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Mingan River

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Mingan River ( French : Rivière Mingan ) is a 117-kilometre (73 mi) salmon river of the Côte-Nord region of Quebec. It flows from north to south and empties into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence .

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66-630: The Mingan River's source is in the Canadian Shield . It descends to sea level from an elevation of 579 m (1,900 ft) at its source, and is 117 km (73 mi) long. For most of its length it runs through a rocky (granite) valley lined with fir and spruce. Towards the end it flows between banks of sand and marble. The course of the river from its source is fairly straight, apart from two large meanders before it enters its large estuary. There are monumental falls about 9 km (5.6 mi) from its mouth, and other rapids further north. The river

132-515: A cover of till. Interpreting the glacial history of landforms can be difficult due to the tendency of overprinting landforms on top of each other. As a glacier melts, large amounts of till are eroded and become a source of sediments for reworked glacial drift deposits. These include glaciofluvial deposits , such as outwash in sandurs , and as glaciolacustrine and glaciomarine deposits, such as varves (annual layers) in any proglacial lakes which may form. Erosion of till may take place even in

198-631: A deep, common, joined bedrock region in eastern and central Canada , the shield stretches north from the Great Lakes to the Arctic Ocean , covering over half of Canada and most of Greenland ; it also extends south into the northern reaches of the continental United States . The Canadian Shield is a physiographic division comprising four smaller physiographic provinces: the Laurentian Upland , Kazan Region , Davis and James. The shield extends into

264-466: A higher water content behave more fluidly, and thus are more susceptible to flow. There are three main types of flows, which are listed below. In cases where till has been indurated or lithified by subsequent burial into solid rock, it is known as the sedimentary rock tillite . Matching beds of ancient tillites on opposite sides of the south Atlantic Ocean provided early evidence for continental drift . The same tillites also provide some support to

330-485: A mineral. The kimberlite eruptions then bring the diamonds from over 150 kilometres (93 mi) depth to the surface. The Ekati and Diavik mines are actively mining kimberlite diamonds. Till Till or glacial till is unsorted glacial sediment . Till is derived from the erosion and entrainment of material by the moving ice of a glacier . It is deposited some distance down-ice to form terminal , lateral , medial and ground moraines . Till

396-405: A myriad population of other birds, including ravens and crows , predatory birds and many songbirds . The Canadian Shield is one of the world's richest areas in terms of mineral ores . It is filled with substantial deposits of nickel , gold , silver , and copper . There are many mining towns extracting these minerals. The largest, and one of the best known, is Sudbury , Ontario. Sudbury

462-524: A series of 14 connected basins as well as a flow control channel. After completion the river above the first falls would provide 84% of the salmon potential in the river basin along 69 kilometres (43 mi) of the river. Canadian Shield The Canadian Shield ( French : Bouclier canadien [buklje kanadjɛ̃] ), also called the Laurentian Shield or the Laurentian Plateau ,

528-425: Is 4 to 12 km (2.5 to 7.5 mi) wide and is relatively flat, with some low hills no more than 150 m (490 ft) high. The bedrock is mainly magmatic , including an anorthositic massif and a smaller area of granitoid rocks. The bedrock on the plateau and piedmont is covered by discontinuous areas of glacial till no more than 1 m (3 ft 3 in) deep. The bedrock often shows in outcrops on

594-519: Is a geologic shield , a large area of exposed Precambrian igneous and high-grade metamorphic rocks . It forms the North American Craton (or Laurentia) , the ancient geologic core of the North American continent. Glaciation has left the area with only a thin layer of soil , through which exposures of igneous bedrock resulting from its long volcanic history are frequently visible. As

660-400: Is a sedimentary rock formed by lithification of till. Glacial till is mostly derived from subglacial erosion and from the entrainment by the moving ice of previously available unconsolidated sediments. Bedrock can be eroded through the action of glacial plucking and abrasion , and the resulting clasts of various sizes will be incorporated to the glacier's bed. Glacial abrasion is

726-582: Is a collage of Archean plates and accreted juvenile arc terranes and sedimentary basins of the Proterozoic Eon that were progressively amalgamated during the interval 2.45–1.24 Ga, with the most substantial growth period occurring during the Trans-Hudson orogeny , between c. 1.90–1.80 Ga. The Canadian Shield was the first part of North America to be permanently elevated above sea level and has remained almost wholly untouched by successive encroachments of

