11 - Gros Morne and the Tablelands

Gros Morne National Park is definitely worth the trip to Newfoundland—lots of hiking trails, lakes and nature to admire.  

This section discusses inland fjords (on the map referred to as ‘etangs’), particularly Western Brook Pond, the coastal lowlands and the Tablelands. The map is published by Parks Canada and is available in the visitor centers.

The Inland Fjords

One of its great physical features is the Western Brook Pond which really is a lake. It also is an inland fjord, a geographic feature first carved out by a river and then by an alpine glacier. The graph below shows how a stream-cut valley differs from a valley cut by an alpine glacier—it is usually much deeper and broader on the sides with steeper walls.

A. Sketch of stream-cut valley;

B. Sketch of calley after modification by glaciation

Source: Rocky Mountain. The Geologic Story of the Rocky Mountain National Park Colorado. Available at http://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/romo/lee/lee/sec1.htm

A fjord comes into existence if the alpine glacier ends in an ocean and then calves off at its end (see the sketch of the fjord). As the glacier retreats or melts it leaves a depression behind that will fill up with sea and river water. As shown on the sketch the glacier produces at its mouth where it calves a heap of unsorted rock material, its end moraine, which is characteristic of fjords. This sill is usually submerged as well.

Source: Geologic Genesis of a Fjord. Wikipedia accessed at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fjord#/media/File:Fjord_genesis.png

Western Brook Pond came into existence after all the glacial ice melted. With the disappearance of the ice enormous weight was taken off the land, the land itself rose higher above sea level, it rebounded. It rebounded so much that the sill would eventually emerge above water creating a barrier to the sea. Western Brook Pond thus became a long, narrow lake which is commonly referred to as an inland fjord. Its only outlet to the sea is Western Brook.

The Drainage Basin of Western Brook Pond
Source: Parks Canada, Western Brook Pond.

Western Brook.

Because the pond has only one outlet it takes the water about 15 years to be completely exchanged, a fact that makes the pond quite susceptible to pollution. In recent years, since the 1970’s, the use of the lake has increased via tour boating.

View onto Western Brook Pond from a western vantage point

Western Brook Pond contains some of the purest water in the world which is due to its limited drainage basin of the surrounding mountains, the sparse vegetation on those mountains and its general remote location. In addition, some of the brooks drain over limestone which cancels out the acidic drainage from upland swamplands thus giving the water a neutral pH value. The lake itself is classified as ultra oligotrophic, that is, it contains very few nutrients, a consequence of the fact that few plants can find root on its steep sides and bottom. Even though the lake is very clear and light can penetrate to about 10 m of depth, its depth and relative coldness (in summer it never gets any warmer than 5 °C (about 41 °F) hinder plant growth which results in low diversity of lifeforms within the lake.

The Geology of the Region

This photo shows the physical landscape into which the pond is carved. It consists of the Long Range Mountains in the background which are the result of a fault and the flat coastal lowlands before it (compare photo).  The rock itself is Proterozoic granite which metamorphosed into gneiss during the Grenville orogeny about 1,000 million years ago. This is a really old part of the planet.

Source: Parks Canada, Western Brook Pond

In some cases, the peaks of the highest mountains protruded above the ice sheets and were not subject to the erosion of the glaciers. These glacial features are known as nunataks.

The Flat Coastal Lowland

Since the area displays great geologic diversity showcasing rocks from many different time scales and of various origins it should not come as a surprise that the existing flora is also rather diverse. All in all, according the UNESCO web site here, the area distinguishes between 36 different vegetation types and communities.  Below are some photos of plants that seemed to be indicator plants in the coastal lowlands, often in the more swampy areas.

A "meat-eating" beauty

The Tablelands

The Tablelands. Photo taken at Norris Point.

Even an inexperienced eye surveying the physical landscape portrayed above will notice the difference between the mountains in the background and the surrounding mountains. The lack of vegetation is rather noticeable, even from the distance.

This region is one of the reasons why the Gros Morne National Park area became a UNESCO Heritage Site since it illustrates some of the processes connected to the movements of earth’s plates, to the theory of plate tectonics. 

