The Paris Moraine
Adopted from valleyone
The Galt-Paris Moraine is a rolling line of hills running across this part of southern Ontario from Cambridge past the south end of Guelph to Erin, just south of Orangeville. It was created as an end moraine of the enormous lobe of glacial ice pushing west and northwest out of the Lake Ontario Basin. It dominates the landscape across the south side of Guelph.
The Paris moraine is a very hilly, uneven landscape, with numerous kettle lakes and dry depressions. Moraines are often described as "hummocky" in topography, and this one is an excellent example.
Therefore the moraine is relatively poor farmland, and has a lot of natural forest and wetlands. It is also very important for groundwater recharge. The Paris Moraine is the major reason that the City of Guelph is the largest city in Canada still getting its water supply from groundwater.
The moraine was created by the line of ice bulldozing material in front of it (the ice sheet would advance a little each winter season and melt in the summer), and by sands, gravels, silts and clays washing out of the glacier as it melted.
The material washed out of the glacier created a broad flat plain, like a continuous delta, all along in front of the ice sheet, northwest of the moraine itself. Appropriately, it is called an "outwash" plain, and is a great source of sand and gravel. Both east and west of the city are major gravel pits in this outwash plain. The tiny silt and clay particles were washed away down the enormous river that drained away the glacial meltwater (creating the large valley of the Speed and Eramosa Rivers through Guelph).
The relationship between the ice, the moraine, and the outwash is shown well in this diagram:
If you drive along Clair Road all across the south end of the city, the outwash extends as a relatively flat landscape on the north side of the road all the way to the river valley. The hummocky, hilly moraine with small kettle depressions starts on the south side of the road and extends southwards - though the natural landscape is rapidly getting disguised under urban development.
This earthcache takes you to a point in the south end of the city where you can see the abrupt beginning of the hills of the moraine, and get a good impression of the "hummocky" topography, with a large wetland depression right beside you. Behind you is the very flat outwash plain (admittedly made extra flat here by the building of the baseball diamonds).
To Log this Earthcache:
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- Look at the moraine in front of you (looking more or less southeast) and estimate both the height of the hill on your left, and the depth of the depression on the right.
- Check out the maps in The Grand Watershed Report referred to in the Sources below, and describe how closely the moraine immediately southeast of Guelph is correlated with the high groundwater recharge area.
- Take a photo at the posted coordinates with either the hill or the depression in the background. Your photo MUST contain something with your Geocaching name and the current date clearly readable. Each person logging this cache must have their own unique photo. You are not required to show your face in the photo. Include this photo with your log.
Do not include any of these answers in your log, except for the required photo.
You may log a find at any time, but please ensure that your answers are submitted within 48 hours. Logs without answers after this time may be deleted without notice. If you are submitting answers on behalf of a group, please include a list of account names of those who were with you to complete this earthcache.
Sources:
Glacier and Moraine diagram [link: cst.cmich.edu]
GRCA Watershed Characterization Report, 2008 [link: sourcewater.ca]
Thanks to the City of Guelph Parks Department for their support of this earthcache.