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792-491: Is a submerged delta with multiple channels and shoals fed by erosion from the banks of the downstream part of the river. The annual average flow at the river mouth is estimated to be 66 m/s (2,300 cu ft/s), varying during the year from 16 to 149 m/s (570 to 5,260 cu ft/s). When flow is low the salt waters can travel up the estuary 1.5 km (0.93 mi) to the Quebec Route 138 bridge. The Mingan

858-623: Is an exception to the normal process of forming minerals in the shield since the Sudbury Basin is an ancient meteorite impact crater . Ejecta from the meteorite impact was found in the Rove Formation in May 2007. The nearby but less-known Temagami Magnetic Anomaly has striking similarities to the Sudbury Basin. This suggests it could be a second metal-rich impact crater. In northeastern Quebec,

924-465: Is burnt trees and grasslands. It is an excellent river for salmon and trout. The savages visit it for hunting, and gather at Mingan when they return from hunting. This post is one of the most important of the North Shore. The Hudson's Bay Company has established a fur trading post there. Mingan harbor is also one of the best on the shore thanks to the islands that protect it against all winds. The ground

990-441: Is characteristically unsorted and unstratified , and is not usually consolidated . Most till consists predominantly of clay, silt , and sand , but with pebbles, cobbles, and boulders scattered through the till. The abundance of clay demonstrates lack of reworking by turbulent flow, which otherwise would winnow the clay. Typically, the distribution of particle sizes shows two peaks (it is bimodal ) with pebbles predominating in

1056-455: Is classified into primary deposits, laid down directly by glaciers, and secondary deposits, reworked by fluvial transport and other processes. Till is a form of glacial drift , which is rock material transported by a glacier and deposited directly from the ice or from running water emerging from the ice. It is distinguished from other forms of drift in that it is deposited directly by glaciers without being reworked by meltwater. Till

1122-648: Is fed in the north by the Mingan Northwest and Mingan Northeast rivers. Tributaries include the Mitshem Kutshieu River, which drains the center-west of the basin, and the Manitou River, which drains the southwest of the basin and joins the Mingan about 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) from its mouth. A tributary that enters the east bank drains lakes Charles, Jérôme and Kleczkowski. Waterfalls on the Mingan river include

1188-548: Is generally mature and virgin, with few fires and little forestry in recent decades, but there was a large infestation of hemlock looper moths ( Lambdina fiscellaria ) in the late 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s that caused considerable defoliation of the fir trees in the center of the basin. There are three waterfowl conservation areas with IUCN category VI along the south of the watershed: the Mingan West Beach, Mingan River Beach and Île du Havre de Mingan. Innu have long used

1254-413: Is navigable by light canoe to the foot of the large rapid about nine miles from its mouth. Beyond this navigation is interrupted by a series of rapids. The banks, from the sea to the foot of the first falls, for about five miles, are hills of clay on which there is a layer of sand mixed with black soil. Further on, for ten miles, the banks are granite rocks. For twenty miles from its mouth the only vegetation

1320-622: Is navigable from its mouth to the rapids. When the river's flow is low, salt waters from the Gulf can reach over 1 km (0.62 mi) from the mouth. The river enters the Saint Lawrence opposite the Île du Havre de Mingan. This island is at the west end of the Mingan Archipelago . The river's mouth is just east of the Mingan Indian reserve. It is in the municipality of Havre-Saint-Pierre in

1386-568: Is one of the world's best preserved mineralized Neoarchean caldera complexes, which is 2.7 Ga. The Canadian Shield also contains the Mackenzie dike swarm , which is the largest dike swarm known on Earth. The North American craton is the bedrock forming the heart of the North American continent, and the Canadian Shield is the largest exposed part of the craton's bedrock. The Canadian Shield

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1452-712: Is part of an ancient continent called Arctica , which was formed about 2.5 Ga during the Neoarchean era. Mountains have deep roots and float on the denser mantle much like an iceberg at sea . As mountains erode, their roots rise and are eroded in turn. The rocks that now form the surface of the shield were once far below the Earth's surface. The high pressures and temperatures at those depths provided ideal conditions for mineralization. Although these mountains are now heavily eroded, many large mountains still exist in Canada's far north called

1518-413: Is produced by glacial grinding, and the longer the till remains at the ice-bedrock interface, the more thoroughly it is crushed. However, the crushing process appears to stop with fine silt. Clay in till is likely eroded from bedrock rather than being created by glacial processes. The sediments carried by a glacier will eventually be deposited some distance down-ice from its source. This takes place in