1 -- Some basic geologic facts

General Geologic Events

Obviously the underlying geology of a place is of great importance to get a good geographic understanding of an area—some more so than others. Newfoundland’s geology is a definite ‘must’ in this regard. Thus, I will provide a very brief history of the area in geologic terms.

I start with Gondwanaland, a supercontinent, which was fully assembled by the Late Precambrian, some 600 - 550 million years ago, consisting mostly of South Hemispheric continents. See the geologic column here.

Gondwanaland was separated from Laurentia (North America) and Baltica (northern Europe) by the opening of the Iapetus Ocean (see photo below). Notice the peri-Gondwanan terranes (=fragment of the crust that differs sharply geologically from the surrounding area) of Avalonia, Armorica and others that  have assembled on the northern Gondwana margin from the craton of Amazonia to West Africa. 

Add caption

Originally, Avalonia developed as a volcanic arc on the northern margin of Gondwana. Eventually, it became a drifting microcontinent with the Rheic Ocean behind it and the Iapetus Ocean in front.

Ultimately, Avalonia collided with Baltica (Northern Europe) and Laurentia (North America) and Gondwana in the south creating a new supercontinent Pangaea. This collision also was the beginning of the Appalachian mountain range building  (Appalachian orogeny)--as well as that of the Caledonian mountain range stretching from Greenland, to Great Britain and Norway.

The creation of the Atlantic ocean rifted the continents apart causing Avalonia to be torn into several pieces and attached to different continents (see map sketch below).

The geologic region termed Avalonia is derived from the name given to the peninsula south of  St. John's in New Foundland Avalon.  Avalon, then, represents a piece of Avalonia with other crustal pieces distributed in Great Britain, Europe, Amazonia and West Africa.

General Geologic Events in Newfoundland


Newfoundland's geologic areas can be subdivided into roughly three regions:

1) The Eastern Zone consists of portions of Avalonia;
2) the Central Zone consists primarily of ocean crust and underlying mantle material stemming from the Iapetus Ocean subducting in this area causing the continents of Laurentia and Gondwana to collide. Huge slabs of ocean floor are preserved in the mountains of western Newfoundland as a rock sequence called ophiolite.
3) The Western Zone is that of the ancient continent Laurentia. 

2-Time Zones

The topic of time zones in the Newfoundland area is definitely worth some thought as well. Overall, Canada has 6 time zones which are for the most part regulated by provincial and territorial govern ments. To make it even more confusing, not every province (or portion thereof) sticks to Daylight Savings Time.

While much of Canada’s eastern portion falls into the same time zone as Washington D.C., there is a landmass that reaches far into the Atlantic which for this reason shows an appropriate hour difference in fact equaling this time with that of Greenlandic Qaanaag. This landmass represents most of Labrador (but not all) as well as New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. These areas are on Atlantic Standard Time (AST). Check the two maps below, one of time zones and one political map showing province borders.

Source: University of Texas accessed at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/world_maps/time_zones_ref_2013.pdf

Source: Wikipedia--Atlas of Canada (archived)

Newfoundland and a very small portion of Labrador to the north have their own time zone, another  ½ hour earlier than AST; it is on—gulp—Newfoundland Standard Time (NST). Indeed. Before Newfoundland joined Canada in 1949, it was its own dominion under the British Crown and thus could determine its own time zone. It is exactly three and a half hours away from Greenwich so that is what the dominion settled on. As a province--Newfoundland and Labrador--has two different time zones.

But that is not all. There are two French islands off the southeastern coast of Newfoundland, St. Pierre and Miquelon (under French control), with their own time zone altogether (UTC -3). 

3-Eastern Newfoundland - St. Johns and General Information

Signal Hill - The Johnson GEO Centre and General Population History

St. John's harbor from our hotel window

Unfortunately our first day in Newfoundland was a very rainy and foggy day even obscuring the iceberg which is supposed to be in the background (we saw it the night before) and which caused some problems in the harbor. We didn't explore the town much and decided to return. Instead we drove up to Signal Hill where a world-class GEO Center awaited us.

There was quite a pleasant surprise in store for us--one of the best geology exhibits for public education that I have seen coupled with good application examples.

