Marquette was the first European to reach the Wisconsin River, arriving in 1673, subsequent French writers changed the spelling from Meskousing to Ouisconsin, and over time this became the name for both the Wisconsin River and the surrounding lands. English speakers anglicized the spelling from Ouisconsin to Wisconsin when they began to arrive in numbers during the early 19th century. The legislature of Wisconsin Territory made the current spelling official in 1845, the Algonquin word for Wisconsin and its original meaning have both grown obscure. Interpretations vary, but most implicate the river and the red sandstone that lines its banks, other theories include claims that the name originated from one of a variety of Ojibwa words meaning red stone place, where the waters gather, or great rock. Wisconsin has been home to a variety of cultures over the past 12,000 years. The first people arrived around 10,000 BCE during the Wisconsin Glaciation and these early inhabitants, called Paleo-Indians, hunted now-extinct ice age animals such as the Boaz mastodon, a prehistoric mastodon skeleton unearthed along with spear points in southwest Wisconsin. After the ice age ended around 8000 BCE, people in the subsequent Archaic period lived by hunting, fishing, agricultural societies emerged gradually over the Woodland period between 1000 BCE to 1000 CE. Toward the end of period, Wisconsin was the heartland of the Effigy Mound culture. Later, between 1000 and 1500 CE, the Mississippian and Oneota cultures built substantial settlements including the village at Aztalan in southeast Wisconsin. The Oneota may be the ancestors of the modern Ioway and Ho-Chunk tribes who shared the Wisconsin region with the Menominee at the time of European contact, the first European to visit what became Wisconsin was probably the French explorer Jean Nicolet. He canoed west from Georgian Bay through the Great Lakes in 1634, pierre Radisson and Médard des Groseilliers visited Green Bay again in 1654–1666 and Chequamegon Bay in 1659–1660, where they traded for fur with local Native Americans. In 1673, Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet became the first to record a journey on the Fox-Wisconsin Waterway all the way to the Mississippi River near Prairie du Chien
12.
Illinois
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Illinois is a state in the midwestern region of the United States, achieving statehood in 1818. It is the 6th most populous state and 25th largest state in terms of land area, the word Illinois comes from a French rendering of a native Algonquin word. For decades, OHare International Airport has been ranked as one of the worlds busiest airports, Illinois has long had a reputation as a bellwether both in social and cultural terms and politics. With the War of 1812 Illinois growth slowed as both Native Americans and Canadian forces often raided the American Frontier, mineral finds and timber stands also had spurred immigration—by the 1810s, the Eastern U. S. Railroads arose and matured in the 1840s, and soon carried immigrants to new homes in Illinois, as well as being a resource to ship their commodity crops out to markets. Railroads freed most of the land of Illinois and other states from the tyranny of water transport. By 1900, the growth of jobs in the northern cities and coal mining in the central and southern areas attracted a new group of immigrants. Illinois was an important manufacturing center during both world wars, the Great Migration from the South established a large community of African Americans in Chicago, who created the citys famous jazz and blues cultures. Three U. S. presidents have been elected while living in Illinois, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, additionally, Ronald Reagan, whose political career was based in California, was the only U. S. president born and raised in Illinois. Today, Illinois honors Lincoln with its official slogan, Land of Lincoln. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is located in the capital of Springfield. Illinois is the spelling for the early French Catholic missionaries and explorers name for the Illinois Native Americans. American scholars previously thought the name Illinois meant man or men in the Miami-Illinois language and this etymology is not supported by the Illinois language, as the word for man is ireniwa and plural men is ireniwaki. The name Illiniwek has also said to mean tribe of superior men. The name Illinois derives from the Miami-Illinois verb irenwe·wa he speaks the regular way and this was taken into the Ojibwe language, perhaps in the Ottawa dialect, and modified into ilinwe·. The French borrowed these forms, changing the ending to spell it as -ois. The current spelling form, Illinois, began to appear in the early 1670s, the Illinois name for themselves, as attested in all three of the French missionary-period dictionaries of Illinois, was Inoka, of unknown meaning and unrelated to the other terms. American Indians of successive cultures lived along the waterways of the Illinois area for thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans, the Koster Site has been excavated and demonstrates 7,000 years of continuous habitation
13.
Niagara River
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The Niagara River is a river that flows north from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. It forms part of the border between the province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York in the United States, there are differing theories as to the origin of the rivers name. According to George R. Stewart, it comes from the name of an Iroquois town called Ongniaahra, the river, which is occasionally described as a strait, is about 58 kilometres long and includes Niagara Falls in its course. The falls have moved approximately 11 kilometres upstream from the Niagara Escarpment in the last 12,000 years, today, the diversion of the river for electrical generation has significantly reduced the rate of erosion. Power plants on the river include the Sir Adam Beck Hydroelectric Power Stations on the Canadian side, together, they generate 4.4 gigawatts of electricity. The International Control Works, built in 1954, regulates the river flow, ships on the Great Lakes use the Welland Canal, part of the Saint Lawrence Seaway, on the Canadian side of the river, to bypass Niagara Falls. The total drop in elevation along the river is 99 metres, the Niagara Gorge extends downstream from the Falls and includes the Niagara Whirlpool and another section of rapids. The Niagara River also features two large islands and numerous smaller islands, grand Island and Navy Island, the two largest islands, are on the American and Canadian sides of the river, respectively. Goat Island and the tiny Luna Island split Niagara Falls into its three sections, the Horseshoe Falls, Bridal Veil Falls, and American Falls, unity Island lies further upstream, alongside the city of Buffalo. The Niagara River and its tributaries, Tonawanda Creek and the Welland River, formed part of the last section of the Erie Canal, after leaving Lockport, New York, the Erie Canal proceeds southwest until it enters Tonawanda Creek. The Welland Canals used the Welland River as a connection to the Niagara River south of the falls, allowing traffic to safely re-enter the Niagara River. The Niagara River and Falls have been known outside of North America since the late 17th century, when Father Louis Hennepin and he wrote about his travels in A New Discovery of a Vast Country in America. The Niagara River was the site of the earliest recorded railway in America and it was an inclined wooden tramway built by John Montresor, a British military engineer, in 1764. Called The Cradles and The Old Lewiston Incline, it featured loaded carts pulled up wooden rails by rope and it facilitated the movement of goods over the Niagara Escarpment in present-day Lewiston, New York. Several battles occurred along the Niagara River, which was defended by Fort George and Fort Niagara at the mouth of the river. These forts were important during the French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War, the Battle of Queenston Heights took place near the river in the War of 1812. The river was an important route to liberation before the American Civil War, the Freedom Crossing Monument stands on the bank of the river in Lewiston to commemorate the courage of the escaping slaves and the local volunteers who helped them secretly cross the river. In the 1880s, the Niagara River became the first waterway in North America harnessed for large-scale generation of hydroelectricity
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Niagara Falls
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They form the southern end of the Niagara Gorge. From largest to smallest, the three waterfalls are the Horseshoe Falls, the American Falls and the Bridal Veil Falls, the Horseshoe Falls lies on the border of the United States and Canada with the American Falls entirely on the American side, separated by Goat Island. The smaller Bridal Veil Falls are also on the American side, the international boundary line was originally drawn through Horseshoe Falls in 1819, but the boundary has long been in dispute due to natural erosion and construction. Located on the Niagara River, which drains Lake Erie into Lake Ontario, Horseshoe Falls is the most powerful waterfall in North America, as measured by vertical height and flow rate. The falls are 17 miles north-northwest of Buffalo, New York, while not exceptionally high, the Niagara Falls are very wide. More than six cubic feet of water falls over the crest line every minute in high flow. The Niagara Falls are famed both for their beauty and as a source of hydroelectric power. Balancing recreational, commercial, and industrial uses has been a challenge for the stewards of the falls since the 19th century. The Horseshoe Falls drop about 188 feet, while the height of the American Falls varies between 70 and 100 feet because of the presence of giant boulders at its base. The larger Horseshoe Falls are about 2,600 feet wide, the distance between the American extremity of the Niagara Falls and the Canadian extremity is 3,409 feet. The volume of water approaching the falls during peak season may sometimes be as much as 225,000 cubic feet per second. The average annual rate is 85,000 cubic feet per second. Since the flow is a function of the Lake Erie water elevation. This is accomplished by employing a weir – the International Control Dam – with movable gates upstream from the Horseshoe Falls. The falls flow is further halved at night, and, during the low tourist season in the winter, water diversion is regulated by the 1950 Niagara Treaty and is administered by the International Niagara Board of Control. The current rate of erosion is approximately 1 foot per year and it is estimated that 50,000 years from now, even at this reduced rate of erosion, the remaining 20 miles to Lake Erie will have been undermined and the falls will cease to exist. The features that became Niagara Falls were created by the Wisconsin glaciation about 10,000 years ago, the same forces also created the North American Great Lakes and the Niagara River. All were dug by an ice sheet that drove through the area, deepening some river channels to form lakes
15.
Man and the Biosphere Programme
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As of March 2016,669 biosphere reserves in 120 countries, including 16 transboundary sites, have been included in the World Network of Biosphere Reserves. Biosphere reserves are areas comprising terrestrial, marine and coastal ecosystems, each reserve promotes solutions reconciling the conservation of biodiversity with its sustainable use. Biosphere reserves are nominated by governments and remain under the sovereign jurisdiction of the states where they are located. Their status is internationally recognized. The buffer zone surrounds or adjoins the core areas, and is used for activities compatible with sound ecological practices that can reinforce scientific research, monitoring, training and education. The transition area is the part of the reserve where the greatest activity is allowed, fostering economic, participating countries establish MAB National Committees that ensure maximum national participation in the international programme, defining and implementing each country’s activities. MAB currently operates through 158 National Committees established among the 195 Members States, the agenda of the MAB Programme is defined by its main governing body, the International Coordinating Council. The MAB Council consists of 34 member states elected by UNESCO’s General Conference, the council elects a chair and five vice-chairpersons from each of UNESCO’s geopolitical regions, one of which functions as a rapporteur. Its staff members draw on expertise in many and varied disciplines, the programme can grant seed funding to assist countries in developing projects and/or to secure appropriate partnership contributions. The latest World Congress of Biosphere Reserves took place in Lima, Peru and this will be the 4th World Congress of Biosphere Reserves and it shall develop a new vision for the decade 2016–2025. The World Network of Biosphere Reserves is supported by different regional, sub-regional or thematic networks and these are as follows, The African Biosphere Reserves Network was created in 1996 and comprises 33 African countries. The ArabMAB Network was officially launched in 1997 and represents 18 Arab countries, the East Asian Biosphere Reserve Network was launched in 1994. Today, it consists of China, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Japan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, the Republic of Korea, euroMAB is the network of biosphere reserves in Europe and North America. Created in 1987, it is the largest MAB Regional Network with 53 countries, the Ibero-American MAB Network was created in 1992. It comprises 22 countries from Latin American and the Caribbean, Spain, the Pacific Man and the Biosphere Network was created in 2006 and comprises the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Tonga. The South and Central Asia MAB Network was created in 2002 and comprises Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, the Southeast Asian Biosphere Reserve Network was created in 1998. Today, it comprises Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, the East Atlantic Biosphere Reserve Network was created in 1994. It comprises the Canary Islands, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Madeira and Azores, Mauritania, Morocco, Sao Tomé and Principe, the World Network of Island and Coastal Biosphere Reserves was established in 2012 and comprises 22 countries. Agenda 21 Searchable list of UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves Frequently Asked Questions on Biosphere Reserve A-Z of Areas of Biodiverity Importance, Biosphere Reserves
16.