1584-482: Is suitable for farming near the river. Potatoes, cabbages and other vegetables do very well. The basin covers 2,330 km (900 sq mi). It is elongated along a NNE/SSW axis about 110 km (68 mi) long and 20–30 km (12–19 mi) wide, although the northernmost 25 km (16 mi) is only 10 km (6.2 mi) wide. It is bordered to the west by the basin of the Saint-Jean River and on

1650-460: The ablation zone , which is the part of the glacier where the rate of ablation (removal of ice by evaporation, melting, or other processes) exceeds the rate of accumulation of new ice from snowfall. As ice is removed, debris are left behind as till. The deposition of glacial till is not uniform, and a single till plain can contain a wide variety of different types of tills due to the various erosional mechanisms and location of till with respect to

1716-464: The Arctic Cordillera . This is a vast, deeply dissected mountain range, stretching from northernmost Ellesmere Island to the northernmost tip of Labrador. The range's highest peak is Nunavut's Barbeau Peak at 2,616 metres (8,583 ft) above sea level. Precambrian rock is the major component of the bedrock. The current surface expression of the shield is one of very thin soil lying on top of

1782-620: The Greenland section is included, the Canadian Shield is approximately circular, bounded on the northeast by the northeast edge of Greenland, with Hudson Bay in the middle. It covers much of Greenland, all of Labrador and the Great Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland , most of Quebec north of the St. Lawrence River , much of Ontario including northern sections of the Ontario Peninsula ,

1848-499: The Precambrian Snowball Earth glaciation event hypothesis. Tills sometimes contain placer deposits of valuable minerals such as gold. Diamonds have been found in glacial till in the north-central United States and in Canada. Till prospecting is a method of prospecting in which tills are sampled over a wide area to determine if they contain valuable minerals, such as gold, uranium, silver, nickel, or diamonds, and

1914-449: The ecological regions of Quebec shows the river in sub-regions 6j-T and 6m-T of the east spruce/moss subdomain. Forests are dominated by black spruce ( Picea mariana ) and balsam fir ( Abies balsamea ), with a greater ratio of spruce to fir further north. Other tree species include white spruce ( Picea glauca ), jack pine ( Pinus banksiana ), paper birch ( Betula papyrifera ) and trembling aspen ( Populus tremuloides ). The forest

1980-738: The Adirondack Mountains of New York , the northernmost part of Lower Michigan and all of Upper Michigan , northern Wisconsin , northeastern Minnesota , the central and northern portions of Manitoba , northern Saskatchewan , a small portion of northeastern Alberta , mainland Northwest Territories to the east of a line extended north from the Saskatchewan-Alberta border, most of Nunavut's mainland and, of its Arctic Archipelago , Baffin Island and significant bands through Somerset , Southampton , Devon and Ellesmere islands. In total,

2046-527: The Minganie Regional County Municipality. It is 12 km (7.5 mi) east of the village of Longue-Pointe-de-Mingan . A footpath runs up the river's east bank from the Quebec Route 138 bridge for 5 km (3.1 mi) to a relaxation and picnic area. The local Innu people call the river Ekuantshiht Hipu or Memekuauhekau Hipu . The name Mingan is thought to be of Breton origin, meaning "white stone". The bay at its mouth

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2112-538: The Nakatshuan Mantu Hipis, Kakahtshekaut, Kastjekawt and Mingan Falls. The Mingan Falls are 9 km (5.6 mi) from the river's mouth. Water quality measurements in 1981-1985 at the Route 138 bridge showed the water was acidic but quality was satisfactory, the main problem being turbidity. The connected lakes André and Charles in the north of the basin cover 5.93 km (2.29 sq mi), Lake Kleczkowski in

2178-812: The United States as the Adirondack Mountains (connected by the Frontenac Axis ) and the Superior Upland . The Canadian Shield is a U-shaped subsection of the Laurentia craton signifying the area of greatest glacial impact (scraping down to bare rock) creating the thin soils. The age of the Canadian Shield is estimated to be 4.28 Ga . The Canadian Shield once had jagged peaks, higher than any of today's mountains, but millions of years of erosion have changed these mountains to rolling hills. The Canadian Shield

2244-426: The bedrock, with many bare outcrops . This arrangement was caused by severe glaciation during the ice ages that covered the shield and scraped the rock clean. The lowlands of the Canadian Shield have a very dense soil that is not suitable for forestation; it also contains many marshes and bogs ( muskegs ). The rest of the region has coarse soil that does not retain moisture well and is frozen with permafrost throughout

