science-curious Archives - Page 5 of 6 - Geodiversity Education Foundation

Underground photo of a mine site. Tools and various machines sit in front of a wall covered in wire. Text on top of the photo says: Geo Careers Melissa Ng.

Geo Careers: Melissa Ng

One question that I often am asked is, “How did you pick mining as an industry?” That answer is simple: De Beers commissioned a raw diamond exhibit at the University of Alberta where I attended school. This was my first introduction to mining and the idea and complexity around mining, which I found fascinating and challenging. The second question I always get asked is: “How did you get to where you are now?” That answer is a little more complex. We all take different journeys in life and career. Some experiences are within our control, and some are not. People always joke: “If I knew what I knew now, things would be different.” But there is no journey, no growth, and no success without those experiences. They are unique to us and mold us in the unique individual we are. So, to me, the real question should be “How has your experience specific to your career helped you to get to where you are now?” I began my first job search after graduation with enthusiasm, looking for the job opportunity that would launch my career. At the time, the market was hot with international opportunities, as well as Canadian prospects, which meant that I could be picky about the opportunities I pursued. I knew from my summer jobs doing exploration work in the Northwest Territories that I wanted a fly-in fly-out position at an operation and not field exploration work. My husband and I were married in 2007, right after my graduation, so choosing a fly-in fly-out role was a lifestyle choice we were making so that we could stay in Edmonton. My parents were born and raised in Saskatoon, SK so I knew about Cameco Corporation, the uranium producer centered in Saskatchewan. I was excited to have an interview with them. Even during the interview, being able to talk about structurally driven deposits was thrilling. I felt good after the interview, and therefore, was disappointed when I later received a call that hiring had been frozen due to unknown circumstances. Lucky for Cameco, I was so picky during my job search that I had only applied to one other company at the time. In January 2008, I received a call asking if I was still interested and if I could start next week. I didn’t even own a pair of steel toe boots yet, so I couldn’t start the following week, but I was thrilled that I did not have to endure a second round of interviews. The first time I flew into Rabbit Lake operation, which is situated at the edge of the Athabasca Basin in Northern Saskatchewan, I felt what I would describe as contained excitement. Contained because I didn’t want to make it obvious how “green” I really was. In other words, I did not want to stand out or get noticed. Which is very hard to do when you are a woman in a male-dominated industry, and in particular, a young woman in a male-dominated industry. I stuck out like a sore thumb, despite my cargo pants and winter coat. I was fresh meat, and everyone wanted to get to know the new girl. Throughout my career, I have heard stories of women who feel like they made the wrong career choice and have left the industry. When I hear this, I reflect back to those first few days at Cameco. My first room at camp was not my permanent room and there was a nasty draft from the window blowing over my head. I remember wearing my toque and not being able to fall asleep, wondering what I had gotten myself into. After a few days, I moved rooms and, luckily, there was no draft in the second room. I remember sitting around the lunch table with the geologists and engineers and hearing the story about why my hiring was delayed. There was an open historical drilled lake hole that intersected a stope (a stope is a term in mining for dugout space that contains your ore that is to be mined). It was marked as cemented, but after the blast, water started pouring into the mine – a sign you never want to see underground. But the tale was dramatic and heroic, and through teamwork the workers were able to control the situation and mitigate the water. The epic conclusion of the story involved a geologist shoving a piece of PVC pipe into the hole on the shallow lake bottom. I know we all exaggerate our stories, but at that point, I knew this was my crew and this was where I belonged. This was 2008 and when the financial crisis hit hard I was fortunate to be at Cameco. Many of my colleagues from school found themselves without work whereas Cameco sold its product with contracts with locked-in pricing, which meant that Cameco was stable. And so was my career. That geologist who starred in the epic conclusion of the story with the PVC pipe was Dennis Merber, who was also my first mentor in the industry. Once he became the Chief Geologist at Cameco, I learned a lot from him. He gave us the flexibility to make the position our own. He recognized that you need to incorporate fun at work if you want to improve efficiency. He also encouraged sharing of job tasks, which is the primary reason why I was not just exclusively logging core at the start my career. His job as a leader was to take care of the wellbeing of his people and sometimes that was as simple as a break with a little bit of fun. His leadership tactic stayed with me my entire career and I have used it many times, even sometimes when I had to defend my decision to add fun to the work cycle. I stayed with Cameco for 8 years because of the people. I built many great relationships over that time, relationships that I keep to this day.

Two photos of Niagara Falls. The one on the left is grey and cloudy. The one on the right is bright and sunny. In front of the photos text reads: "Geoscience Today. GeoscienceINFO celebrates five years of serving the public."