Silurian
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The Silurian is a geologic period and system spanning 24.6 million years from the end of the Ordovician Period, at 443.8 million years ago, to the beginning of the Devonian Period,419.2 Mya. As with other periods, the rock beds that define the periods start and end are well identified. The base of the Silurian is set at a major Ordovician-Silurian extinction event when 60% of marine species were wiped out, a significant evolutionary milestone during the Silurian was the diversification of jawed and bony fish. However, terrestrial life would not greatly diversify and affect the landscape until the Devonian, the Silurian system was first identified by British geologist Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, who was examining fossil-bearing sedimentary rock strata in south Wales in the early 1830s. He named the sequences for a Celtic tribe of Wales, the Silures, inspired by his friend Adam Sedgwick and this naming does not indicate any correlation between the occurrence of the Silurian rocks and the land inhabited by the Silures. As it was first identified, the Silurian series when traced farther afield quickly came to overlap Sedgwicks Cambrian sequence, however, charles Lapworth resolved the conflict by defining a new Ordovician system including the contested beds. An early alternative name for the Silurian was Gotlandian after the strata of the Baltic island of Gotland, the French geologist Joachim Barrande, building on Murchisons work, used the term Silurian in a more comprehensive sense than was justified by subsequent knowledge. He divided the Silurian rocks of Bohemia into eight stages and his interpretation was questioned in 1854 by Edward Forbes, and the later stages of Barrande, F, G and H, have since been shown to be Devonian. Despite these modifications in the groupings of the strata, it is recognized that Barrande established Bohemia as a classic ground for the study of the earliest fossils. The epoch is named for the town of Llandovery in Carmarthenshire, the Wenlock, which lasted from 433.4 ±1.5 to 427.4 ±2.8 mya, is subdivided into the Sheinwoodian and Homerian ages. It is named after Wenlock Edge in Shropshire, England, during the Wenlock, the oldest known tracheophytes of the genus Cooksonia, appear. The first terrestrial animals also appear in the Wenlock, represented by air-breathing millipedes from Scotland. The Ludlow, lasting from 427.4 ±1.5 to 423 ±2.8 mya, comprises the Gorstian stage, lasting until 425.6 million years ago, and it is named for the town of Ludlow in Shropshire, England. The Pridoli, lasting from 423 ±1.5 to 419.2 ±2.8 mya, is the final and it is named after one locality at the Homolka a Přídolí nature reserve near the Prague suburb Slivenec in the Czech Republic. Přídolí is the old name of a field area. The high sea levels of the Silurian and the flat land resulted in a number of island chains. The southern continents remained united during this period, the melting of icecaps and glaciers contributed to a rise in sea level, recognizable from the fact that Silurian sediments overlie eroded Ordovician sediments, forming an unconformity. The continents of Avalonia, Baltica, and Laurentia drifted together near the equator and this event is the Caledonian orogeny, a spate of mountain building that stretched from New York State through conjoined Europe and Greenland to Norway
17.
Onondaga Limestone
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From Fort Erie, Ontario it runs to Windsor just north of the Lake Erie shoreline, becoming less prominent as one travels westward. It is not distinct west of Windsor, but begins to become noticeable as a hill just northwest of Leamington. A few other breaches occur in valleys, which likely once had waterfalls. Such breaches occur at the Tully valley, the Genesee River valley near Avon, New York, and at Port Colborne, Ontario, on the western side of the fault in Genesee County the escarpment achieves its greatest prominence. The New York State Thruway has a cut at Batavia which clearly shows the fault and is a popular point for geology class field trips. The fault, which runs from Attica, New York northward to Lake Ontario, is still active and periodically causes minor earthquakes in the area. The Onondaga Formation also can be found in areas where rocks of the same age outcrop, such as in western Pennsylvania and Michigan. The Onondaga Escarpment contains significant outcrops of flint which bears the escarpments name and this variety of chert was of great importance to First Nations peoples throughout Southern Ontario, who used it to make stone tools such as projectile points and hide scrapers. The Onondaga Formation is composed of four main subunits, relative age dating of the Onondaga places its formation in the Eifelian to Givetian stage of the Middle Devonian period, or 391.9 to 383.7 Ma. Radiometric dating of a sample from the bentonite at the top of the Onondaga placed it at 390 ±0.5 Ma, Onondaga limestone was quarried as dimension stone for construction of limestone buildings. The following buildings contain structural Onondaga limestone, Corpus Christi R. C
18.
Western New York
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Western New York is the westernmost region of the state of New York. It includes the cities of Buffalo, Rochester, Niagara Falls, the suburbs, as well as the outlying rural areas of the Great Lakes lowlands, the Genesee Valley. One writer suggests Western New Yorks eastern border to be the Preemption Line, Western New York can also be defined as the area of the Holland Purchase and the Phelps and Gorham Purchase. The area is served by Buffalo and Rochester media markets. Western New York is in some contexts considered a sub-region of Upstate New York, Western New York has four sub-regions. One sub-region is the Greater Niagara Region, comprising Niagara, Erie, the second sub-region is the Genesee Region which derives its name from the Genesee River. This “sub-region” which includes Monroe, Livingston, Wayne, Orleans, Ontario and these two sub-regions share Genesee County. The mountainous southern regions of Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, and Allegany counties make up a third sub-region known as Chautauqua–Allegheny Region and this portion of Western New York takes up most of the western New York counties along the New York–Pennsylvania border. Finally the fourth region is the western Finger Lakes Region which is Seneca, Steuben, Schuyler, a large portion of the Finger Lakes Region is not part of Western New York, but rather Central New York. However, the U. S. Census Bureau has classified the Buffalo, if it were counted as a state, the population of Western New York would rank as the 37th most populated state in the United States. Western New York has a continental climate heavily influenced by both Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. Winters are long and cold, often lasting from around mid-November to early April, there are often snows before and after that period, as well. Western New York is known for its lake effect snows, which can result in highly localized, sometimes intense, Lake effect storms are a result of cold air blowing over warm lake waters. Lake effect snows are usually most active between November and February and typically diminish when Lake Erie freezes over, generally, the heaviest amount of snow in Western New York during the winter falls near the southern end of Erie County. Spring and fall in Western New York are usually short and changeable, lost in its famed winters, Western New York summers are among the sunniest in the Northeast and are generally very pleasant. Thanks in part to breezes blowing over Lakes Erie and Ontario, most of Western New York enjoy generally cooler, Interstate System Interstate 90, also known as the New York State Thruway. Interstate 86 in the Southern Tier, Interstate 190 in the Buffalo-Niagara Falls Metropolitan area. Interstate 290 in the Buffalo-Niagara Falls Metropolitan area, Interstate 390 in the Genesee Valley region
19.
Southern Ontario
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Southern Ontario is a primary region of the province of Ontario, Canada, the other primary region being Northern Ontario. It is the most densely populated and southernmost region in Canada, situated south of Algonquin Park, it covers between 14 and 15% of the province, depending on the inclusion of the Parry Sound and Muskoka districts. The region is home to one-third of Canadas population, Southern Ontario differs greatly from Northern Ontario, in that it has a larger population, different climate, and different culture than its northern counterpart. It is broken into smaller subregions, including Central Ontario, Eastern Ontario, Southwestern Ontario, Southern Ontario is part of the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor, which extends northeast into Quebec. Southern Ontario can be distinguished from Northern Ontario because it is far more densely populated and contains the majority of the cities, major roads. Northern Ontario, in contrast, contains natural resources and remote wilderness. Although it has no coastline, the region has an abundance of freshwater coastlines on three Great Lakes, as well as smaller lakes such as Lake Simcoe and Lake St. Clair. It is a vineyard region and producer of Canadian wines. Territorial Southern Ontario was explored and colonized by the French in the 17th century, Southern Ontario was where a large portion of the battles took place during the War of 1812, and was a major destination for escaping slaves using the underground railroad. Following the enactment of Prohibition in the United States in 1919, Southern Ontario is home to over 94%, or 12.1 million, of Ontarios total population of 12.9 million people, compared to approximately 750,000 in Northern Ontario. For thousands of years, Ontario has been home to aboriginal communities. Over 200,000 aboriginal Canadians live in Southern Ontario today, Southern Ontario was colonized by the French and the British. Since the late 20th century, many immigrants have come from Asia, the region is one of the top destinations for immigrants worldwide, particularly the Greater Toronto Area. The area has a manufacturing sector. Since the mid-2000s, Ontario has produced more vehicles per year than the state of Michigan, in a cross-border definition, a swath of Southern Ontario could be considered a part of the Rust Belt. Factory closings because of restructuring, globalization have for the past few decades taken their toll. This is most evident in the southern tier cities which have large automobile or associated industrial bases, such as Windsor, London, St. Thomas. Still affected by these factors but to an extent is Hamilton, the centre of steel production, and Sarnia
20.
