The Niagara Escarpment
Text from the plaque
Queenston Heights is part of the Niagara Escarpment, a height of land which extends 725 kilometres across Ontario from Niagara Falls to Manitoulin Island. Over 430 million years ago, a shallow tropical sea covered most of central North America. Sediments and coral reef on the seabed were compressed into dolomite, a hard type of limestone which was more resistant to erosion then the bedrock of the adjacent lands after the water retreated. 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.
Transcribed from the marker, not summarised.
Find the place
The Region of Niagara
The Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake
On Niagara Parkway at a parking area lookout
just south of Queenston, .5 km south of York Road (Road 81)
Also recorded for this place: The City of Welland
N 43 09.690 W 79 02.990
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