GeoscienceINFO Celebrates Five Years of Serving the Public

The APGO Education Foundation is thrilled to celebrate five wonderful years of sharing our favourite subject with you – geoscience — via GeoscienceINFO.com. The Foundation itself was created in October 2014 as a charitable foundation with two main goals in mind: to help people in their journey in becoming geoscientists, and to provide accurate, reliable, and up-to-date information about geoscience to the public. We began our mission to help inform the public about geoscience by creating our website GeoscienceINFO.com on June 8, 2017. In the beginning, we had two main features we wanted to share with the public: geology-based virtual field trips of locations across Ontario, and short-but-informative Geovideos that explain geoscientific concepts and processes. To provide the highest-quality information to the public, we knew we couldn’t rush things. We started with one virtual field trip, one Geovideo, and a whole lot of enthusiasm! Virtual Field Trips The first virtual field trip released on GeoscienceINFO.com was of the Niagara area in southwestern Ontario, and this virtual field trip continues to be popular today. We were so excited to bring this field trip you the public that we first visited the Niagara peninsula in January to take photos! Needless to say, many of these photos were eventually replaced once the ice thawed and the trees started to bloom. Using Google Earth, seven stops in the Niagara peninsula were chosen for their geological relevance. Each stop has a detailed description of the geological history and relevance of that location. Because we know that learning is a highly visual process, we wanted to include as many photos of each stop as possible. This is why we have a well-stocked section at each stop of photos of the outcrop from as many angles as possible. In addition, we have a section of hand samples to give you a look at what the rocks and minerals are like close-up. Since 2017, we have continued to add more virtual field trips from locations all over Ontario. As of June 2022, we now have 17 virtual field trips available to the public, ranging from Thunder Bay to Ottawa. To better serve our public, we upgraded our platform in 2021 to the latest ArcGIS-based software offered by ESRI. This means our maps are quick to load, easy to navigate, and are supplemented by many high-quality and fast downloading photos. Geovideos In November 2017 we released our first Geovideo entitled “Where Does My Water Come From?” This two-and-a-half-minute video explains from where most people in Ontario receive their drinking water. Did you know that half of people in Ontario get their water from surface water bodies such as the Great Lakes? Knowing that piquing people’s interest is best for active learning and retaining facts, we wanted the Geovideos we released to be relatively short, accurate, and full of interesting facts like this that people can think about long after the Geovideo is over. Since 2017, we have released a number of Geovideos that explain geological processes and concepts. Our Geovideo “How Do Volcanoes Form?”, released in 2018, is our most popular video to-date with over 115,000 views! In 2020 we released a six-part series of Geovideos as part of our “Why Geoscience is Important” spotlight. From metal and mineral exploration to remediating disturbed lands, geoscience is associated with a broad range of activities and processes. As the world moves toward renewable energy sources, mining will continue to play a vital role as we need minerals such as copper, silicon, and silver to construct solar panels to harvest the Sun’s energy. Our Geovideos highlight the continuing importance of geoscience and answer commonly asked questions about various subject matter. Story Maps Our virtual field trips are set up like the university geology field trips that professors and students go on to learn more about geoscience. It’s important to us that everyone can experience this type of learning atmosphere. As such, they do have some limitations. Although our virtual field trips are full of information and photos, we wanted to give people more in order to truly immerse them in the area about which they are learning. ESRI’s new Story Map platform was the perfect way for us to do that. In November 2021, we released the first Story Map, of the Arkona area, at the Geological Association of Canada/Mineralogical Association of Canada (GAC MAC) conference in London, Ontario. In addition to the Arkona virtual field trip, presented in a new format, this Story Map provides a very detailed geological history of the region, and more paleontological environmental information, supplemented with a broad range of media types. Video segments of interviews with professors and local experts, drone footage, 360-degree photos, animations, 3D LiDAR imaging, and unique graphics are all included to provide a multi-faceted learning experience. Audio is also provided for all text, to augment accessibility options for the reader. We are so excited to be able to offer both options to learn about an area: our traditional virtual field trip, and our detailed Story Map. We will be creating Story Maps that will accompany all our virtual field trips, so be sure to look for these in the future! Beneath Your Feet: A Geoscience Blog One of our latest releases is the launch of our blog, Beneath Your Feet: A Geoscience Blog. We weren’t joking around when we decided to release a blog! Veronica Klassen, who has completed an M.Sc. in Science Communications, joined our team in 2021 to oversee the production, launch, and organization of our new blog. Because geoscience (like all science) is a dynamic field that is constantly growing, learning, and expanding, it’s important that we let the public know about the latest research. We publish articles bi-weekly, and articles are written by either our staff or by guest writers who are experts in their field. We feature columns by geoscience professors, students studying geoscience, licensed Professional Geoscientists (P.Geo.s), and local experts. If you’re practicing or studying geoscience and have something you’d like to communicate with the