Great Lakes Basin
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The basin is home to 33 million people. The basin hosts eight of Canadas 20 largest cities, including Toronto, Hamilton, London, St. Catharines, Niagara, Oshawa, Windsor, and Barrie. The United States cities of Duluth, Milwaukee, Chicago, Gary, Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland, Erie, Buffalo, each individual lake forms a sub-basin, such as the Lake Erie Basin, and each sub-basin consists of multiple watersheds, such as Pennsylvanias Lake Erie Watershed. The overall Great Lakes Basin is monitored by the binational Great Lakes Commission, Quebec, a portion of whose lands drain into the St. Lawrence Basin, is a signatory to the Great Lakes Charter of 1985, the 2001 Charter Annex, and the Agreements of 2005. While not a part of the Great Lakes Basin, Quebecs position along the Saint Lawrence Seaway makes it a partner in water management with Ontario. There are 38 nuclear power plants in the Great Lakes Basin, the influence of these power plants and the waste they produce must be combined to ascertain the impact on the Great Lakes Basin. Great Lakes Commission Hydrographic Regions of Quebec
21.
Watertown (city), New York
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Watertown is a city in the state of New York and the county seat of Jefferson County. It is situated approximately 20 miles south of the Thousand Islands, as of the 2010 census, it had a population of 27,023, an increase of 1. 2% since 2000. The U. S. Army post Fort Drum is near the city, named after the many falls located on the Black River, the city developed early in the 19th century as a manufacturing center. From years of generating wealth, in the early 20th century the city was said to have more millionaires per capita than any other city in the nation. Geographically, Watertown is located in the part of Jefferson County. It lies 72 miles northeast of Syracuse, New York and 31 miles south of the Ontario border, the city is served by Watertown International Airport. The city claims to be the birthplace of the five and dime store and the safety pin and it manufactured the first portable steam engine. It has the longest continually operating county fair in the United States and holds the Red and Black football franchise and these pioneers chose the area due to the Black River. The pioneers vision was for a center that would draw power from the Black River. All the land was rough and unclear, the western end of the town was 12 to 15 feet higher than the eastern end, with a large depression in the middle. A small stream also passed through the town, within a few years, the center of town was cleared for the ambitious Public Square. Together with the 19th century structures that created a streetscape around it, as industry and businesses flourished, residents built substantial retail buildings, churches and private residences. The Paddock Arcade, built in 1850 according to European and US models, is the oldest continuously operating enclosed mall in the United States and it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, as are several significant churches and private mansions. The drop in the Black River at Watertowns location provided abundant water power for early industry, by the mid-19th century, entrepreneurs had built paper mills and major industries, including the first portable steam engine in 1847. In 1851, the city was joined to the state by the railroad, other mills rapidly joined the business base and generated revenue to support early public works projects like the water system and illuminating gas works in 1853, and a telephone system in 1879. Watertown claims that Rodman native Frank W. Woolworth conceived the idea of his mercantile chain while working there in 1878, Woolworth, employed as a clerk in Moores Store, set up a successful clearance display of low-priced items. This led to his idea of a store specializing in fixed-price, Woolworth left Watertown and opened his first store in Utica, New York in 1879. Among the many manufacturing businesses was the Davis Sewing Machine Company and it was predecessor to George P. Huffmans Huffy Corporation, now an American maker of bicycles and other sporting goods
22.
Lake Ontario
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Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. Ontario, Canadas most populous province, was named for the lake, in the Wyandot language, ontarío means “Lake of Shining Waters”. Its primary inlet is the Niagara River from Lake Erie, the last in the Great Lakes chain, Lake Ontario serves as the outlet to the Atlantic Ocean via the St. Lawrence River. Lake Ontario is the easternmost of the Great Lakes and the smallest in surface area and it is the 14th largest lake in the world. When its islands are included, the lake has a shoreline that is 712 miles long. As the last lake in the Great Lakes hydrologic chain, Lake Ontario has the lowest mean elevation of the lakes at 243 feet above sea level,326 feet lower than its neighbor upstream. Its maximum length is 193 statute miles and its width is 53 statute miles. The lakes average depth is 47 fathoms 1 foot, with a depth of 133 fathoms 4 feet. The lakes primary source is the Niagara River, draining Lake Erie, the drainage basin covers 24,720 square miles. As with all the Great Lakes, water levels both within the year and among years. These water level fluctuations are a part of lake ecology. The lake also has an important freshwater fishery, although it has negatively affected by factors including over-fishing, water pollution. Baymouth bars built by prevailing winds and currents have created a significant number of lagoons and sheltered harbors, mostly near Prince Edward County, Ontario, perhaps the best-known example is Toronto Bay, chosen as the site of the Upper Canada capital for its strategic harbour. Other prominent examples include Hamilton Harbour, Irondequoit Bay, Presquile Bay, the bars themselves are the sites of long beaches, such as Sandbanks Provincial Park and Sandy Island Beach State Park. These sand bars are associated with large wetlands, which support large numbers of plant and animal species. Presquile, on the shore of Lake Ontario, is particularly significant in this regard. The lake basin was carved out of soft, weak Silurian-age rocks by the Wisconsin ice sheet during the last ice age, the action of the ice occurred along the pre-glacial Ontarian River valley which had approximately the same orientation as todays basin. As the ice sheet retreated toward the north, it still dammed the St. Lawrence valley outlet and this stage is known as Lake Iroquois
23.
Lake Huron
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Lake Huron is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is shared on the north and east by the Canadian province of Ontario and on the south, the name of the lake is derived from early French explorers who named it for the Huron people inhabiting the region. The Huronian glaciation was named due to evidence collected from Lake Huron region, the northern parts of the lake include the North Channel and Georgian Bay. Across the lake to the southwest is Saginaw Bay, the main inlet is the St. Marys River and the main outlet is the St. Clair. By volume however, Lake Huron is only the third largest of the Great Lakes, being surpassed by Lake Michigan, when measured at the low water datum, the lake contains a volume of 850 cubic miles and a shoreline length of 3,827 mi. The surface of Lake Huron is 577 feet above sea level, the lakes average depth is 32 fathoms 3 feet, while the maximum depth is 125 fathoms. It has a length of 206 statute miles and a greatest breadth of 183 statute miles. Cities with over 10,000 people on Lake Huron include Sarnia, the largest city on Lake Huron, and Saugeen Shores in Canada and Bay City, Port Huron, a large bay that protrudes northeast from Lake Huron into Ontario, Canada, is called Georgian Bay. A notable feature of the lake is Manitoulin Island, which separates the North Channel and it is the worlds largest freshwater island. Major centres on Georgian Bay include Owen Sound, Wasaga Beach, Midland, Penetanguishene, Port Severn, a smaller bay that protrudes southwest from Lake Huron into Michigan is called Saginaw Bay. Historic High Water The lake fluctuates from month to month with the highest lake levels in October and November, the normal high-water mark is 2.00 feet above datum. In the summer of 1986, Lakes Michigan and Huron reached their highest level at 5.92 feet above datum, the high-water records began in February 1986 and lasted through the year, ending with January 1987. Water levels ranged from 3.67 to 5.92 feet above Chart Datum, historic Low Water Lake levels tend to be the lowest in winter. The normal low-water mark is 1.00 foot below datum, in the winter of 1964, Lakes Michigan and Huron reached their lowest level at 1.38 feet below datum. As with the records, monthly low-water records were set each month from February 1964 through January 1965. During this twelve-month period, water levels ranged from 1.38 to 0.71 feet below Chart Datum, the Great Lakes Circle Tour is a designated scenic road system connecting all the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River. Lake Huron has the largest shore line length of any of the Great Lakes, Lake Huron is separated from Lake Michigan, which lies at the same level, by the 5-mile-wide, 20-fathom-deep Straits of Mackinac, making them hydrologically the same body of water. Aggregated, Lake Huron-Michigan, at 45,300 square miles, is technically the worlds largest freshwater lake, when counted separately, Lake Superior is 8,700 square miles larger than Huron and higher
24.
Lake Michigan
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Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one located entirely within the United States. The other four Great Lakes are shared by the U. S. and it is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the third-largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. Lake Michigan is shared, from west to east, by the U. S. states of Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, ports along its shores include Chicago, Milwaukee, Green Bay, Wisconsin, Gary, Indiana, and Benton Harbor, Michigan. The word Michigan originally referred to the lake itself, and is believed to come from the Ojibwa word mishigami meaning great water, some of the earliest human inhabitants of the Lake Michigan region were the Hopewell Indians. Their culture declined after 800 AD, and for the few hundred years. The French explorer Jean Nicolet is believed to have been the first European to reach Lake Michigan, in the earliest European maps of the region, the name of Lake Illinois has been found in addition to that of Michigan, named for the Illinois Confederation of tribes. Lake Michigan is joined via the narrow, open-water Straits of Mackinac with Lake Huron, the Straits of Mackinac were an important Native American and fur trade route. The eastern end of the Straits was controlled by Fort Mackinac on Mackinac Island, French coureurs des bois and voyageurs established small ports and trading communities, such as Green Bay, on the lake during the late 17th and early 18th centuries. In the 19th century, Lake Michigan played a role in the development of Chicago. The first person to reach the bottom of Lake Michigan was J. Val Klump. Klump reached the bottom via submersible as part of a 1985 research expedition, in 2007, a row of stones paralleling an ancient shoreline was discovered by Mark Holley, professor of underwater archeology at Northwestern Michigan College. This formation lies 40 feet below the surface of the lake, One of the stones is said to have a carving resembling a mastodon. So far the formation has not been authenticated, Lake Michigan is the only one of the Great Lakes wholly within the borders of the United States, the others are shared with Canada. It lies in the known as the American Midwest. Lake Michigan has an area of 22,404 sq. mi, making it the largest lake entirely within one country by surface area. It is the half of Lake Michigan–Huron, which is the largest body of fresh water in the world. It is 307 miles long by 118 miles wide with a shoreline 1,640 miles long, the lakes average depth is 46 fathoms 3 feet, while its greatest depth is 153 fathoms 5 feet. It contains a volume of 1,180 cubic miles of water, Green Bay in the northwest is its largest bay
25.