Signal Hill - north of St. John's downtown area

After all, the province Newfoundland-Labrador (NL) is rich in rock diversity with its very old gneiss  in the northern end of Labrador (at 4 billion years old among the oldest rock found) or the dolostone deposits which are a product of warm shallow seas (among the youngest sedimentary rock here) in the northern end of Newfoundland--the latter holding generally much younger rock; a mere 600 million years old or so. Newfoundland also holds rock like peridotite; a rock that is rarely seen on the earth's surface since it is produced in the mantle area (is located in Gros Morne National Park) and thus is world-renowned.

The GEO Centre on Signal Hill (with Tom Crain, husband)

In addition to general and Newfoundland’s geology, the exhibit sports an account of the Titanic disaster which occurred south of the peninsula of Avalon as well as an Exxon-sponsored description of oil-rigs and platforms and the pathway of oil from the rigs to the tankers to the refineries. Oil spills or their potential are not covered.

Operating offshore oil platforms
(source: CBCNews Newfoundland and Labrador)

Offshore oil/gas reserves
(source: GEO Centre)

Source: Johnson GEO Centre

Demographic Changes in NL

The oil industry and its economic consequences is reminiscent of the Scottish oil boom; St. John’s is serving as support system for the oil rigs and thus is growing immensely. House prices have more than doubled within St. John’s, new suburbs have materialized with relatively large houses; and we were told that residents from St. John’s buy vacation homes around the wonderful coast about 4 hours away from the city for relatively steep prices. Thus, economic growth is also experienced by some coastal towns and villages. Canada's once poorest province turned within 15 years into the country's economic driver.

Other villages, however, do not participate in this bounty and are losing  their younger residents for job opportunities in urban centers across the continent, a trend that began in the 1950s and 60s when the government resettled entire communities and was ascerbated by the cod-moratorium in 1992.

Source: http://www.mun.ca/serg/issues.html

It is mostly the younger people in their child-bearing years that still leave the rural areas of NL to find work elsewhere. As a consequence, schools see drastic declines in students and many were forced to close.

NL's drastic drop in the number of births is well shown in the graph above. It follows that the two most significant demographic challenges confronting the province in general in the coming years have to do with aging and regional population shifts,  particularly in the rural areas. A good source of information on the topic can be found here.

4-Icebergs and Sea Ice*

Iceberg in New Bonaventure Bay
which is off Trinity Bay (see maps below)

Newfoundland, Canada

Source:www.townofbonavista. com 

Since we just saw our third iceberg drifting by ‘our’ Bonaventure Bay, I thought I will devote today’s blog to the phenomenon of icebergs in general in hopes that there will be a good explanation of how icebergs get into these bays. I must admit, it is time that I give icebergs some thought other than admiring them when I am lucky enough to see them crossing Greenland in a plane.

Source: Environment Canada

Icebergs form when ice calves off glaciers into the sea. Roughly 10% of the mass is above the sea, the remaining 90% are submerged. Incidentally, the latest research shows that the calving of large/huge icebergs actually causes' glacial earthquakes', a function of the calving glacier moving backwards once relieved of its front (the calved portion), then moving forward again. Earthquakes with a magnitude of 5 on the Richter scale have been observed in Greenland. Source: LiveScience.

Since glaciers owe their existence to snow (and pressure), the ice in molten form will be fresh water. Newfoundland’s icebergs calve off the western side of Greenland and then they will remain in cold water ocean currents (blue arrows on map below).

Source: Path of Cold and Warm Atlantic Currents

Icebergs will drift with the current around Buffin Bay in the north and then head southward toward the Labrador Current. The time for an iceberg to reach Newfoundland depends on the location of where it calved, on the wind intensity and environmental conditions an iceberg is exposed to as well as on the currents' speed as they differ somewhat. Overall, it may take between 1-3 years for an iceberg to reach 45 degrees North. Only an estimated 1 - 2% of large (!) icebergs will reach 45 degrees N--this is where they would cross one of the most important routes for ships of the entire Atlantic Ocean and this is where they would encounter the warm Gulf Stream, the North Atlantic Drift (see map above, red arrow).  And, this is where the Titanic encountered its fate in April 1912.

Source: University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) 

After the tragic accident of the Titanic, an International Ice Patrol was formed which helped avert another such tragic iceberg-ship collision; however, collisions do occur.