The Significance of Ontario’s Ring of Fire to Canada’s Climate Goals

When you hear the term “Ring of Fire,” you might think of Johnny Cash’s famous song by that name. Or, if you remember grade school geography, you might think of the Pacific Ring of Fire—an area of high volcanic activity that surrounds the Pacific Ocean like a ring. But you probably haven’t heard of the third use of the phrase—Ontario’s Ring of Fire. In Ontario, the Ring of Fire is an area of 5000 square kilometres located approximately 400km north of Thunder Bay where there are significant mineral deposits. It’s called the Ring of Fire for two reasons. #1: If you look at a magnetic map of the area, there is a clearly delineated arc of responses. And #2: The founder of Noront, the mining company who first discovered the minerals in the area, was a huge fan of Johnny Cash. The Ring of Fire is made up of shared lands governed by 9 different First Nations. In recent news, the Ring of Fire has come to public attention due to concern from First Nations communities who are opposing the development of mines in the area and criticizing the government’s insufficient involvement with Indigenous communities in decision making processes. Let’s take a step back and look at why the Ring of Fire is geologically and environmentally important. Geologically, the Ring of Fire is an arcuate belt of Archean (approx. 2,750 MA) mafic and ultramafic rocks surrounding an intrusion of granodiorite. Based on exploration to date, the area is rich in deposits of important metals such as nickel, chromium, copper, zinc, and platinum. Since the Ring of Fire’s mineral deposits were discovered in 2007, mining companies have been eager to start developing mines in the area. Some of these deposits would likely be amenable to profitable underground mining (e.g., Noront’s Eagle’s Nest), but most of the chromite deposits discovered to date would require open-pit mining to extract them. There have been estimates of the total in-situ value of the Ring of Fire deposits ranging from $30 billion to $60 billion. However, the investment and costs required to extract them may reach similar levels, such that the actual economics of mining some of these minerals in the area remain to be established. Ecologically, the Ring of Fire is situated in the Hudson Bay Lowlands, which is the largest peatland in North America. Peatlands are waterlogged ecosystems where organic matter never fully decomposes, leading to the buildup of peat. This means that peatlands store large amounts of carbon from partially decomposed organic matter. The peatlands also absorb carbon dioxide from the air, acting as a filter for CO2. Peatlands are therefore important in storing and retaining carbon to mitigate the effects of climate change. As several Indigenous Chiefs have noted, disturbing these peatlands would release their stored carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Since carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, the release of CO2 would go against the promises made by the Canadian Government at the Paris Accord to mitigate climate change. The potential impacts upon the environment from mining in the Ring of Fire are substantial, particularly if it was proposed to extract chromite (the chromium mineral) by open-pit methods. Not only would that process disturb the peatlands, potentially releasing stored carbon from the peatlands, but surface disposal of mine waste and tailings would (at least in part) be deposited on top of the peat. Indigenous communities have also emphasized the potential negative impacts on surface and groundwater from mining, as several First Nations live directly downstream from the Ring of Fire and would be negatively affected by any toxic runoff or damage to the rivers. The Canadian and Provincial governments have made a goal to invest in the production of electric cars to decrease Canada’s emissions from gas- and diesel-powered engines. The mineral deposits in the Ring of Fire contain nickel and copper, essential minerals for building electric car batteries. In March 2022 the Provincial government released a plan to build electric cars from start to finish in Ontario and has stated that this would require minerals to be mined in Ontario as a first step along the production line. Ontario already produces both nickel and copper from existing mines in the province, so new developments in the Ring of Fire would be complementary to those currently operating and could add significantly to the resources available for incorporation in electric vehicles as their production is ramped up over the next few years. Opening mines in the Ring of Fire could be a great boost for Ontario’s economy, as they would generate many job opportunities for local communities. Several of the communities surrounding the Ring of Fire are not currently accessible by road, so building infrastructure to support the mines would connect these communities to Ontario’s provincial highway system and allow electricity to be delivered by powerlines rather than diesel generators, thus reducing the carbon footprint of those communities. There are many different factors to consider when deciding whether mining developments in the Ring of Fire should go forward. Included amongst these is weighing the cost of releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere with the potential decrease of released carbon from electric vehicles. Additionally, the potential impact on the watershed or the increase in jobs for First Nation communities should be considered. These factors are some of the issues that comprehensive Environmental Assessments are designed to evaluate thoroughly. One of the major considerations in any new mining development proposal is the duty to consult and engage with local and affected communities. In this case there is strong opposition from some local Indigenous communities. In early January 2021, groups from the 9 affected First Nation communities met with the Minister of Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault to discuss the upcoming Regional Impact Assessment that is planned for the area. The goal of the RIA is to quantify the extent of the ecological impact of mining on the Ring of Fire. Soon after the meeting, chiefs from Attawapiskat, Eabametoong, Kashechewan Cree, Fort Albany, and Neskantaga

