The Niagara Escarpment

Photo by Alan L Brown - June, 2004

Photo by contributor Michael Anttila

Plaque Location

In the City of Hamilton
at coordinates N 43 14.707 W 79 51.967
at the north edge of the parking lot.

© 2010 Microsoft

Plaque Text

Hamilton Mountain is part of the Niagara Escarpment, a height of land extending 725 km across Ontario from Niagara Falls to Manitoulin Island. Over 430 million years ago, a tropical sea covered most of central North America. Sediments and coral reef on the seabed were compressed into dolomite, a hard type of limestone more resistant to erosion than the bedrock of adjacent lands. The cliffs of the escarpment are the exposed floor of the ancient sea. The escarpment's rugged terrain, home to a wide variety of plants and wildlife, forms a natural corridor through both urban and rural areas. In 1990, the United Nations designated the Niagara Escarpment a World Biosphere Reserve.

Related Ontario plaque page
The Niagara Escarpment

More
Information

More
Landforms

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