2310-582: The careful statistic work by geologist Chauncey D. Holmes in 1941 that elongated clasts in tills tend to align with the direction of ice flow. Clasts in till may also show slight imbrication , with the clasts dipping upstream. Though till is generally unstratified, till high in clay may show lamination due to compaction under the weight of overlying ice. Till may also contain lenses of sand or gravel , indicating minor and local reworking by water transitional to non-till glacial drift. The term till comes from an old Scottish name for coarse, rocky soil. It

2376-583: The case of polar bears ( Ursus maritimus ), the shield area contains many of their denning locations, such as the Wapusk National Park . The many lakes and rivers on the shield contain a plentiful quantity of different sports fish species, including walleye , northern pike , lake trout , yellow perch , whitefish , brook trout , arctic grayling , and many types of baitfish. The water surfaces are also home to many waterfowl , most notably Canada geese , loons and gulls . The vast forests contain

2442-467: The coarser peak. The larger clasts (rock fragments) in till typically show a diverse composition, often including rock types from outcrops hundreds of kilometers away. Some clasts may be rounded, and these are thought to be stream pebbles entrained by the glacier. Many of the clasts are faceted, striated, or polished, all signs of glacial abrasion . The sand and silt grains are typically angular to subangular rather than rounded. It has been known since

2508-568: The coastal plain. There are few wetlands in plateau or piedmont, which have few flat areas suitable for their formation. However, there is a 2 km (0.77 sq mi) peat bog about 10 km (6.2 mi) north of the confluence of the Mingan Northwest River. The Rivière-Saint-Jean weather station, 23 km (14 mi) from the mouth of the river, reports an annual average temperature of 1.4 °C (34.5 °F) and annual average rainfall of 1,094 mm (43.1 in). A map of

2574-413: The difficulties in accurately classifying different tills, which are often based on inferences of the physical setting of the till rather than detailed analysis of the till fabric or particle size. Subglacial lodgement tills are deposits beneath the glacier that are forced, or "lodged" into the bed below. As glaciers advance or retreat, the clasts that are deposited by the ice may have a lower velocity than

2640-557: The east by the basin of the Romaine River . The river basin is in the Minganie Regional County Municipality . It is partly in the unorganized territory of Lac-Jérôme (71.1%) and partly in the municipalities of Havre-Saint-Pierre (16.5) and Longue-Pointe-de-Mingan (11.6). A small part of the basin is in the Mingan reserve (0.78%). The bulk of the watershed is on a high plateau that is slightly inclined towards

2706-603: The exposed area of the shield covers approximately 8,000,000 km (3,100,000 sq mi). The true extent of the shield is greater still and stretches from the Western Cordillera in the west to the Appalachians in the east and as far south as Texas , but these regions are overlaid with much younger rocks and sediment. The Canadian Shield is among the oldest geologic areas on Earth, with regions dating from 2.5 to 4.2 billion years. The multitude of rivers and lakes in

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2772-502: The giant Manicouagan Reservoir is the site of an extensive hydroelectric project (Manic-cinq, or Manic-5). This is one of the largest-known meteorite impact craters on Earth , though not as large as the Sudbury crater. The Flin Flon greenstone belt in central Manitoba and east-central Saskatchewan "is one of the largest Paleoproterozoic volcanic-hosted massive sulfide ( VMS ) districts in

2838-411: The glacier. Since the rate of deposition is controlled by the rate of basal melting, it is worth considering the factors that contribute to melting. These can be the geothermal heat flux, frictional heat generated by sliding, ice thickness, and ice-surface temperature gradients. Subglacial deformation tills refer to the homogenization of glacial sediments that occur when the stresses and shear forces from

2904-401: The glacier. These consist of clasts and debris that become exposed due to melting via solar radiation. These debris are either just debris that have a high relative position on the glacier, or clasts that have been transported up from the base of the glacier. Debris accumulation has a feedback-loop relationship with melting. Initially, the darker colored debris absorb more heat and thus accelerate

2970-403: The ice itself. When the friction between the clast and the bed exceeds the forces of the ice flowing above and around it, the clast will cease to move, and it will become a lodgement till. Subglacial meltout tills are tills that are deposited via the melting of the ice lobe. Clasts are transported to the base of the glacier over time, and as basal melting continues, they are slowly deposited below