Geo Careers: Kristin Hanson

After 30+ years of work in the consulting industry, I look back at lessons I wish I had learned and advice that I wish I had received earlier in my career. In sharing these personal lessons learned, I hope to help you with your career. I finished my career in the position of Senior Vice President of Infrastructure Engineering for SNC-Lavalin, one of Canada’s largest engineering companies. I managed a team of engineers and scientists in Ontario who were designing major infrastructure (highways, transit lines, bridges, and buildings), providing geotechnical and environmental support services to infrastructure construction, and investigating and cleaning up contaminated sites. A female geoscientist managing a large infrastructure engineering group. This was a first! But let’s go back to when the story began…. I started my career in the Washington D.C. area working to clean up groundwater at former military bases. Explosives and chemical warfare agents sound like something from an action movie. But early in my career, they were a daily concern. As I stood in my full PPE in the middle of a field riddled with ticks and unexploded ordnance, I wondered what in the world I was doing! I bonded with my co-workers while we helped each other in and out of our PPE, and even had to practice giving each other injections of an antidote in case of chemical warfare agent exposure. We bonded over this crazy work and relied on one another to accomplish our tasks safely. When I graduated with my B.Sc. in Environmental Geology, I thought I knew everything. I studied geology because I liked science and didn’t really want to work with people. I used to say I don’t like people; I just like rocks – they don’t talk back! My early experiences in the field taught me how little I really knew, and that people could teach me things, if I listened. My work on the military bases projects got me new assignments working on other projects in the western US, France, and Puerto Rico. I would travel from one site to another, often without any breaks in between because managers all wanted me on their projects. I had turned into a pretty good field team leader, and they knew they could count on me to get the scope of work done right. I was managing field teams and drilling crews, often the only female at the site. I felt like I had to be tough and work hard to prove myself. I had no social life, I missed weddings and funerals, but I was busy with work. I thought that my dedication would be recognized and rewarded. Instead, I got exhausted and burned out. I eventually left my job to go to graduate school. I thought having my M.Sc. would help me get what I wanted: a career that I enjoyed as well as a life. PIECE OF ADVICE #1: Don’t sit back and wait for rewards to come to you. Good work is rewarded with more work. Speak up and ask for what you want! While I was working on my master’s degree, my advisor told me that I should have a “career plan.” I had no idea what that was at the time, but I thought about it a lot. I asked my fellow grad students if they had a career plan. I got some interesting perspectives from them and started talking to more people to see what I could learn from them. This was a turning point for me. I realized that my “drive for excellence” mindset that made project managers love me was probably considered aggressive and off-putting to a lot of people. I learned empathy and to listen to learn and understand. PIECE OF ADVICE #2: Listen, don’t assume. Focus on learning everything you can from those around you. Everyone has something interesting to teach you if you set aside your ego and listen. M.Sc. in hand, I moved to Ontario and worked in the environmental consulting business as a hydrogeologist. I came to realize that armed with the skills of empathy and listening, I did like working with people after all, and I made a pretty good project manager. In fact, I had leadership skills. I was an excellent “second banana.” I took pride in how much my bosses relied on me to get things done behind the scenes. One day my boss approached me and one of my colleagues in the hall. He said, “I’m planning a reorganization and I need to promote someone to Vice President and it will be one of you two, who wants it?” To this day I don’t really know why I had such a sudden reaction, but I immediately took a step back and pointed at my colleague. I didn’t say a word, just pointed at him. A month later he was my boss. PIECE OF ADVICE #3: Your career starts out like a leaf in a stream, you float along learning the ropes but if you don’t take charge, you will just end up where you drift. Don’t be passive, make some goals and a plan to achieve them, with these you have a way to navigate the stream to get to where you want to go. When you engage with a mentor, you are adding a motor to get where you want to go faster. After I realized my mistake, I started engaging people as mentors, and trying to demonstrate that I was a senior manager. I had the skills, why didn’t I demonstrate them more openly? I started speaking out – a lot. I came up with ideas and strategies to improve the business. After a few years, there was another re-org, and I got that VP job. I loved it! I had really hit my stride. But it had taken me too long to get here. PIECE OF ADVICE #4: Go for it! You don’t have to have 90% of the qualifications of a job to apply; if you meet 50% go for it! You can demonstrate that you can quickly learn the rest. If it doesn’t work out this time, you

A Celebration of Kingston Geology

We at the APGO Education Foundation are always looking for an excuse to celebrate geology. What better way to do that than to sing the geological praises of the Kingston area! On Saturday, May 7, 2022, the APGO Education Foundation and Mining Matters will be hosting a table at the Science Rendezvous event in Kingston, Ontario, at the Leon’s Centre. We hope that you will drop by and talk a bit of shop with us, because we haven’t been able to talk about geology with you in person for so long! This year our theme is “The Geology of Kingston.” From May 7-22, we will be offering a geology themed scavenger hunt where you can earn your digital “Geo-Explorer Badge” of Kingston, and a chance to win one of five cool prizes. Choose from a list of geologically interesting rocks listed on our site, then visit a minimum of six of those rocks located either on Queen’s campus or along the Kingston Waterfront. Take an original photo of the rocks you visit, then submit them to us online. That’s it! If you have visited the correct rocks and submitted an original photo, then you will qualify to win one of five beautiful geology textbooks. Five winners will be randomly selected from qualifying entries. You can also visit us at our booth on May 7th to look at some rock samples of Kingston and talk about how they formed. Did you know that Kingston is also called the Limestone City? People used to build limestone buildings right on top of the limestone they excavated to make them! But limestone isn’t all that Kingston has to offer. Not even a little bit. To say that Kingston has a complicated past would be a big understatement. The area shows evidence of so many geologic events throughout the past billion-plus years that it requires a lot of detective work by geologists to try and piece these events together. Perhaps we’ll never know the full detailed story; however, we can be sure it will give geologists something to think about for centuries to come. To the northeast of Kingston lies a strip of Precambrian rock called the Frontenac Arch. It connects the Precambrian rocks of Algonquin Park to the northwest to those of the Adirondack Mountains to the southeast. The rocks themselves were formed between 1.1 to 1.4 billion years ago, the later stages of which were thought to be a time when there was quite a bit of volcanic activity, resulting in a lot of magma being deposited on the continent1. As if all this magma spewing all over the ground wasn’t enough excitement, the igneous rocks that formed from this magmatism were then deformed due to a process called metamorphism. This metamorphism was a result of an incredibly massive mountain-building event, or what geoscientists call “orogenesis”. This mountain building event is called the Grenville Orogeny, and it lasted until about 980 million years ago. The mountain range itself was massive – it ran from Labrador, Canada, down to Mexico, in a northeast to southwest direction. The mountains formed when at least two continental landmasses collided with Laurentia, the large North American continental landmass at the time. The term “collide” implies an immediate event. But the movement of continental plates is not instantaneous; average plate movement is 10 cm per year. While this rate of movement might seem inconsequential at first, remember that continents are ridiculously massive in size and just because they come in contact with another on-coming continent does not mean they stop moving! Once a continent collides with another continent head-on, the ground starts to buckle and has nowhere to go but up. Think about the last time you shoveled your driveway (brr!). When you put your shovel down, the snow is flat and beautiful, just as it was deposited. When you start to push your shovel though, the snow buckles and builds upwards, forming little mountain-like structures made of snow on your shovel. In orogenesis, instead of snow, the ground itself is pushed upward on a massive scale, forming mountains. Over many millions of years, the Grenville Orogeny was formed in North America, its western edge giving Kingston, Ontario a high five. You might be thinking “Wait, I’ve been to Kingston and there weren’t any mountains there!” You’re right… and you’re wrong. Like all good things, even mountains must come to an end. Once the continents stopped pushing into each other, the ground was no longer being pushed upwards and the mountain building phase ended. With no upward building, the mountainous sediments had nowhere to go but down. Over the next several hundred millions of years, the powerful effects of weathering and erosion wore the mountains down until not much remained but their roots. When you walk over the Frontenac Arch, you are walking on the roots of an ancient mountain! At one point in time, these very rocks were at the bottom of a mountain as tall as the Himalayan Mountains. With that amount of weight sitting on top of you, you can imagine things would get pretty uncomfortable. The rocks found in the roots of a mountain are commonly subjected to metamorphism. Because of the high temperatures and pressures there, they undergo deformation, which alters the original (or “parent”) rock to form a secondary, and ultimately, metamorphic rock. For example, if a granite rock is buried and subjected to high temperatures and pressures, it can turn into the metamorphic rock gneiss. When you stroll over the Frontenac Arch, you see lots of granite and its metamorphic product gneiss. You’ll also see marble, syenite, monzonite, migmatite, gabbro, quartzite and pegmatite2. As millions of years passed, the North American continent moved so that what is now Kingston was positioned near the equator. By the mid Cambrian Period (approximately 520 million years ago) this area became a shallow tropical sea –a stark contrast to its volcanic phase 700 million years before! By this time, life was in full bloom in

