Thursday, September 25, 2008

Bay of Fundy in your mouth...brush thoroughly!

Here's a quirky fact for the strange but true section of my blog: if you are using toothpaste in North America there is a fair possibility that you are putting a small part of the Bay of Fundy in your mouth every day....

A section of our Bay that was once a tropical sea (during the Carboniferous period of geological time) is now a massive sedimentary deposit of gypsum. This is quite visible here, even from the roadside, as raw gypsum cliffs. I took this photo just off the 102 highway at St Croix near Windsor, Nova Scotia.

Our Fundy gypsum is shipped to the United States where, in addition to being made into wall board for construction (think: Gyprock), it is purified and (small amounts) are used in the making of toothpaste. So, the next time you brush your teeth give us your biggest Bay of Fundy smile! :o)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That photo would be from highway 101.

Unknown said...

My daughter had a geologist visit her preschool 2 yrs ago and tell the clas there are rocks in toothpaste! (much to her excitement) Can't wait to tell her they are from our favorite vacation spot!
Linda