Rochester, New York
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Rochester is a city on the southern shore of Lake Ontario in the western portion of the U. S. state of New York, and the seat of Monroe County. The citys population was the third largest — after New York City. This area, which is part of the Western New York region, had a population of 1,079,671 at the time of the 2010 Census, a Census estimate of July 1,2012, raised that number to 1,082,284. Rochester was one of Americas first boomtowns, and rose to prominence as the site of many mills along the Genesee River. Several of the universities have renowned research programs. In addition, Rochester is the site of important inventions and innovations in consumer products. Until 2010, the Rochester metropolitan area was the second-largest regional economy in New York State, internal Revenue Service, after the New York City metropolitan area. Rochesters GMP has since ranked just below that of Buffalo, New York, the 25th edition of the Places Rated Almanac rated Rochester as the most livable city in 2007, among 379 U. S. metropolitan areas. In 2010 Forbes rated Rochester as the third-best place to raise a family, in 2012 Kiplinger rated Rochester as the fifth-best city for families, citing low cost of living, top public schools, and a low jobless rate. Of the 19 places in the United States named Rochester at least eight were named directly after Rochester, New York, having been founded or settled by former residents. These include Rochester, Indiana, Rochester, Texas, Rochester, Iowa, Rochester, Kentucky, Rochester, Michigan, Rochester, Minnesota, Rochester, Nevada, and Rochester, Ohio. The Seneca tribe of Native Americans lived in and around Rochester until they lost their claim to most of land in the Treaty of Big Tree in 1797. Settlement before the Seneca tribe is unknown, development of modern Rochester followed the American Revolution, and forced cession of their territory by the Iroquois after the defeat of Great Britain. Allied with the British, four major Iroquois tribes were forced from New York. As a reward for their loyalty to the British Crown, they were given a land grant on the Grand River in Canada. Rochester was founded shortly after the American Revolution by a wave of English-Puritan descended immigrants from New England who were looking for new agricultural land and they would be the dominant cultural group in Rochester for over a century. They chose the site because its three cataracts on the Genesee offered great potential for water power, beginning in 1811, and with a population of 15, the three founders surveyed the land and laid out streets and tracts. In 1817, the Brown brothers and other landowners joined their lands with the Hundred Acre Tract to form the village of Rochesterville, by 1821, Rochesterville was the seat of Monroe County
26.
Genesee River
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The Genesee River is a tributary of Lake Ontario flowing northward through the Twin Tiers of Pennsylvania and New York in the United States. The river provided the power for the Rochester areas 19th century mills. It begins in exposing the Allegheny Plateaus characteristic conglomerates, sandstones and shales in the columns of the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian subperiods. With cuttings in the record showing so many early ages. The most recent glacier that left evidence here was about 100,000 years ago, about 12,000 years ago, the area underwent massive changes, which included the rerouting of the Genesee and other water bodies. Nowadays only a creek flows in what is left of this large paleogeologic valley. The area of the river was also affected. Since the earth rebounded from the melting glaciers more rapidly in Canada than in New York, during this time, the original outlet of the Genesee River, Irondequoit Bay, was flooded out, creating the current bay. As these waters later retreated, glacial debris caused the river to be rerouted to the west along its current path, the Seneca nation traditionally lived between the Genesee River and Canandaigua Lake. The region was surveyed by Thomas Davies in 1766, the High Falls was then also known as the Great Seneca Falls, and the Genesee river was also spelled Zinochsaa by early writers. If not for hydropower, the mills, clothing mills, and tool fabricators would not have located in Rochester. A few hundred feet north of the center of the village of Rochester, the Erie Canal crossed the Genesee River via an 1823 stone aqueduct, from 1801 to 1846 the entire region was sold to individual owners from the Holland Land office in Batavia, New York. The river demarcates the Genesee Country of New York to the west and the Finger Lakes geographic region, on Friday, November 13,1829, the daredevil Sam Patch jumped to his death before 8,000 spectators at the Upper Falls in Rochester. In 1836 the Genesee Valley Canal was begun to build a new canal from the Erie Canal near Rochester, up the Genesee Valley, construction of new sections extended upriver until 1880. Although an important commercial route, the canal was plagued by frequent flood damage, the most difficult section to build was the bypass around the gorge and falls at present day Letchworth Park. The canal followed the old Native American portage route, which necessitated many locks and these old locks can still be seen near Nunda. The project was abandoned and the right of way was sold in 1880, the property became the roadbed for the Genesee Valley Canal Railroad, which eventually merged with the Pennsylvania Railroad. Much of the canal and railroad right-of-way is open to the today as the Genesee Valley Greenway
27.
Niagara Peninsula
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The Niagara Peninsula is the portion of Southern Ontario, Canada, lying between the south shore of Lake Ontario and the north shore of Lake Erie. Technically an isthmus rather than a peninsula, it stretches from the Niagara River in the east to Hamilton, Ontario, the population of the peninsula is roughly 1,000,000 people. The region directly across the Niagara River and Lake Erie in New York State is known as the Niagara Frontier, the broader Buffalo Niagara Region includes the Niagara Peninsula, the Niagara Frontier, and the city of Buffalo, New York. The greater part of the peninsula is incorporated as the Regional Municipality of Niagara, cities in the region include St. Catharines, Niagara Falls, Thorold, Port Colborne and Welland. Towns include Niagara-on-the-Lake, Lincoln, Pelham, Grimsby and Fort Erie, as well as the townships Wainfleet, the remainder of the peninsula encompasses parts of the City of Hamilton and Haldimand County. The Neutrals were wiped out by the Iroquois c.1650 as the sought to expand their fur-trapping territory as part of the Beaver Wars. The Niagara Peninsula then became one of the first areas settled in Upper Canada by British Loyalists in the late 18th century, the capital of the new colony was established with the founding of Niagara-on-the-Lake, then called Newark. While agriculture – especially fruit farming along the shore of Lake Ontario – remains important to this day, a succession of canals were built to connect the markets and mineral resources of the upper Great Lakes with the St. Lawrence Seaway. General Motors built a presence in St. Catharines with auto plants and a foundry. Dry docks were built at Port Weller on Lake Ontario. Heavy industry has been diminishing for the past decade or more due to the slow-down of the North American automotive manufacturers. Because of this, local municipalities have been forced to look at new, hospitality and tourism has attracted numerous visitors to the area for more than 150 years primarily thanks to Niagara Falls. New development beginning during the mid-1990s has spun off an upscale hospitality boom throughout the whole Niagara Peninsula, today, more than 10 million guests visit the peninsula annually to see the beauty of the Falls and the Niagara Parks. Ecotourism has become popular with more people finding and exploring out of the way places such as the Niagara Escarpment. Another area of tourism growth in the past thirty years has been the expansion of the grape. The Niagara Peninsula is one of four recognized viticultural areas by the VQA in the Ontario wine industry, the many European-style wineries and vineyards have played a major role in attracting visitors seeking a unique cultural experience. Most of the local wineries offer tours of their facilities with a few offering onsite dining featuring unique Canadian cuisine paired with their own VQA vintages. It is common for many of these wineries world-class chefs to use fresh ingredients that are grown or acquired from local farms in season, some wineries also feature live music and theatrical performances in the vineyard during the summer months
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St. Catharines
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St. Catharines is the largest city in Canadas Niagara Region and the sixth largest urban area in Ontario, with 96.13 square kilometres of land and 133,113 residents in 2016. It lies in Southern Ontario,51 kilometres south of Toronto across Lake Ontario and it is the northern entrance of the Welland Canal. Residents of St. Catharines are known as St. Cathariners, St. Catharines carries the official nickname The Garden City due to its 1,000 acres of parks, gardens and trails. St. Catharines is located between the Greater Toronto Area and the Fort Erie – US border, manufacturing is the citys dominant industry, as noted by the heraldic motto, Industry and Liberality. General Motors of Canada, Ltd. the Canadian subsidiary of General Motors, was the citys largest employer, TRW Automotive operates a plant in the city, though in recent years employment there has shifted from heavy industry and manufacturing to services. St. Catharines lies on one of the main telecommunications backbones between Canada and the United States, and as a result a number of call centres operate in the city, the city was first settled by Loyalists in the 1780s. The Crown granted them land in compensation for their services and for losses in the United States, early histories credit Serjeant Jacob Dittrick and Private John Hainer, formerly of Butlers Rangers, as among the first to come to the area. They took their Crown Patents where Dicks Creek and 12 Mile Creek merge, although never documented, some local St. Catharines historians speculate that Dicks Creek was named after Richard Pierpoint, a Black Loyalist and former American slave. Secondary to water routes, native trails provided transportation networks, resulting in the present-day radial road pattern from the City centre, the surrounding land was surveyed and Townships created between 1787 and 1789. He did this from his mill, built on the 12 Mile Creek in Power Glen, after his death in 1786, his holdings were forfeited to merchant Robert Hamilton of Queenston. Hamilton tried to operate for profit the already well-established Murrays Distribution Centre, among other ventures, Hamilton became land wealthy, expropriating lands from subsistence Loyalist settlers who were incapable of settling their debts. Murrays distribution centre, later Hamiltons warehouse, and its location have long been a mystery, Hamilton lacked interest in social development and sold his business to Jesse Thompson before the turn of the 18th century. The small settlement was known as The Twelve and as Murrays District to military and civic officials and this is confirmed in St. Catharines’ first history, written by J. P. Merritt, to be historically accurate the name St. Catharines preceded all of these…. The Merritt family arrived after this time, among the later Loyalists to relocate following the American Revolution and they were from the Carolinas, New York state and New Brunswick. In 1796, Thomas Merritt arrived to build on his relationship with his former Commander and Queens Ranger, John Graves Simcoe, at an unknown early date, an inn was built by Thomas Adams on the east side of what is now Ontario Street. It became a community meeting place, election centre, stagecoach stop, and mail delivery deposit. This was preceded by the church and a log school house completed before 1797 and this was an extension of the old Iroquois Trail and was renamed St. Paul Street by the settlers and descendant by the mid-19th century. Several mills, salt works, numerous outlets, a ship building yard, distillery