Fascinating Geological Features near Peterborough, Ontario

If you’ve ever wanted to time travel, looking at rock outcrops probably wasn’t your first thought. But if you know where to look, you can see a glimpse of history written in the rock layers.

Uncut natural diamond crystal embedded in a rock. On top of the photo text reads "Geoscience Today. Diamonds in the rough: what kimberlites tell us about Earth's interior"

Diamonds in the Rough: What Kimberlites Tell Us About Earth’s Interior

Everyone recognizes a diamond when they see one. Mounted on a ring or embedded in a necklace, these gemstones are prized for their use in jewelry around the world. What many people don’t realize, however, is that diamonds offer much more than commercial value. While the use of diamonds has been traced back to ancient times, large-scale modern diamond mining began in the late 1860s with the discovery of diamonds in Kimberly, South Africa. The rock from which the diamonds were extracted was creatively named kimberlite, after the town. Today, kimberlite is by far the most important source of naturally occurring diamonds, and deposits are found around the world. Diamonds originate from deep in the mantle, hundreds of kilometres beneath Earth’s surface. A common misconception is that diamonds are formed through the metamorphism of coal. This is not the case – although they are both composed of carbon, coal deposits are a result of the burial of plants, whereas diamonds are much older than the first plants on Earth! The journey of a diamond from the mantle to the surface is fascinating, and to properly set the stage, we need to first learn about plate tectonics. Large, rigid continental plates move slowly on Earth’s surface, repeatedly reshaping our continents over millions of years. In some parts of the continental lithosphere, there are massive and ancient blocks that haven’t been a part of subduction or continental rifting processes in billions of years. These are called cratons, and they form the geologically stable interiors of present-day continents. Cratons are found on all continents, including North America; for example, the Superior Province extends across Ontario and Manitoba and forms the core of the Canadian Shield. Typically, cratons are older than 2.5 billion years, meaning they come from a geological eon called the Archean. These cratons are thick enough to reach into the mantle, creating the perfect environment for diamonds to grow – anywhere else, and the pressures and temperatures are not suitable for the crystallization of carbon atoms in diamond form. It’s on the surface of these ancient cratons that diamond-rich kimberlites are found, but the kimberlites themselves are significantly younger than their Archean hosts; most are younger than 150 million years old. So how did they get there? Transporting a diamond from beneath an Archean craton to the surface of Earth is no easy feat, not least of all because the conditions of Earth’s surface are far below a diamond’s “comfort zone”, so to speak. If you were to bring a diamond to the surface at normal geological speeds, it would convert to graphite, the physical arrangement of carbon atoms that is stable at normal pressure and temperature conditions. To keep its diamond passengers happy, the magma must follow a few rules. Kimberlite magmas are full of volatiles, like water and carbon dioxide, and are more magnesium-rich than typical magmas. This type of chemistry produces low-density, low-viscosity magma that wants to separate from the mantle and rise to the surface in a truly remarkable way. Geological models show that kimberlitic magma begins to move upward at speeds ranging from 4–20 metres per second, propelled to even faster speeds by decreasing pressures towards an eventual 200 m/s explosive eruption on the surface. Assuming a starting depth of about 300 kilometres below the surface, a kimberlite could complete its diamond delivery within 15 hours! Considering that many geological features occur over millions of years, kimberlites move from the mantle to the surface relatively instantaneously. The combination of the unique volatile-rich magma chemistry and rapid ascent help to keep the diamonds stable, so they don’t convert to graphite or dissolve into the magma. This eruptive transport gives kimberlite pipes their characteristic “carrot” shape that is sometimes accompanied by a fallback of ejected pyroclastic material, like ash and rock fragments. Since diamonds do not crystallize within the original kimberlite magma and are instead picked up from the mantle as the magma ascends, they’re called xenocrysts, or foreign crystals. But while diamonds tend to get most of the attention, kimberlites can also carry other mantle rock fragments (xenoliths) to the surface. In fact, diamonds themselves often contain mineral inclusions, and while these are heartlessly referred to as flaws by a jeweller, they can be immensely important for understanding the pressure and temperature conditions of diamond growth. So, not only are kimberlites an important source of economic geology, but they can also provide geologists with information about the chemistry and conditions of the deep mantle that we would otherwise be unable to observe. Sadly, there hasn’t been much kimberlite activity in the last 50 million years, which means that the diamonds on our surface today are likely the only ones we’ll ever find on Earth. Even though kimberlite deposits occur on all continents, they can be somewhat difficult to track down. Rocks from the mantle tend to be unstable on the surface of Earth, so even though kimberlites are much younger than their surrounding rock, their composition makes them more vulnerable to weathering and erosion processes. However, specific minerals in kimberlites, like garnet and ilmenite, can survive weathering and in the case of many deposits in Canada, glacial transport. When the kimberlite deposit is hit by an advancing glacier, resistant minerals from the kimberlite are carried along by the ice and exploration geologists can follow the path of these minerals against the direction of glacier transport to find the source kimberlite pipe. Indicator minerals are abundant in kimberlites and relatively rare in other igneous rocks, making them a very useful tool for finding a kimberlite pipe that today might be a crater filled by water or vegetation. This method, also known as drift prospecting, is widely used across Ontario and the northern territories to search for diamond deposits because of Canada’s extensive glacial history. While diamonds are relatively rare and difficult to find on Earth, they’re actually exceedingly common in space. However, at a billionth of a meter in diameter, they’re nowhere near big enough for an

