Around 450 million years ago, the area was covered in an ancient shallow sea just south of the Equator. This shallow sea covered most of North America. Locally the sea was a pooled in a depression we call the Michigan Basin. The seas were full of early life which lived on the muddy bottom and coral reefs in the shallows. As these early creatures died, their bodies settled to the bottom of the sea.

Dirt and mud and sand we call “sediment” would be washed into the sea and cover the remains of these creatures. This sediment came from the mountains to the east as time and weather wore them down.

Most of the sediment settled in deltas and reefs around the rim of the Michigan basin, depositing various colours of clay and sand.

Over time, these layers of deposited sediments and remains were compressed and turned to rock. We call this “sedimentary” rock. Mud and silt would form layers of shale; sand into sandstone; and corals, exoskeletons and lime mud into limestone. The remains of the many creatures became fossils within the layers of sediment.

About 415 million years ago, the sea became increasingly shallow. Once the sea dried up, a plain emerged, and erosion began to reshape the landscape. By 135 million years ago, the continent was moving northward. the erosive forces of water and wind thinned the dolomite cap rock and eroded the softer rock layers beneath forming a small ridge of exposed rock, along the edge of the dry seabed of the Michigan Basin.

This left behind a ridge, a vertical face of exposed rock, creating the Escarpment cliffs. The most recent shaping of the Niagara Escarpment occurred with the end of the last ice age, around 10,000 years ago.

At this location you can see some lockport dolostone, some clinton sandstone & shales and some queenston shale.

Logging Tasks:

1. Go to the posted coordinates, veiw the escarpment, Estimate The Size Of Each Layer

2. Describe The Size, Shape and texture of the Top Layer

3. Which Layer Do You See The Most Of?

4. Go To Reference Point 1, Estimate The Height Of The Escarpment There

5. Go To Reference Point 2, Estimate The Height Of The Escarpment (looking upwards toward the bruce trail) 

6. Go to reference Point 3, Estimate The Height Of The Escarpment Below The Trail

7. Go Back To Reference Point 1, Take A Picture Of Yourself (Or Your GPS) With The City Of Hamilton In The Background

Any Logs Without Reasonable Answers And A Photo Will Be Deleted