3036-650: The melting process. After a significant amount of melting has occurred, the thickness of the till insulates the ice sheet and slows the melting process. Supraglacial meltout tills typically end up forming moraines. Supraglacial flow tills refer to tills that are subject to a dense concentration of clasts and debris from meltout. These debris localities are then subsequently affected by ablation . Due to their unstable nature, they are subject to downslope flow, and thus named "flow till." Properties of flow tills vary, and can depend on factors such as water content, surface gradient, and debris characteristics. Generally, flow tills with

3102-413: The most northerly parts of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Hydrologic drainage is generally poor, the soil compacting effects of glaciation being one of the many causes. Tundra typically prevails in the northern regions. Many mammals such as beaver , caribou , white-tailed deer , moose , wolves , wolverines , weasels , mink , otters , grizzly bear , polar bears and black bears are present. In

3168-470: The moving glacier rework the topography of the bed. These contain preglacial sediments (non glacial or earlier glacial sediments), which have been run over and thus deformed by meltout processes or lodgement. The constant reworking of these deposited tills leads to a highly homogenized till. Supraglacial meltout tills are similar to subglacial meltout tills. Rather than being the product of basal melting, however, supraglacial meltout tills are imposed on top of

3234-443: The northwest covers 9.16 km (3.54 sq mi), Lake Cugnet in the center-south covers 3.8 km (1.5 sq mi), the connected lakes Manitou, Gros Diable and Petit Diable in the south cover 29.2 km (11.3 sq mi) and Lake Patterson in the south covers 3.39 km (2.11 mi). Water bodies cover 8.73% of the watershed in total. Wetlands cover 1.81% of the watershed and are mainly ombrotrophic peatlands in

3300-631: The plateau during the Cenozoic Era. During the Pleistocene Epoch, continental ice sheets depressed the land surface (creating Hudson Bay ) but also tilted up its northeastern "rim" (the Torngat ), scooped out thousands of lake basins, and carried away much of the region's soil. The northeastern portion, however, became tilted up so that, in northern Labrador and Baffin Island , the land rises to more than 1,500 metres (5,000 feet) above sea level. When

3366-591: The plateau the rivers mostly flow in straight courses through old V-shaped valleys formed in the last glacial period. The larger rivers in the center flow in more winding courses through U-shaped glacial valleys, and in places meander. In its last section the Mingan River again follows a rectilinear course cut through the loose coastal sediments, then makes two large meanders before entering the Saint Lawrence. The river has an estuary 1.8 km (1.1 mi) long with an average width of 420 m (1,380 ft). The estuary

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3432-446: The region is classical example of a deranged drainage system , caused by the watersheds of the area being disturbed by glaciation and the effect of post-glacial rebound . The shield was originally an area of very large, very tall mountains (about 12,000 m or 39,000 ft) with much volcanic activity, but the area was eroded to nearly its current topographic appearance of relatively low relief over 500 Ma. Erosion has exposed

3498-671: The river declined during the early 2000s, indicating a declining population. In November 2015 it was reported that the North Shore Atlantic Salmon Habitat Enhancement Program was contributing CDN$ 565,000 to the Ekuanitshit Innu Council and the Manitou-Mingan Outfitters for work to give the salmon easier access to spawning sites upstream from the falls, which the salmon struggle to mount. The first phase had been started, and included

3564-579: The roots of the mountains, which take the form of greenstone belts in which belts of volcanic rock that have been altered by metamorphism are surrounded by granitic rock. These belts range in age from 3.6 to 2.7 Ga. Much of the granitic rock belongs to the distinctive tonalite–trondhjemite–granodiorite family of rocks, which are characteristic of Archean continental crust . Many of Canada's major ore deposits are associated with greenstone belts. The Sturgeon Lake Caldera in Kenora District , Ontario,

3630-543: The sea upon the continent. It is the Earth's greatest area of exposed Archean rock. The metamorphic base rocks are mostly from the Precambrian (between 4.5 Ga and 540 Ma) and have been repeatedly uplifted and eroded. Today it consists largely of an area of low relief 300–610 m (980–2,000 ft) above sea level with a few monadnocks and low mountain ranges (including the Laurentian Mountains ) probably eroded from

3696-496: The slopes and hilltops. The main valleys hold glaciofluvial sediments and some eskers . The coastal plain has large amounts of clay and silt deposited by the Goldthwait Sea after the glaciers retreated. These fine sediments were then covered by coarser sandy deltaic and estuarine sediments. The valleys of the streams and rivers conform to fractures in the hard bedrock, with straight-line sections intersecting at right angles. In