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Hamilton, Ontario
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Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Residents of the old city are known as Hamiltonians, since 1981, the metropolitan area has been listed as the ninth largest in Canada and the third largest in Ontario. Hamilton is home to the Royal Botanical Gardens, the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, McMaster University is ranked 4th in Canada and 94th in the world by Times Higher Education Rankings 2015-16 and has a well-known medical school. Possibly because of its environment, numerous TV and film productions have been filmed in Hamilton, regulated by the Hamilton Film. A growing arts and culture community garnered media attention in 2006 when the Globe and Mail published an article called Go West, the article highlighted local art galleries, recording studios and independent film production. In pre-colonial times, the Neutral Indians used much of the land but were driven out by the Five Nations who were allied with the British against the Huron. A member of the Iroquois Confederacy provided the route and name for Mohawk Road, which originally included King Street in the lower city. In 1784, about 10,000 United Empire Loyalists settled in Upper Canada, chiefly in Niagara, around the Bay of Quinte, and along the St. Lawrence River between Lake Ontario and Montreal. They were soon followed by many more Americans, some of not so much ardent loyalists but attracted nonetheless by the availability of inexpensive. At the same time, large numbers of Iroquois loyal to Britain arrived from the United States and were settled on reserves west of Lake Ontario. The town of Hamilton was conceived by George Hamilton, when he purchased farm holdings of James Durand, nathaniel Hughson, a property owner to the north, cooperated with George Hamilton to prepare a proposal for a courthouse and jail on Hamiltons property. Hamilton offered the land to the crown for the future site, Durand was empowered by Hughson and Hamilton to sell property holdings which later became the site of the town. As he had instructed, Durand circulated the offers at York during a session of the Legislative Assembly. Initially, this town was not the most important centre of the Gore District, a permanent jail was not constructed until 1832 when a cut-stone design was completed on one of the two squares created in 1816, Princes Square. Subsequently, the first police board and the limits were defined by statute on February 13,1833. Official City status was achieved on June 9,1846, by an act of Parliament,9 Victoria Chapter 73, the city had several interurban electric street railways and two inclines, all powered by the Cataract Power Co. Though suffering through the Hamilton Street Railway strike of 1906, with industrial businesses expanding, allan Skyway in 1958, and the first Tim Hortons store in 1964. Since then, many of the industries have moved or shut down operations and the economy has shifted more toward the service sector, such as transportation, education
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Dundas, Ontario
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For the county in eastern Ontario see Dundas County, Ontario. For the upper tier county, see United Counties of Stormont, Dundas, Dundas /ˈdʌnˌdæs/ is a formerly independent town and now constituent community in the city of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. It is nicknamed the Valley Town because of its location at the bottom of the Niagara Escarpment on the Western edge of Lake Ontario. The population has been stable for decades at about twenty thousand, notable events are the Buskerfest in early June, and the Dundas Cactus Festival in August. Prior to being called Dundas the town was called Cootes Paradise, Dundas was then incorporated in 1847 as part of Wentworth County. The Great Western Railway put their line through Dundas in 1853 and it was later surpassed as the economic powerhouse of the area by Hamilton, but for decades it led in importance. A number of Ontario cities retain streets named Dundas Street, which serve as evidence of its one-time importance, Dundas was once the terminus of Torontos Dundas Street, one of the earliest routes used by Ontarios first settlers. With the establishment of McMaster University in nearby west Hamilton in 1930, Dundas gradually became a community of the university faculty and students. Dundas has a community of potters and several studio shows/walking tours of the town feature their work each year. The 2001 census population of Dundas was 24,394 and their collections, exhibits, and events showcase how Canadian history and geography has unfolded in the unique Dundas Valley. Several local events take place at the Museum, including art shows, book launches, community celebrations. Dundas is home to the Dundas Valley School of Art, marion Farnan and Emily Dutton established it in 1964, and it became a non-profit corporation three years later. Since 1970, it has located in the former Canada Screw Works building from the 1860s. It began a diploma programme with McMaster University in 1998. The Carnegie Gallery is housed in the 1910 Carnegie library building and it is run by the Dundas Art & Craft Association and hosts art exhibitions, book readings, concerts and a gift shop. Dundas, Ontario is also the title of a song from the album Start Breaking My Heart by the artist Caribou, a native of the town. Dundas sobriquet The Valley Town is used as the title of a song on the album Mountain Meadows by the band Elliott Brood, one of the members, Casey Laforet. The town has produced other independent artists including Junior Boys, Koushik, folk singer Stan Rogers, who died in an airplane crash in 1983, was born in Dundas as well
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Georgian Bay
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Georgian Bay is a large bay of Lake Huron, located entirely within Ontario, Canada. The main body of the bay lies east of the Bruce Peninsula, to its northwest is the North Channel. Georgian Bay is surrounded by the districts of Manitoulin, Sudbury, Parry Sound and Muskoka, as well as the more populous counties of Simcoe, Grey, the Main Channel separates the Bruce Peninsula from Manitoulin Island and connects Georgian Bay to the rest of Lake Huron. The shores and waterways of the Georgian Bay are the domain of the Anishinaabeg First Nations peoples to the north. The bay was thus a major Algonquian-Huron trade route, Samuel de Champlain, the first European to explore and map the area in 1615–1616, called it La Mer douce, also a reference to the bays freshwater. It was named Georgian Bay by Lieutenant Henry Wolsey Bayfield of the Royal Navy in 1822, Georgian Bay is about 190 kilometres long by 80 kilometres wide. It covers approximately 15,000 square kilometres, making it nearly 80% the size of Lake Ontario. If Georgian Bay were considered a lake in its own right, it would be the fourth largest lake located entirely within Canada after Great Bear Lake, Great Slave Lake and Lake Winnipeg. Eastern Georgian Bay is part of the edge of the Canadian Shield, granite bedrock exposed by the glaciers at the end of the last ice age. The granite rock formations and windswept eastern white pine are characteristic of the islands, the rugged beauty of the area inspired landscapes by artists of the Group of Seven. The western part of the bay, from Collingwood north, and including Manitoulin, Drummond, Cockburn and St. Joseph islands, there are tens of thousands of islands in Georgian Bay. Most of these islands are along the east side of the bay and are known as the Thirty Thousand Islands. Manitoulin Island, lying along the side of the bay, is the worlds largest island in a freshwater lake. The Trent–Severn Waterway connects Georgian Bay to Lake Ontario, running from Port Severn in the corner of Georgian Bay through Lake Simcoe into Lake Ontario near Trenton. Further north, Lake Nipissing drains into Georgian Bay through the French River, in October 2004, the Georgian Bay Littoral was declared a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO. Archeological records reveal an Aboriginal presence in the regions of the Canadian Shield dating from 11,000 years ago. Evidence of later Paleo-Indian settlements have found on Manitoulin Island. At the time of European contact, the Ojibwe and Ottawa First Nations, the Huron and Tionontati inhabited the lands along the southern coast, having migrated from the northern shores of Lake Ontario
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Bruce Peninsula
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The Bruce Peninsula is a peninsula in Ontario, Canada, that lies between Georgian Bay and the main basin of Lake Huron. The Bruce Peninsula contains part of the formation known as the Niagara Escarpment. From an administrative standpoint, the Bruce Peninsula is part of Bruce County, named after James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin, Governor General of the Province of Canada. A popular tourist destination for camping, hiking and fishing, the area has two parks, more than half a dozen nature reserves, and the Bruce Peninsula Bird Observatory. The Bruce Trail runs through the region to its terminus in the town of Tobermory. The Bruce Peninsula is a key area for plant and animal wildlife. An important flyway for migrating birds, the peninsula is habitat to a variety of animals, including bear, massasauga rattlesnake. Up until the mid-19th century, the known as the Bruce Peninsula was territory controlled by the Saugeen Ojibway Nations. The nations included the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation and Saugeen First Nation, oral history from Saugeen and Nawash suggests their ancestors have been here as early as 7500 years ago. The area of Hope Bay is known to natives as Nochemoweniing, in 1854, the Saugeen Ojibway agreed to sign another treaty – this time for the peninsula itself. The claim seeks the return of lands held by the Crown. European settlement began on the peninsula in the century, despite its poor potential for agricultural development. Attracted by the fisheries and lush forest, settlers found the land known then as the “Indian or Saugeen Peninsula” to be irresistible. In 1881 settlers built the first sawmill on the peninsula in Tobermory, in less than 20 years most of the valuable timber was gone and timber industry jobs declined. Fuelled by the left behind by the rapid logging and land clearances. By the mid-1920s formerly abundant forests of the peninsula were nearly barren, when the lamprey eel was accidentally introduced to the Great Lakes in 1932, the devastation on the fish supply made the peninsula a less attractive place to live. Many left when fish stocks were depleted, the peninsula underwent a steady decline in population until the 1970s. In the late 20th century, the peninsula started to attract a new kind of resident, today seasonal residents out-number permanent residents
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Manitoulin Island
