EGAN CHUTES EARTHCACHE - A NATURAL WONDER IN THE GRENVILLE OROGENY
Logging Requirements
To log this Earthcache, you must email the CO with your answers before you post your “found it” log online.
Questions:
1. Tell the month when you visited and describe (in your own words), the velocity of the York River’s flow in the chute. In particular, tell whether or not you can see any of the metamorphic rock of the Grenville Province in the river bed at the chute or whether there is so much water flowing at the time of your visit that you cannot see the river bed. Also tell whether or not the river is rushing past both the east and west sides of the island, or if the water is flowing with greater volume on one side or the other. Optional : Feel free to post pictures of you and your friends at the Chute.
2. Which direction does the York River flow at this location? North, south, east or west? WHY ? (You may need to do some research and look at a map to answer WHY)
3. In your own words, describe the difference between a chute and a gorge.
4. At the Goulding-Keene Quarry, on the west side of the trail, as you are walking back to the parking, stop to pick up some white Nepheline Syenite that is scattered everywhere. Describe the colour , the texture, the size and the hardness (can your fingernail scratch it and leave a mark?) Optional: take a photo of the nepheline syenite with your hand or GPS for scale. Then put the nepheline syenite back on the ground for others to enjoy because mineral collection is strictly prohibited here. You can collect some free samples at the CN Rock Pile in Bancroft instead.
Directions and Important Information:
I have posted the co-ordinates of where you need to turn off Highway 28 to get to the small parking area 300 metres north of Highway 28. It is on the WEST side of the York River bridge. I repeat… WEST side. There is an old logging road on the east side of the York River that will not take you to a view of the Chute. I highly recommend you take the time to go over to the east side of the river because there is a small parking area only 150 metres from the highway with Provincial Park information signs describing everything you need to know to complete the Earthcache. :) However, to get to the Chute (the posted co-ordinates), you want the small parking area on the west side. You can squeeze in 4 cars, and maybe 6 or more, if you park strategically. Please do not block others in. You'd be surprised, but this Provincial Park hike is quite popular, and sees a steady stream of visitors that come to enjoy the natural beauty. Despite what maps might show, you will not be able to drive any further north than the parking area. There are downed trees and the "road" is really a path. Walk it. There is only one hiking path to the Chute. It is clearly visible, and goes straight north along the west side of the York River. That path will take you directly to the posted co-ordinates. It is a one kilometer flat sand path hike that narrows with weeds as you get closer to the Chute. If you are taking children, keep in mind there are no guardrails, no fences, and no washroom facilities. And I have seen children there. :)
Egan Chutes Provincial Park Guidelines for Visitors
- No motorized vehicles beyond the parking area.
- No camping. No swimming. No campfires.
- Stay on the path. There is poison ivy.
- No mineral collecting. Take photos. Leave the rocks behind.
- Take your litter with you and CITO out the litter of others.
Thank you, in advance, for your considerate actions.
Geological Interest
Is Egan Chutes just another gorge in the rugged Canadian Shield?
Yes….. and no. Yes, it is both a chute (from the french "to fall") and a gorge (from the french for a "throat or narrow passage"), and yes, it is another gorge/chute; one of many in the vast Canadian Shield. However, Egan Chute has some unique and interesting characteristics.
The first thought that struck me when I visited years ago, was that the river appears to be flowing the wrong way. Please let me know if you have this same sensation when you visit. There is a commonly accepted yet false assumption, among North Americans, that most rivers flow south. In the southern regions of the provinces, this is mostly true. Where I grew up in the region of the Kawartha Lakes, all the rivers I ever sailed or swam or paddled, flow south and eventually dump into the Great Lakes. If you have witnessed the York River flowing south out of Algonquin Park and south down through the middle of Bancroft, it just might disorient you a bit when you see Egan Chutes and witness the York River’s direction of flow.
Egan Chutes is also unique in that it is in the Grenville Orogeny, a subdivision of the Canadian Shield. The Canadian Shield has been divided into distinct sections or regions, each with different characteristics, geologic history, and mineral deposits. Egan Chutes is situated within the Grenville Province, and its orogeny. Orogeny is the term used to describe a variety of processes that occur during a mountain-building event caused by the movement of tectonic plates. The Grenville Orogeny is the geologic time and event history characterized by a Meso-proterozoic folding and lateral compression in the earth's crust. This resulted in the combination of volcanic metamorphic rock and igneous granites including gneiss and marbles that we can see at the surface.
The Grenville Orogeny covers a large territory and derives its name from the Grenville region of Quebec. If you visit Egan Chutes at a season when you are lucky enough to see the river bed, you will be amazed at the various geologic formations of the ancient lava flows from the most recent period of upheaval and change. The bedrock has been further altered by the flow of water over the rock in the past several thousand years since the last glacial period.
Finally, Egan Chutes is special because there are several varieties of minerals found in the rocks. The huge variety of minerals in the Canadian Shield is rather atypical when compared with the rest of the world. The whole Grenville Orogeny contains rock with a huge variety of colours, textures, properties, and economic benefits.
At your Waypoint, you will come across the remains of the Goulding-Keene Quarry, a small US operation of the New England Nepheline Company that was cutting out nepheline syenite from 1927 to 1939. At Egan Chutes, the nepheline-albite pegmatite intrudes a nepheline-plagioclase gneiss. You may not know much about nepheline syenite, but this is fascinating. Hear me out. The town of Nephton, north of Havelock, Ontario, is named after the mineral “nepheline syenite” and the trains that run through my parents’ property on a weekly basis are still carrying out nepheline syenite from the Blue Mountain Mine. Nepheline syenite is a beautiful, and often white, rock that is crushed and used in ceramics, glass, plastics, and paint. The word, "nepheline" is derived from the greek word for cloud in allusion to its cloudy or translucent crystals and masses.
In Nephton, we have the largest deposit in the entire Western Hemisphere. (There is another large deposit in Russia). The nepheline syenite in Nephton is part of a 1280 km belt of nepheline syenite gneisses in the Grenville Province of the Canadian Shield. Here at Egan Chutes, the Goulding-Keene mine was finding nepheline syenite in pure crystals that were 8 feet in diameter. In addition to nepheline syenite, there was found a large variety of minerals including biotite, calcite, apatite, graphite, blue sodalite, cancrinite, zircon, blue corundum, orange brown grossular garnet, brown vesuvianite, dark green diopside and white laths of wollastonite.
What I find fascinating about nepheline syenite, is that it is a relatively hard mineral on Mohr’s test of hardness, yet it is crushed to a fine powder for industrial use.
Can you see the correlation between the rugged landscape that has been subjected to such a variety of forces and changes and the abundance of various minerals that are often found in such regions? Because of the huge geologic changes that have taken place in this area over time as well as the immense forces of heat, pressure, and movement on a seismic scale, there have been created some of the most beautiful minerals in the world, many of gemstone quality. Having said that, you are very unlikely to find any gemstones at the quarry, and would have better luck visiting the Princess Sodalite Mine just down the road, west of Egan Chutes, or drive into Bancroft and collect for free from the CN Rock Pile, much of which was dumped here from the Goulding-Keene Quarry and is available now for public collection and enjoyment.
Resources:
http://www.geologyontario.mndmf.gov.on.ca/gosportal/gos?command=mndmsearchdetails:mdi&uuid=MDI31F04SE00004
Ontario Ministry of Northern Development of Mines
http://www.mindat.org/loc-6970.html
www.segemar.gov.ar/bibliotecaintemin/.../Industrialminerals.../050.pdf
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