Program Description
Event Details
The geologic history of the Minas Basin – with tips for field trips!
The rocks exposed in the cliffs around Minas Basin and the sediments swirling around in its waters and along its shores are testimony to 330 million years of earth history. We can learn about this fascinating history by studying the evidence presented to us: fossils, minerals, geologic structures, tidal sediments and marshes. People have long found necessary resources here; their needs have shifted from when the Mi’k’maq hunted for fish and game to colonial needs of coal and other minerals and – more recently – the need to harness the tides to provide us with clean energy in a time of global warming and sea level rise.
In this presentation, I’ll take you on a virtual field trip to several locations around Minas Basin where we’ll discover this story. We begin at Blue Beach and we end with the marshes and mudflats of the Cornwallis (Jijuktukwejk) River facing Wolfville. In between we’ll visit the Guzzle, Cheverie, Blomidon, Burntcoat Head, the Shubenacadie River, Five Islands, and the Minas Channel.
Elisabeth Kosters is an earth scientist originally from the Netherlands. She moved to Wolfville 20 years ago. Elisabeth completed her BSc and MSc in the Netherlands and PhD in the US where she worked in the Mississippi Delta. She has worked in the US, the Netherlands and Canada, held teaching positions at Acadia and Dalhousie, as well as for geological surveys. Elisabeth is now enjoying retirement.