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Manitoulin Island /ˌmænᵻˈtuːlᵻn/ is a Canadian lake island in Lake Huron, in the province of Ontario. It is the largest freshwater island in the world. The current name of the island is the English version, via French, of the historic Odawa name Manidoowaaling and it was named for an underwater cave where a powerful spirit was said to live. By the 19th century the Odawa l was pronounced as n, the same word with a newer pronunciation is used for the town Manitowaning, which is located on Manitoulin Island near the underwater cave where legend has it that the spirit dwells. The modern Odawa name for Manitoulin Island is Mnidoo Mnis, Manitoulin Island contains a number of lakes of its own. In order of size, its three most prominent lakes are Lake Manitou, Lake Kagawong and Lake Mindemoya, each of these three lakes in turn have islands within them, the largest of these being Lake Mindemoyas 82-acre Treasure Island, located in the centre of Manitoulin. The island is the site of the office of the Sheshegwaning First Nations band government. The island has an area of 2,766 km2, making it the 172nd largest island in the world, the island separates the larger part of Lake Huron to its south and west from Georgian Bay to its east and the North Channel to the north. Manitoulin Island itself has 108 freshwater lakes, some of which have their own islands, in turn several of these islands within islands have their own ponds. Lake Manitou, at 104 km2, is the largest lake in an island in the world. Motors are prohibited on boats on Nameless Lake, the island also has four major rivers, the Kagawong, Manitou River, Blue Jay Creek in Michaels Bay and Mindemoya rivers, which provide spawning grounds for salmon and trout. The Manitoulin Streams Improvement Association was formed in 2000 and incorporated in 2007, the organization rehabilitates streams, rivers and creeks on Manitoulin Island to improve water quality and the fisheries resource. The Manitoulin Streams Improvement Association has conducted enhancement strategies for the Manitou River, the association has rehabilitated 17 major sites on the Manitou River and three major sites on Blue Jay Creek, it has completed work on Bass Lake Creek and Nortons Creek. The organization plans to work on the Mindemoya River in 2010. The island consists mainly of dolomite as it is a continuation of the Bruce Peninsula and this geological rock formation runs south into Niagara Falls and continues into New York. The Cup and Saucer Trail, which climbs the escarpment, provides a spectacular lookout over the island, the island, along with several smaller neighbouring islands, constitutes the Manitoulin District census division of Ontario. Year-round motor-vehicle access to the island is available via the one-lane Little Current Swing Bridge, from late May to early October, a daily passenger-vehicle ferry, the MS Chi-Cheemaun, travels between Tobermory on the tip of the Bruce Peninsula and South Baymouth. Winter ice prevents ferry service during that season, Manitoulin Islands soil is relatively alkaline, which precludes the growth of common Northern Ontario flora such as blueberries, but allows for the islands trademark hawberries
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Upper Peninsula of Michigan
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The Upper Peninsula is the northern of the two major peninsulas that make up the U. S. state of Michigan. It may also be referred to as the UP or Upper Michigan, the peninsula is bounded on the north by Lake Superior, on the east by the St. Marys River, on the southeast by Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, and on the southwest by Wisconsin. The Upper Peninsula contains 29% of the area of Michigan. Residents are frequently called Yoopers and have a regional identity. Large numbers of French Canadian, Finnish, Swedish, Cornish, the peninsula includes the only counties in the United States where a plurality of residents claim Finnish ancestry. Ordered by size, the peninsulas largest cities are Marquette, Sault Ste, Marie, Escanaba, Menominee, Houghton, and Iron Mountain. The land and climate are not very suitable for agriculture because of the harsh winters. The economy has been based on logging, mining, and tourism, most mines have closed since the golden age from 1890 to 1920. The land is forested and logging remains a major industry. The first known inhabitants of the Upper Peninsula were tribes speaking Algonquian languages and they arrived roughly around A. D.800 and subsisted chiefly from fishing. Early tribes included the Menominee, Nocquet, and the Mishinimaki, Étienne Brûlé of France was probably the first European to visit the peninsula, crossing the St. Marys River around 1620 in search of a route to the Far East. French colonists laid claim to the land in the 17th century, establishing missions, following the end of the French and Indian War in 1763, the territory was ceded to Great Britain. Sault Ste Marie, Michigan is the oldest European settlement in Michigan, American Indian tribes formerly allied with the French were dissatisfied with the British occupation, which brought new territorial policies. Whereas the French cultivated alliances among the Indians, the British postwar approach was to treat the tribes as conquered peoples, in 1763, tribes united in Pontiacs Rebellion to try to drive the British from the area. In 1764, they began negotiations with the British which resulted in temporary peace, although the Upper Peninsula nominally became United States territory with the 1783 Treaty of Paris, the British did not give up control until 1797 under terms of the Jay Treaty. As an American territory, the Upper Peninsula was still dominated by the fur trade, john Jacob Astor founded the American Fur Company on Mackinac Island in 1808, however, the industry began to decline in the 1830s as beaver and other game were overhunted. When the Michigan Territory was first established in 1805, it included only the Lower Peninsula, in 1819, the territory was expanded to include the remainder of the Upper Peninsula, all of Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota. When Michigan was preparing for statehood in the 1830s, the boundaries proposed corresponded to the territorial boundaries
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Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan
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Marie /ˌsuː seɪnt məˈriː/ is a city in, and the county seat of, Chippewa County in the U. S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the end of Michigans Upper Peninsula, on the Canada–US border. Marie, Ontario, by the St. Marys River, the city is relatively isolated from other communities in Michigan and is 346 miles from Detroit. The population was 14,144 at the 2010 census, making it the second most populous city in the Upper Peninsula, by contrast, the Canadian Sault Ste. Marie is much larger, with more than 75,000 residents, based on more extensive industry developed in the 20th century and an economy with closer connections to other communities. Marie had been settled by Native Americans more than 12,000 years ago and was a crossroads of fishing and trading of tribes around the Great Lakes, French colonists later established a fur trading post, which attracted trappers and Native Americans on a seasonal basis. Both Métis men and women were active in the trade and among the elite in the community, a fur-trading settlement quickly grew at the crossroads that straddled the banks of the river. It was the center of a route of 3,000 miles that extended from Montreal to the Sault. The settlement was a community under French colonial and later British colonial rule until 1817. The American and Canadian communities of Sault Ste, Marie were each incorporated as independent municipalities toward the end of the nineteenth century. Sault Sainte-Marie in French means the Rapids of Saint Mary, the Saint Marys River runs from Lake Superior to Lake Huron, what are now the twin border cities are located on either side. No hyphens are used in the English spelling, which is identical to the French. Anglophones say /ˌsuː seɪnt məˈriː/ and Francophones say, in French, the name can be written Sault-Sainte-Marie. On both sides of the border, the towns and the vicinity are called The Sault or The Soo. The two cities are joined by the International Bridge, which connects Interstate 75 in Sault Ste, Marie, Michigan, and Huron Street in Sault Ste. Shipping traffic in the Great Lakes system bypasses the rapids via the American Soo Locks, smaller recreational and tour boats use the Canadian Sault Ste. The citys downtown was developed on an island, with the locks to the north, Marie Power Canal to the south. People come from around the world to view shipping traffic pass through the locks, the largest ships are 1,000 feet long by 105 feet wide
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Door Peninsula
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The Door Peninsula is a peninsula in eastern Wisconsin, separating the southern part of the Green Bay from Lake Michigan. The peninsula begins in northern Brown and Kewaunee counties and proceeds northeast to include all of Door County and it is the western portion of the Niagara Escarpment. Well known for its cherry and apple orchards, the Door Peninsula is a tourism destination. With the 1882 completion of the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal, the half of the peninsula became an island. Limestone outcroppings of the Niagara Escarpment are visible on both shores of the peninsula, but are larger and more prominent on the Green Bay side as seen at the Bayshore Blufflands, progressions of dunes have created much of the rest of the shoreline, especially on the easterly side. Flora along the shore provides clear evidence of plant succession, the middle of the peninsula is mostly flat, cultivated land. Beyond the northern tip of the peninsula are a succession of islands, the partially submerged ridge extends farther north, becoming the Garden Peninsula in Upper Michigan. Archaeological evidence shows habitation of the peninsula and its islands by several different Native American groups, nicolet is remembered in Wisconsin lore for having mistaken the Ho-Chunk Indians for Asians and celebrating, believing he had reached the Far East. Nicolet had heard long before coming that the people living along these shores were called Winnebago and, perhaps erroneously, the People of the Sea. He concluded that this meant they were from or living near the Pacific Ocean with its aromatic salt air. The name of the peninsula and the county comes from the name of a route between Green Bay and Lake Michigan and this small strait is now littered with shipwrecks. It was named by the Native Americans and translated into French as Porte des Morts, in English, peshtigo Fire Wisconsin Ledge AVA Door County Chamber of Commerce
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Bayshore Blufflands State Natural Area
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The Bayshore Blufflands Preserve is located on the western shore of the Door Peninsula approximately 2 miles west of Carlsville and 6 miles north of Sturgeon Bay. There are parking areas at the east and west end of the property, rising 150-200 feet above the low terrace of Green Bay, the steep carbonate cliffs and outcrops support numerous rare land snails including the cherrystone drop snail, a state-threatened species. Aspen, sugar maple, red oak, hemlock, and white cedar grow out of the talus affording complete shade to the escarpment maintaining the cool and damp conditions, which support a lush growth of mosses. The unique site conditions also support uncommon species as climbing fumitory, mountain maple, bulbet fern, common polypody. Above the escarpment is a dry-mesic forest of red and white pine with red oak, the ground layer is dominated by round-leaved dogwood with northern bush honeysuckle, zig-zag goldenrod, big-leaved aster, and bracken fern. The site slowly grades into a richer, more mesic forest containing sugar maple, beech, and red oak with hemlock, also present is a wet-mesic forest of white cedar, big-tooth aspen, and black ash. Several white cedars reach impressive sizes here, below the escarpment are seasonally flooded forests dominated by silver maple, and green ash with swamp white oak, American bladdernut, and great water-leaf. The site contains many plants including dwarf lake iris. Other noteworthy species within the SNA are variegated horsetail, Hookers orchid, long-spurred violet, rare animals include red-shouldered hawk, Midwest Pleistocene vertigo, Iowa Pleistocene vertigo and Four-toed salamander. Significant portions of the Bayshore Blufflands are owned by the Door County Land Trust, Bayshore Blufflands State Natural Area Bayshore Blufflands Preserve Door County Land Trust
38.