3762-481: The south and is deeply incised by alluvial valleys. The highest point is 814 m (2,671 ft) above sea level. The sides of the river valleys can rise 250–350 m (820–1,150 ft) above the river and include escarpments more than 100 m (330 ft) high. The piedmont area between the inland plateau and the coastal plain is about 20 km (12 mi) wide. It contains rounded rocky hills and rises to 300 m (980 ft) of elevation. The coastal plain

3828-464: The subglacial environment, such as in tunnel valleys . There are various types of classifying tills: Traditionally (e.g. Dreimanis , 1988 ) a further set of divisions has been made to primary deposits, based upon the method of deposition. Van der Meer et al. 2003 have suggested that these till classifications are outdated and should instead be replaced with only one classification, that of deformation till. The reasons behind this are largely down to

3894-882: The territory for hunting and fishing, and Europeans have been fishing for salmon since the start of the 19th century. The Pourvoirie du Lac Allard et Rivière Mingan, which does not have exclusive rights, manages fishing on part of the river. The river is known for Atlantic salmon ( Salmo salar ), and also has rainbow smelt ( Osmerus mordax ), brook trout ( Salvelinus fontinalis ), Atlantic sturgeon ( Acipenser oxyrinchus oxyrinchus ), northern pike ( Esox lucius ), lake whitefish ( Coregonus clupeaformis ) and brown trout ( Salmo trutta ). Other species include round whitefish ( Prosopium cylinraceum ), lake trout ( Salveninus namaycush ), burbot ( Lota lota ), alewife ( Alosa pseudoharengus ), American shad ( Alosa sapidissima ), Atlantic tomcod ( Microgadus tomcod ) and American eel ( Anguilla rostrata ). The number of salmon caught in

3960-413: The top of the stratigraphic sediment sequence, which has a major influence on land usage. Till is deposited as the terminal moraine , along the lateral and medial moraines and in the ground moraine of a glacier, and moraine is often conflated with till in older writings. Till may also be deposited as drumlins and flutes , though some drumlins consist of a core of stratified sediments with only

4026-454: The transporting glacier. The different types of till can be categorized between subglacial (beneath) and supraglacial (surface) deposits. Subglacial deposits include lodgement, subglacial meltout, and deformation tills. Supraglacial deposits include supraglacial meltout and flow till. Supraglacial deposits and landforms are widespread in areas of glacial downwasting (vertical thinning of glaciers, as opposed to ice-retreat. They typically sit at

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4092-404: The weathering of bedrock below a flowing glacier by fragmented rock on the basal layer of the glacier. The two mechanisms of glacial abrasion are striation of the bedrock by coarse grains moved by the glacier, thus gouging the rock below, and polishing of the bedrock by smaller grains such as silts. Glacial plucking is the removal of large blocks from the bed of a glacier. Much of the silt in till

4158-472: The world, containing 27 copper - zinc -( gold ) deposits from which more than 183 million tonnes of sulfide have been mined." The portion in the Northwest Territories has recently been the site of several major diamond discoveries. The kimberlite pipes in which the diamonds are found are closely associated with cratons, which provide the deep lithospheric mantle required to stabilize diamond as

4224-513: The year. Forests are not as dense in the north. The shield is covered in parts by vast boreal forests in the south that support natural ecosystems as well as a major logging industry. The boreal forest area gives way to the Eastern Canadian Shield taiga that covers northern Quebec and most of Labrador. The Midwestern Canadian Shield forests that run westwards from Northwestern Ontario have boreal forests that give way to taiga in

4290-577: Was called the Grande Rade de Meigan in 1735 by the hydrographer Richard Testu de La Richardière. The navigator James Cook called it the Baye de Mingan in 1784. The river is identified on the 1775 map by John Mitchell. According to the Dictionnaire des rivières et lacs de la province de Québec (1914), This is one of the most beautiful rivers of the region. According to the surveyor C.-E. Forgues (1885) it

4356-401: Was first used to describe primary glacial deposits by Archibald Geikie in 1863. Early researchers tended to prefer the term boulder clay for the same kind of sediments, but this has fallen into disfavor. Where it is unclear whether a poorly sorted, unconsolidated glacial deposit was deposited directly from glaciers, it is described as diamict or (when lithified ) as diamictite . Tillite

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