Confessions of a Geoscience Educator – How Did I Get Here?

It is common to hear stories of highly gifted individuals pursuing a career path and ultimately landing their dream job after years of climbing the ladder. Sometimes I even tell people that I am very lucky to have landed my dream job. “Lucky” is certainly true, but the fact is, I’m not particularly gifted, nor did I imagine working in the career I have now, that is, being an educator. That sort of happened by accident. My job is amazing, but my work does not quite match what I originally envisioned. Yes, I have always wanted to be a paleontologist, and yes, people call me a paleontologist, but my main passion is teaching geology (and not much of it is actually paleontology). When people asked me what I did for a living, I used to reply that I was a paleontologist. Now, I’m more inclined to say that I’m a university teacher. I guess I am getting to that age where I wake up and think, “Well, how did I get here?”” (and now I’m cursing David Byrne because I know I’ll have that certain song in my head for the rest of the day). I am slightly bothered by the fact that I was born in 1966. This means I’m about as old as the theory of plate tectonics. I have only recently come to fully embrace this without the eye twitch! Plot it on the geologic time scale and it doesn’t look quite so bad. But I digress… I was born in the town of Olds, Alberta. My earliest memory of a rock that interested me was a piece of shale that a friend of the family showed me. It had a trilobite in it. Apparently, I had already shown an interest in rocks at this point, and she thought I might be interested in looking at it. I remember seeing it and thinking that it was the coolest thing I had ever seen. It looked kind of creepy, but beautiful at the same time. And a dead animal in a rock? Sign me up! I’ve noticed that a disproportionate number of photos I have of me as a kid show me looking at the ground for fossils (or rocks). I don’t know exactly what drew me to fossils and rocks. Maybe it has something to do with always having been vertically challenged (and being so close to the ground)? Or maybe it’s an obsession with dead things? I still don’t know exactly what it was… This obsession with fossils got me in trouble at times. I remember my mom being very upset with me for being nearly hit by a train while looking at the stones in the ballast of the train tracks. I was nearly hit by a car once when I was inspecting gravel on the side of the road too. I was developing an interest in dinosaurs as my parents would take me to Drumheller (about an hour and a half drive from Olds) to look for dinosaur fossils (the Royal Tyrrell Museum wasn’t yet constructed). Then my dad (a professor in horticulture) got a job at the University of Guelph. In Ontario. Well, dang – there goes dinosaur hunting. Fortunately, I found out that there were a lot of old invertebrate fossils to be found in Ontario. I started finding fossils in…driveway gravel (of course). I was very, very fortunate to have parents who were supportive of my strange interests. My fossil obsession continued through my teen years. I kept it hidden from most others, as I thought most people would think it was a really weird thing (but who are we kidding? Teens think everything is weird). One thing I did discover during high school is I always learned more about something if I had to explain it to someone else. This still holds true for me today. There are a whole lot of things I wouldn’t know now if I didn’t have to teach about them in my courses. The fantasy of becoming a paleontologist sat in the back of my mind for years. But I had always assumed that I would have to be an exceptional student to get into that sort of field. The thing was, I was not an exceptional student. Especially in science. And I was hopeless at math (and I’m still hopeless at math). My teachers in high school (and my guidance counsellor) told me that if I was to go to university after high school, my best bet would be visual art, music or maybe English. I don’t think any of them expected me to go into science. My grades, although definitely not stellar, were good enough to get me into the University of Western Ontario for science, and ultimately into the geology program. By the second year of my undergraduate program, I found my people. I became friends with other students interested in geology and was delighted to learn that a lot of my peers really sucked at math too. One of the most transformative realizations I came to appreciate from the courses I took was that paleontology was part of something much bigger than I formerly realized. Taking courses in a variety of subdisciplines – sedimentology, geochemistry, structural geology, petrology, and many others – made me appreciate the complexity and interconnectedness of natural processes in the Earth system as a whole. The idea that (in conjunction with characteristics of the rocks that contained them) fossils could be used to interpret past environments just blew my mind. And gaining the ability to visualize, in my minds eye, how a given rock formed (something I often to refer to as “looking beyond the rock”) felt like acquiring a superpower. So, while I came to my undergraduate degree wanting to study fossils, I left with a deeper appreciation of rocks – the context for fossils. So, l kept looking down, but my view of the ground became much, much bigger. From my undergraduate degree