Below you see a map produced by the International Ice Patrol for July 2, 2014. As one can see the outer iceberg limit is beyond 45 degrees N, so these icebergs will definitely have an impact on shipping. Below see the warning that was posted for all ships in the area:

Source: weather.noaa.gov.

As mentioned above, ship collisions with icebergs occur relatively frequently. Here is a chart showing
particulars on this topic:

Source: National Geographic

Iceberg frequencies appear to have increased as would be logical considering that global warming would cause more ice to break off continental glaciers. The following graph shows iceberg occurrence for 108 years and it appears that frequencies increase, even when discounting extreme years such as 1984 and 2007.

The chart below shows the locations of known ship-iceberg collisions within the time frame of 110 years, from 1890 to 2000:

Chart showing known locations of ship collision with icebergs in the NW Atlantic
 Credit: Brian T. Hill / Institute for Ocean Technology 

 Sea Ice

In contrast to icebergs -- the product of ice formed over continents--sea ice is simply frozen ocean water; it grows and melts in accordance with the prevalent temperatures. Roughly, 15% of the world's oceans are covered by sea ice during part of the year.

Instead of absorbing the energy, ice surfaces reflect solar energy back into the atmosphere which keeps the temperatures in polar regions relatively cool. It thus follows that the more sea ice melts the more energy water will be able to absorb and thus the warmer the globe will get. The warmer it gets the more sea ice will melt--so this is a cycle that reinforces itself temporarily stopped by the polar nights.

Sea ice is instrumental for the formation of ocean currents. As sea ice forms, salt is for the most part pushed into the water below the ice. Water with high salt content has a greater density than salt-free water and sinks. Cold, dense and salty water sinks and moves towards the equator along the bottom of the oceans with warm water  flowing from the equator on top of it. It therefore follows that  if there is less sea ice, a change in the ocean currents will occur at some point.

The extent of sea ice is closely monitored; below you find a graph showcasing the last four years which is contrasted with the mean value of the last 20 years of the 20th century.

Copyright (2014) EUMETSAT 

Because sea ice is under the effect of winds, currents and temperatures, it undergoes various deformations. Thus it is usually classified according to age and according to its drifting ability. If the ice is attached to land or an iceberg, it is considered fast ice (= fastened ice), otherwise  it is called drift ice.The boundary between fast and drift ice is called fast ice boundary. Drift ice itself  can be found more offshore and is broken up into large pieces, the floes. Pack ice refers to either drift ice proper or to an area which has a lot of floes closely packed together.

Arctic Sea Ice Extent March 2014
Credit: National Snow and Ice Center

* NOTE: The source for the content of this blog originates from public domain sources such as Environment Canada, the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), the National Snow and Ice Data Center, Ocean and Sea Ice SAF, National Geographic, and EUMETSAT.

5.1-Making a Living off the Sea--Fishing*

Fishing

When rural Newfoundlanders say “fish”, they mean cod: other species are called by name (source here). It was the cod that brought the Europeans to Newfoundland. Cod, albeit seasonal, formed the basis of the societal structure in this newly found land. 

Cod.
Can live up to 25-27 years.
Can get quite large.
Seriously overfished in Canada and US.
Source: Fisheries and Oceans Canada

According to Fisheries and Oceans Canada--Underwater World, Cod in Canadian waters are divided into stocks which are defined as "units displaying characteristics unique to each stock with very little intermingling between other stocks." Also, each stocks shows a different migration pattern, for example:

• The cod of the southern Labrador-eastern Newfoundland stock overwinters on Hamilton Bank and migrates to the  feedings areas towards the Labrador shore during summer.
• The cod which overwinter on Funk Island Bank migrate over a wide area during summer from Southern Labrador to southeastern Newfoundland and contribute to the inshore fisheries in White, Notre Dame, and Bonavista bays (our present home from home--see map to the left).
• The cod which overwinter on the northern Grand Banks do not migrate during summer northwards along the Newfoundland coast, instead they disperse southwards over the top of the Grand Banks and westwards around the coasts of southeastern Newfoundland. (Source: Fisheries and Oceans Canada).

