Wednesday, October 13, 2010

North America's 1st UNESCO Geopark announced for Fundy!

Big news on the geology front in a section of our Bay in New Brunswick: officials with the Global Geoparks Network, a UNESCO program, announced during their annual conference in Greece last week that Bay of Fundy's Stonehammer Geopark will join 76 other parks in 23 countries across the globe!

A geopark is an area that showcases geological features of global importance. UNESCO created the designation program to protect and enhance the value of old landscapes, while educating people about what lies beneath their feet.

The Stonehammer Geopark encompasses 2,500 square kilometres of land, stretching from Lepreau Falls to Norton. Sites within the Geopark include Rockwood Park, Dominion Park, the Hampton Lighthouse River Centre and the Fundy Trail, among others.

One of the really great places to see some of Stonehammer's geological scope is right above Reversing Rapids in Saint John: there's one set of rocks about 500 million years old right beside other rock about a billion years old. See this in our Bay of Fundy Travel Show episode for Reversing Falls.

Congratulations to everyone involved with Stonehammer's designation. Here's hoping that the new it means more interpretation & more opportunities to discover the Bay of Fundy's fascinating geology. Click here to join Stonehammer Geopark's facebook fan page

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