Milwaukee
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Milwaukee is the largest city in the state of Wisconsin and the fifth-largest city in the Midwestern United States. The county seat of Milwaukee County, it is on Lake Michigans western shore, Milwaukees estimated population in 2015 was 600,155. Milwaukee is the cultural and economic center of the Milwaukee–Racine–Waukesha Metropolitan Area with an estimated population of 2,046,692 as of 2015. Ranked by estimated 2014 population, Milwaukee is the 31st largest city in the United States, the first Europeans to pass through the area were French Catholic missionaries and fur traders. In 1818, the French Canadian explorer Solomon Juneau settled in the area, large numbers of German immigrants helped increase the citys population during the 1840s, with Poles and other immigrants arriving in the following decades. Known for its traditions, Milwaukee is currently experiencing its largest construction boom since the 1960s. In addition, many new skyscrapers, condos, lofts and apartments have been built in neighborhoods on and near the lakefront, the word Milwaukee may come from the Potawatomi language minwaking, or Ojibwe language ominowakiing, Gathering place. The first recorded inhabitants of the Milwaukee area are the Menominee, Fox, Mascouten, Sauk, Potawatomi, Ojibwe, many of these people had lived around Green Bay before migrating to the Milwaukee area around the time of European contact. In the second half of the 18th century, the Indians at Milwaukee played a role in all the wars on the American continent. During the French and Indian War, a group of Ojibwas, in the American Revolutionary War, the Indians around Milwaukee were some of the few Indians who remained loyal to the American cause throughout the Revolution. After American independence, the Indians fought the United States in the Northwest Indian War as part of the Council of Three Fires, during the War of 1812, Indians held a council in Milwaukee in June 1812, which resulted in their decision to attack Chicago. This resulted in the Battle of Fort Dearborn on August 15,1812, the War of 1812 did not end well for the Indians, and after the Black Hawk War in 1832, the Indians in Milwaukee signed their final treaty with the United States in Chicago in 1833. This paved the way for American settlement, Europeans had arrived in the Milwaukee area prior to the 1833 Treaty of Chicago. French missionaries and traders first passed through the area in the late 17th and 18th centuries, alexis Laframboise, in 1785, coming from Michilimackinac settled a trading post, therefore, he is the first European descent resident of the Milwaukee region. Early explorers called the Milwaukee River and surrounding lands various names, Melleorki, Milwacky, Mahn-a-waukie, Milwarck, for many years, printed records gave the name as Milwaukie. One story of Milwaukees name says, ne day during the thirties of the last century a newspaper calmly changed the name to Milwaukee, the spelling Milwaukie lives on in Milwaukie, Oregon, named after the Wisconsin city in 1847, before the current spelling was universally accepted. Milwaukee has three founding fathers, Solomon Juneau, Byron Kilbourn, and George H. Walker, Solomon Juneau was the first of the three to come to the area, in 1818. He was not the first European settler but founded a town called Juneaus Side, or Juneautown, in competition with Juneau, Byron Kilbourn established Kilbourntown west of the Milwaukee River and made sure the streets running toward the river did not join with those on the east side
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Chicago
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Chicago, officially the City of Chicago, is the third-most populous city in the United States. With over 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the state of Illinois, and it is the county seat of Cook County. In 2012, Chicago was listed as a global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Chicago has the third-largest gross metropolitan product in the United States—about $640 billion according to 2015 estimates, the city has one of the worlds largest and most diversified economies with no single industry employing more than 14% of the workforce. In 2016, Chicago hosted over 54 million domestic and international visitors, landmarks in the city include Millennium Park, Navy Pier, the Magnificent Mile, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum Campus, the Willis Tower, Museum of Science and Industry, and Lincoln Park Zoo. Chicagos culture includes the arts, novels, film, theater, especially improvisational comedy. Chicago also has sports teams in each of the major professional leagues. The city has many nicknames, the best-known being the Windy City, the name Chicago is derived from a French rendering of the Native American word shikaakwa, known to botanists as Allium tricoccum, from the Miami-Illinois language. The first known reference to the site of the current city of Chicago as Checagou was by Robert de LaSalle around 1679 in a memoir, henri Joutel, in his journal of 1688, noted that the wild garlic, called chicagoua, grew abundantly in the area. In the mid-18th century, the area was inhabited by a Native American tribe known as the Potawatomi, the first known non-indigenous permanent settler in Chicago was Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. Du Sable was of African and French descent and arrived in the 1780s and he is commonly known as the Founder of Chicago. In 1803, the United States Army built Fort Dearborn, which was destroyed in 1812 in the Battle of Fort Dearborn, the Ottawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi tribes had ceded additional land to the United States in the 1816 Treaty of St. Louis. The Potawatomi were forcibly removed from their land after the Treaty of Chicago in 1833, on August 12,1833, the Town of Chicago was organized with a population of about 200. Within seven years it grew to more than 4,000 people, on June 15,1835, the first public land sales began with Edmund Dick Taylor as U. S. The City of Chicago was incorporated on Saturday, March 4,1837, as the site of the Chicago Portage, the city became an important transportation hub between the eastern and western United States. Chicagos first railway, Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, and the Illinois, the canal allowed steamboats and sailing ships on the Great Lakes to connect to the Mississippi River. A flourishing economy brought residents from rural communities and immigrants from abroad, manufacturing and retail and finance sectors became dominant, influencing the American economy. The Chicago Board of Trade listed the first ever standardized exchange traded forward contracts and these issues also helped propel another Illinoisan, Abraham Lincoln, to the national stage
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Grimsby, Ontario
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Grimsby is a town on Lake Ontario in the Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada. Grimsby is a part of the Hamilton Census Metropolitan Area and it is named after the English fishing town of Grimsby in North East Lincolnshire. The majority of residents reside in the bounded by Lake Ontario. The escarpment is home to a section of the Bruce Trail, Grimsby has experienced significant growth over the past decade as the midpoint between Hamilton and St. Catharines. Growth is limited by the boundaries of Lake Ontario and the Niagara Escarpment. The town of Grimsby was founded in 1790, after a group of United Empire Loyalists settled at the mouth of 40 Mile Creek in 1787, robert Nelles, a politician and later lieutenant-colonel in the War of 1812, was one of the main founders of the town. His home, located on Main Street West, was used for many planning sessions during the war, in 1816 the village became known as Grimsby, the name of the surrounding township. Canadas first Chautauqua was established in 1859 in Grimsby Park and Beach but by 1900 interest had declined, the Village of Grimsby was officially incorporated in 1876 and became a town in 1922. For many years, Grimsby also had a fishing industry which lasted until the 1960s. The Town of Grimsby and the Township of North Grimsby were amalgamated in 1970 with the formation of the Regional Municipality of Niagara, with a number of wineries and distilleries, Grimsby now serves as the starting point for touring the Niagara wine region. Grimsby is also the birthplace of a now forgotten Hollywood director and he rose to acclaim as the director of most of the Three Stooges short vaudeville comedies. Later, under Columbia Pictures, he directed nearly 200 feature films. Grimsby Beach was once a major holiday resort, Grimsby Park started in 1846 as a park for the Hamilton district of the Methodist Church. In 1910, the new owner, Harry Wylie, modernized the park with carousels, a motion picture theater. Canada Steamship Lines bought out the park in 1916, but the park declined through the 1920s, operations continued until 1949, with attractions gradually closing and developers buying land to build houses. The council is composed of a mayor and eight aldermen who serve for a term of four years, the mayor is elected at large and the aldermen are elected by ward. The town is divided into four wards with two aldermen elected in each ward, the council generally meets on the first and third Mondays of each month. All meetings are open to the public and are televised live on the local Government-access television cable TV channel
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Outcrop
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An outcrop or rocky outcrop is a visible exposure of bedrock or ancient superficial deposits on the surface of the Earth. However, in places where the cover is removed through erosion or tectonic uplift. In Finland, glacial erosion during the last glacial maximum, followed by scouring by sea waves, bedrock and superficial deposits may also be exposed at the Earths surface due to human excavations such as quarrying and building of transport routes. Outcrops allow direct observation and sampling of the bedrock in situ for geologic analysis, in situ measurements are critical for proper analysis of geological history and outcrops are therefore extremely important for understanding the geologic time scale of earth history. Outcrops are also important for understanding fossil assemblages, paleo-environment. An outcrop example in California is the Vasquez Rocks, familiar from location shooting use in many films, list of rock formations Geological formation Geologic time scale Media related to Outcrops at Wikimedia Commons
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Door County, Wisconsin
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Door County is a county in the U. S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2010 census, the population was 27,785 and its county seat is Sturgeon Bay. The county was created in 1851 and organized in 1861 and it is named after the strait between the Door Peninsula and Washington Island. The dangerous passage, which is now scattered with shipwrecks, was known to early French explorers, Door County is a popular vacation and tourist destination, especially for residents of Wisconsin and Illinois. The Door County peninsula has been inhabited for about 11,000 years, artifacts from an ancient village site at Nicolet Bay Beach have been dated to about 400 BCE. This site was occupied by various cultures until about 1300 CE, Door Countys namesake came from Porte des Morte, anglicized as Deaths Door, or the passage between the tip of the Door County Peninsula and Washington Island. Its a common misconception that the name Deaths Door, or Porte des Morts, a storm arose as the war party was halfway across, capsizing and killing about a third of the Ho-Chunk tribe in the process. The 18th and 19th centuries saw the immigration and settlement of pioneers, mariners, fishermen and farmers, economic sustenance came from lumbering and tourism. During the 19th century, various groups of Native Americans occupied the area that would become Door County, beginning in mid-century, these Indians, mostly Potawatomi, were removed from the peninsula by the federal government under the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Later in the 19th century, a fairly large-scale immigration of Belgian Walloons populated a small region in the county, a Civilian Conservation Corps camp was established at Peninsula State Park during the Great Depression. In the summer of 1945, Fish Creek was the site of a German POW camp, under an affiliation with a camp at Fort Sheridan. The prisoners engaged in projects, cut wood, and picked cherries in Peninsula State Park. Eagle Bluff Lighthouse was constructed in Peninsula State Park in 1868 on orders from President Andrew Johnson and it was restored by the Door County Historical Society in 1964, and opened to the public. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 2,370 square miles. It is the largest county in Wisconsin by total area, the county also has 298 miles of shoreline. Locals and tourists alike refer to the area as the Cape Cod of the Midwest, the county covers the majority of the Door Peninsula. With the completion of the Sturgeon Bay Shipping Canal in 1881, limestone outcroppings of the Niagara Escarpment are visible on both shores of the peninsula, but are larger and more prominent on the Green Bay side as seen at the Bayshore Blufflands. Progressions of dunes have created much of the rest of the shoreline, flora along the shore provides clear evidence of plant succession
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Fault (geology)