Photo of balls falls showing the water flowing over rock layers. Text on top of the rock reads "Geoscience Today. Twenty million years of exposed rock"

Twenty Million Years of Exposed Rock

This article has been republished with permission from the Niagara Peninsula Aspiring Geopark website. Read the original article here. The Balls Falls Conservation Area, located prominently on the edge of the Niagara Escarpment, beautifully exposes a succession of Upper Ordovician and Lower Silurian rocks along a length of over 2.5km and a vertical dimension of about 65m. This excellent exposure is the result of river and slope erosion dominated by the northward flow of Twenty Mile Creek, over the Upper and Lower Falls, and ultimately into Lake Ontario. Paleozoic Geology Aside from the Niagara Gorge, Balls Falls is one of the few locations in the Geopark where bedrock formations are so well exposed to reveal the geologic history of the region. As shown on this geologic cross section, rock seen along the length of the valley spans a time of roughly 20 million years from the Upper Ordovician Queenston Shale to the Lower Silurian Lockport Formation Limestone. Many of the rock layers can be seen at the Lower Falls located next to the grist mill. It is astounding to realize that from this single vantage point, one can witness so much of the earth’s history. The oldest visible rock formation, the Power Glen Shale (438 my), lies at the base of the falls and the youngest, Reynales Formation Limestone and Shale, is seen at the top. Formations both younger and older are exposed along the valley. Overlying Rochester Shale and Lockport Dolostone form the structure of the Upper Falls while older rocks are exposed below the Lower Falls – buff coloured Whirlpool Sandstone is seen within the gorge walls and river bed and the Queenston Shale Formation, the oldest rock exposed in the Geopark, outcrops further downstream in the prominent cliff just north of King St. The Waterfalls The Upper and Lower Falls are located at two different levels in the stratigraphy. These two levels were created by a combination of scouring glacial action, ending as the last glacier retreated about 12,000 years ago, and by the erosive power of flowing water – most significantly as torrential glacial melt runoff at various periods in history, and later in a more subdued manner as drainage along Twenty Mile Creek. The Upper Falls at 11m high is classified as a curtain falls since the width is greater than its height. About 1.5km downstream, the main Lower Falls at 27m high is considered a classical falls because the height and width are almost equal. Further downstream there is a collapsed waterfall that formed over the course of the past 10,000 to 12,000 years, as the rock layers receded due to erosion. The Gorges The erosional history of the Gorges at Ball’s Falls is complex. Today, you see two active gorges – one below each of the two waterfalls. They have been excavated by two, and possibly more periods of erosion, separated by phases in which the entire area was covered by glacial ice. When the ice last retreated (which was at its peak was at least 1km thick) it left the area covered with glacial till, clay and silt thereby plugging these previously excavated sections of the gorge. As the glacier retreated and water flowed again in the gorge, the weak and loosely consolidated glacial remains were washed out and the “buried gorge” was revealed again. There are also two abandoned gorges – one on the west side of each of the two waterfalls. These abandoned gorges were active over 25,000 years ago. The Valley Slopes Weathering on the steep slopes of the gorges gives rise to two main types of slope movement: individual rock falls and rock slides. Individual rock falls take place unnoticed most of the time and is very common on open exposed cliff faces. Large rockslides take place less often – once every six to ten years – but produce a much more obvious result. In 1981, a slide on the east side of the valley occurred as rock at the top of the slope failed, slid down the slope towards the gorge floor and forced the closure of the road. This occurrence was an excellent example of how the gorge evolves – the gorge enlarges and rock is delivered to the river channel to be gradually eroded and carried downstream. The River and Water Flow Twenty Mile Creek is named for the location of its mouth, twenty miles (32 km) west of the Niagara River along the Lake Ontario shoreline. The Indigenous name for the Twenty Mile Creek is the Kenachdaw, which translates to Lead River. It is 50 km in length and drains an area of roughly 290 sq km. River flow in the river normally dries up in the late summer and early fall, although there can be considerable variation in the timing. The largest flood events are usually between January and April as rainfall and melting show pack on saturated ground with little vegetation cover often combine to produce dramatic floods. At the Upper Falls, water flows underground and re-emerges at the cliff on the east side of the falls. Contributor: Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority Author (photo on left): Perry Hartwick, P.Geo, Niagara Peninsula Aspiring Global Geopark Director and Resident Geologist, Co-founder and President of Upper Canada Stone Company, Ltd., which successfully operates a dozen quarries in Ontario under the Aggregate Resources Act.

Two images of a mine site, one is desolate and brown and the other is green and covered in grass. Text: "General Geoscience. What happens to lands after mines finish production in ontario?"

What happens to lands after mines finish production in Ontario?

Have you ever wondered about mining? How and why we mine and what happens to a mine when the valuable minerals that it contains are depleted? Did you know that if something can’t be grown then it comes from mining? Mining is an essential industry that provides the raw materials necessary to many of the goods and services that we use we use every day, including concrete and asphalt used to create roads and buildings; stainless steel used in construction, transportation and medicine; electronics such as computers and smart phones; and renewable energy technologies such as solar panels, wind turbines and batteries, important to the transition to a low carbon economy. Mining is the process of removing minerals, metals or other geological materials from the Earth’s crust. Reclamation is the process of restoring land that has been affected by mining. It is an important part of the mining cycle, a sequence of four stages that represents the “life” of a mineral deposit. The stages of the mining cycle follow an order and include exploration, which involves searching for minerals and evaluating a mineral discovery; development, which involves constructing a mine; mining and processing which is operating the mine and creating a mineral product; and the final stage which involves closing or decommissioning the mine, and reclaiming the lands disturbed by the mining process. Reclamation, or rehabilitation as it is defined in law, is the process of restoring the lands of a mine site to their former use or condition or making them suitable for a different use. Mining activities can have impacts to the surrounding environment, affecting vegetation, soils, wildlife, and the quality of air, and ground and surface water. These effects can pose hazards to public health and safety. As a result, all land affected by mining must be rehabilitated. The goals of rehabilitation are critical and include minimizing risks to human health and safety and the environment; and achieving a productive after use for a site. Rehabilitation rules, practices, and requirements are set by the Province of Ontario and differ depending on whether an operation is an underground or surface mine. Underground operations include mined–out voids and rocks structures that must be stabilized, along with any openings to the surface must be covered. All mining operations must rehabilitate tailings, the waste materials that remain after the valuable minerals have been extracted and are typically stored on the mine lands, and revegetate lands. Rehabilitation is defined and described in a Closure Plan, a requirement under the Ontario Mining Act. A Closure Plan is a mine site specific, legal document that outlines all of the actions to which a mining company commits in order to rehabilitate a mine during and at the end of its operation. Indigenous consultation is a requirement of the closure planning process. Local communities and the general public can play a role in the development of a Closure Plan, at the outset of the process, when it has been finalized and amended. Companies are also required to provide financial assurance to the Province, equal to the estimated cost of rehabilitation of the mine, as part of closure planning. You might be surprised to learn that Closure Plans and Financial Assurance must be in place before a mine is able to start operating! They are required as part of an extensive permitting process. Progressive rehabilitation occurs while the operation of a mine is still “in progress.” It can involve the revegetation of mined out areas, the revegetation of dry tailings and waste rock, the rock that is removed in the mining process to provide access to the ore but does not undergo any further processing, and the removal of buildings that are no longer in use. When a mine is no longer operating, the closure process can start. First, the mine’s infrastructure and facilities, including buildings, roads, and equipment are removed from the site. Then, the reclamation of vegetation, soil cover materials, surface water and waste rock takes place. This involves reshaping lands, restoring topsoil, and planting native vegetation, including grasses, trees, or ground cover. How tailings are reclaimed depends on whether they are inert (chemically inactive) or reactive (can react with other substances). Inert tailings can be rehabilitated using a vegetative cover. Materials called amendments are applied to cover the tailings before vegetation is planted in an effort to improve outcomes. Reactive tailings can pose a risk to the environment. Reclaiming these types of tailings can involve covering them with water or earth materials, preventing the tailings from oxidizing and mobilizing toxic metals as a result. At some operations in Ontario, thickened tailings are used to backfill underground mines. This is a sustainable way in which to reduce water use on site and stabilize reactive tailings. When the reclamation work is complete, the site is inspected by a government representative to ensure that commitments made in the Closure Plan are met and the financial assurance is returned to the mining company. In some situations reclamation becomes the responsibility of the Province. This can be the case for mines in operation before legal requirements for reclamation were in place. This is the case with the Kam Kotia site, located near Timmins Ontario. Operating for 30 years, the mine produced copper and zinc but did not undertake any land reclamation. Exposed reactive tailings and waste rock created acidic run-off that impacted the creeks and rivers located in close proximity to the mine. The lands and mineral rights were forfeited to the Crown in the 1980s, meaning that the rehabilitation became the responsibility of the government. Involving multiple projects and tremendous costs, rehabilitation work ultimately reduced the footprint of the Kam Kotia Mine from 600 million tonnes of unmanaged, acid generating tailings originally covering a 500-hectare site to an approximately 200 hectares of covered, sealed and controlled tailings, resulting in a 60 per cent improvement. The environmental conditions have significantly improved and can now sustain vegetation, control erosion, reduce contamination and support wildlife. Mine reclamation and rehabilitation practices