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In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock, across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movement. Large faults within the Earths crust result from the action of tectonic forces. Energy release associated with movement on active faults is the cause of most earthquakes. A fault plane is the plane that represents the surface of a fault. A fault trace or fault line is the intersection of a plane with the ground surface. A fault trace is also the line commonly plotted on maps to represent a fault. Since faults do not usually consist of a single, clean fracture, the two sides of a non-vertical fault are known as the hanging wall and footwall. By definition, the wall occurs above the fault plane. This terminology comes from mining, when working a tabular ore body, because of friction and the rigidity of rocks, they cannot glide or flow past each other easily, and occasionally all movement stops. A fault in ductile rocks can also release instantaneously when the rate is too great. The energy released by instantaneous strain-release causes earthquakes, a common phenomenon along transform boundaries, slip is defined as the relative movement of geological features present on either side of a fault plane, and is a displacement vector. A faults sense of slip is defined as the motion of the rock on each side of the fault with respect to the other side. In practice, it is only possible to find the slip direction of faults. Based on direction of slip, faults can be categorized as, strike-slip. Dip-slip, offset is predominantly vertical and/or perpendicular to the fault trace, oblique-slip, combining significant strike and dip slip. The fault surface is usually vertical and the footwall moves either left or right or laterally with very little vertical motion. Strike-slip faults with left-lateral motion are known as sinistral faults. Those with right-lateral motion are known as dextral faults
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Erosion
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In earth science, erosion is the action of surface processes that remove soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earths crust, then transport it away to another location. Eroded sediment or solutes may be transported just a few millimetres, the rates at which such processes act control how fast a surface is eroded. Feedbacks are also possible between rates of erosion and the amount of eroded material that is carried by, for example. Processes of erosion that produce sediment or solutes from a place contrast with those of deposition, while erosion is a natural process, human activities have increased by 10-40 times the rate at which erosion is occurring globally. At well-known agriculture sites such as the Appalachian Mountains, intensive farming practices have caused erosion up to 100x the speed of the rate of erosion in the region. Excessive erosion causes both on-site and off-site problems, on-site impacts include decreases in agricultural productivity and ecological collapse, both because of loss of the nutrient-rich upper soil layers. In some cases, the end result is desertification. Off-site effects include sedimentation of waterways and eutrophication of bodies, as well as sediment-related damage to roads. Intensive agriculture, deforestation, roads, anthropogenic climate change and urban sprawl are amongst the most significant human activities in regard to their effect on stimulating erosion, however, there are many prevention and remediation practices that can curtail or limit erosion of vulnerable soils. Rainfall, and the surface runoff which may result from rainfall, produces four types of soil erosion, splash erosion, sheet erosion, rill erosion. Splash erosion is generally seen as the first and least severe stage in the erosion process. In splash erosion, the impact of a falling raindrop creates a crater in the soil. The distance these soil particles travel can be as much as 0.6 m vertically and 1.5 m horizontally on level ground. If the soil is saturated, or if the rate is greater than the rate at which water can infiltrate into the soil. If the runoff has sufficient flow energy, it will transport loosened soil particles down the slope, sheet erosion is the transport of loosened soil particles by overland flow. Rill erosion refers to the development of small, ephemeral concentrated flow paths which function as both sediment source and sediment delivery systems for erosion on hillslopes, generally, where water erosion rates on disturbed upland areas are greatest, rills are active. Flow depths in rills are typically of the order of a few centimetres or less and this means that rills exhibit hydraulic physics very different from water flowing through the deeper, wider channels of streams and rivers. Gully erosion occurs when water accumulates and rapidly flows in narrow channels during or immediately after heavy rains or melting snow
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Caprock
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Caprock or cap rock is a harder or more resistant rock type overlying a weaker or less resistant rock type. Common types of caprock are sandstone and mafic rock types, in processes such as scarp retreat, the caprock controls the rate of erosion of the scarp. As the softer rock is cut away, periodically the caprock shears off, Caprock is also found on the top of mesa formations. The Niagara Escarpment, over which Niagara Falls flows, is an example of a scarp or escarpment, at Niagara Falls, the caprock is the riverbed above the falls, and is what prevents the river from eroding the face of the falls very quickly. In the photo, the thin layer in the foreground where water is not yet running, is the caprock. The Niagara caprock is made of dolomitic limestone, an analogy of caprock could be the outer crust on a cake that is a bit harder than the underlying layer. In the petroleum industry, caprock is any nonpermeable formation that may trap oil, gas or water and this caprock or trap can create a reservoir of oil, gas or water beneath it and is a primary target for the petroleum industry. The tops of salt domes such as in the Gulf of Mexico dissolve in a characteristic manner, the halite is removed first, leaving behind gypsum and anhydrite. The anhydrite and gypsum react with material to form calcite. The classic Murray 1966 paper describes the sequence as sediments-calcite-gypsum-anhydrite-salt. Caprock Escarpment Caprock Canyons State Park and Trailway Monadnock Hoodoo
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Limestone
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Limestone is a sedimentary rock, composed mainly of skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral, forams and molluscs. Its major materials are the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate, about 10% of sedimentary rocks are limestones. The solubility of limestone in water and weak acid solutions leads to karst landscapes, most cave systems are through limestone bedrock. The first geologist to distinguish limestone from dolomite was Belsazar Hacquet in 1778, like most other sedimentary rocks, most limestone is composed of grains. Most grains in limestone are skeletal fragments of organisms such as coral or foraminifera. Other carbonate grains comprising limestones are ooids, peloids, intraclasts and these organisms secrete shells made of aragonite or calcite, and leave these shells behind when they die. Limestone often contains variable amounts of silica in the form of chert or siliceous skeletal fragment, some limestones do not consist of grains at all, and are formed completely by the chemical precipitation of calcite or aragonite, i. e. travertine. Secondary calcite may be deposited by supersaturated meteoric waters and this produces speleothems, such as stalagmites and stalactites. Another form taken by calcite is oolitic limestone, which can be recognized by its granular appearance, the primary source of the calcite in limestone is most commonly marine organisms. Some of these organisms can construct mounds of rock known as reefs, below about 3,000 meters, water pressure and temperature conditions cause the dissolution of calcite to increase nonlinearly, so limestone typically does not form in deeper waters. Limestones may also form in lacustrine and evaporite depositional environments, calcite can be dissolved or precipitated by groundwater, depending on several factors, including the water temperature, pH, and dissolved ion concentrations. Calcite exhibits a characteristic called retrograde solubility, in which it becomes less soluble in water as the temperature increases. Impurities will cause limestones to exhibit different colors, especially with weathered surfaces, Limestone may be crystalline, clastic, granular, or massive, depending on the method of formation. Crystals of calcite, quartz, dolomite or barite may line small cavities in the rock, when conditions are right for precipitation, calcite forms mineral coatings that cement the existing rock grains together, or it can fill fractures. Travertine is a banded, compact variety of limestone formed along streams, particularly there are waterfalls. Calcium carbonate is deposited where evaporation of the leaves a solution supersaturated with the chemical constituents of calcite. Tufa, a porous or cellular variety of travertine, is found near waterfalls, coquina is a poorly consolidated limestone composed of pieces of coral or shells. During regional metamorphism that occurs during the building process, limestone recrystallizes into marble
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Dolostone
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Dolostone or dolomite rock is a sedimentary carbonate rock that contains a high percentage of the mineral dolomite, CaMg2. In old USGS publications it was referred to as magnesian limestone, technically, dolostone has a stoichiometric ratio of nearly equal amounts of magnesium and calcium. Most dolostones formed as a replacement of limestone or lime mud prior to lithification. It is resistant to erosion and can either contain bedded layers or be unbedded and it is less soluble than limestone in weakly acidic groundwater, but it can still develop solution features over time. Dolostone can act as an oil and natural gas reservoir, the term dolostone was introduced to avoid confusion with the mineral dolomite. The usage of the term dolostone is controversial because the name dolomite was first applied to the rock during the late 18th century, the use of the term dolostone is not recommended by the Glossary of Geology published by the American Geological Institute. It is, however, used in some geological publications, the geological process of conversion of calcite to dolomite is known as dolomitization and any intermediate product is known as dolomitic limestone. The dolomite problem refers to the vast worldwide depositions of dolostone in past geologic record eluding a unified explanation for their formation, as with limestone caves, natural caves and solution tubes can form in dolomite rock as a result of dissolution by weak carbonic acid. Calcium carbonate speleothems in the forms of stalactites, stalagmites, flowstone etc, “Dolomite is a common rock type, but a relatively uncommon mineral in speleothems”. Both calcium and magnesium go into solution when dolomite rock is dissolved, the speleothem precipitation sequence is, calcite, Mg-calcite, aragonite, huntite and hydromagnesite. Hence, the most common speleothem in caves within dolomite rock karst, is calcium carbonate in the most stable form of calcite. Speleothem types known to have a dolomite constituent include, coatings, crusts, moonmilk, flowstone, coralloids, powder, spar and rafts. Although there are reports of dolomite speleothems known to exist in a number of cave around the world, they are usually in small quantities. Blatt, Harvey, Tracy, Robert J. Petrology, Igneous, Sedimentary, tucker, M. E. V. P. Wright. Zenger, D. H. Mazzullo, S. J. Dolomitization
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Weathering
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Weathering is the breaking down of rocks, soil, and minerals as well as wood and artificial materials through contact with the Earths atmosphere, waters, and biological organisms. Two important classifications of weathering processes exist – physical and chemical weathering, mechanical or physical weathering involves the breakdown of rocks and soils through direct contact with atmospheric conditions, such as heat, water, ice and pressure. While physical weathering is accentuated in very cold or very dry environments, chemical reactions are most intense where the climate is wet, however, both types of weathering occur together, and each tends to accelerate the other. For example, physical abrasion decreases the size of particles and therefore increases their surface area, the various agents act in concert to convert primary minerals to secondary minerals and release plant nutrient elements in soluble forms. The materials left over after the rock breaks down combined with organic material creates soil, in addition, many of Earths landforms and landscapes are the result of weathering processes combined with erosion and re-deposition. Physical weathering, also recognized as mechanical weathering, is the class of processes that causes the disintegration of rocks without chemical change, the primary process in physical weathering is abrasion. However, chemical and physical weathering often go hand in hand, physical weathering can occur due to temperature, pressure, frost etc. For example, cracks exploited by physical weathering will increase the area exposed to chemical action. Abrasion by water, ice, and wind loaded with sediment can have tremendous cutting power, as is amply demonstrated by the gorges, ravines. In glacial areas, huge moving ice masses embedded with soil and rock fragments grind down rocks in their path, plant roots sometimes enter cracks in rocks and pry them apart, resulting in some disintegration, Burrowing animals may help disintegrate rock through their physical action. However, such influences are usually of importance in producing parent material when compared to the drastic physical effects of water, ice, wind. Physical weathering is called mechanical weathering or disaggregation. Thermal stress weathering results from the expansion and contraction of rock, for example, heating of rocks by sunlight or fires can cause expansion of their constituent minerals. As some minerals expand more than others, temperature changes set up differential stresses that cause the rock to crack apart. Because the outer surface of a rock is often warmer or colder than the more protected inner portions and this process may be sharply accelerated if ice forms in the surface cracks. When water freezes, it expands with a force of about 1465 Mg/m^2, disintegrating huge rock masses, thermal stress weathering comprises two main types, thermal shock and thermal fatigue. Thermal stress weathering is an important mechanism in deserts, where there is a diurnal temperature range, hot in the day. The repeated heating and cooling exerts stress on the layers of rocks