Adult cod feed mainly on capelin, herring, flounders and a host of other species. Capelin is another fish that migrates in masses to the shores of Newfoundland where the females will lay their eggs onto the beach. Males follow the females and will fertilize these eggs. The next big wave will wash most of  the fish away.

Photo of capelin at a beach off Trinity Bay

These capelin were and are the mainstay food for part of the summer for the cod as well as the whales. So, it is safe to say the cod follow the capelin and both are followed by the whales.

The early settlers of English/Irish origin mainly fished cod, capelin and some shellfish. The winters were harsh, people subsisted on salted fish, seal and root vegetables grown in their own gardens (mostly the work of  females).

Most of the settlers lived an indentured-servant-kind of existence. The big cod fishing companies who had their markets in Europe would give loans to households for boats and necessary gear; entire families would be involved in catching the fish (mostly the work of males),and in the back-breaking assembly-line-like process of gutting, salting and drying the cod (mostly the work of females). 

Drying cod on branches for the air to come from underneath as well.
Scene from 'Random Passage' , New Bonaventure NL

Towards the end of the season the big fishing companies would come with their big boats, weigh the amount of fish and sail off towards other coastal settlements. The price for the fish would be determined by the total catch and, of course, by the price it sold at the European market. Later that year these boats would return. The value of the new needed equipment and whatever else the household owed would then be settled which either left the household in debt or not. If not then they would receive an advance for necessities against future catch. If in debt and the debt was deemed too high, the household was cut off altogether from getting loans.

This is why the extra income by sealers in spring was so important to many if not most households.

* NOTE: The source for the content of this blog originates from public domain sources such as Canadian Geographic, the Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage Web site, the pageant's content in Trinity NL, the book Random Passage , the site for the TV mini series for Random Passage in New Bonaventure, NL, and Fisheries and Oceans Canada - Environment Canada.

5.2-Making a Living off the Sea--Sealing*

Sealing

Of the six seal species that live in Canada's north, it was the harp seal that was the most hunted. For this reason I will concentrate on this particular species.

Harp Seal
Source: Arctic Ocean Diversity

Harp seals migrate in large groups from the waters around Buffin Island in the Arctic Ocean to areas south around Newfoundland and Labrador and to the Gulf of the St. Laurence Stream. These areas are their birthing grounds. They will spend six to eight weeks here giving birth, feeding on small fish and crustaceans and raising their young until they can swim. When the ice recedes in February they will return back to the Arctic.

Source: Canadian Geographic

Europeans learned about the importance of seal, its fur, meat and oil from the Aboriginal people who had been hunting the animal for survival. Seal oil was a sought after commodity already late in the 18th century. In England, by 1780 it served to light lamps in homes and factories and to lubricate machinery which spurred on the industrial revolution. Soon there were hundreds of vessels each carrying 50 men or so engaged in sealing each spring.

Source: Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage 

In Newfoundland the sealing industry first expanded in Conception Bay with towns like Harbor Grace and later, from 1870 onward in St. John's at its center (see map to the left). Preparing and provisioning to go out onto the ice was big business.

Owners and captains came from these areas whereas sealers came from outports from all over the place. Newfoundland's seal hunting reached its peak in the 1840s--there is talk about legendary captains and heroic sealers as well as sealing catastrophes.

The work of the sealers and their captains was extremely dangerous. Sailing ships would steam into dangerous floes, sometimes the ships would get stuck and all the men had to pull the ship forward. The men usually left the ship and walked on the ice floes looking for seals, sometimes as far as 7 km away from the ship. Sudden blizzards and other weather phenomena made this enterprise even more dangerous and in such a case the only way back to the ship was listening to the distant ship's horn.

Sealers on ice floes.
Source: Museum 'Home from the Sea', Elliston.

Sealing provided much needed meat for many households, a means of survival at a time of the year when resources ran scarce. The money made from sealing was also an important resource for each household; with it they were able to buy household items and/or other necessities such as cloth. Some but very few sealers were able to become well off.

The museum in Elliston--Bonavista which opened June 2014 tells the story of the area's greatest sealing tragedy which occurred in 1914. A terrible storm took the lives of  254 men, an event keenly felt by many households in the outports. The museum commemorates these losses as well as all other losses that occurred in sealing tragedies over time.

Men on floes pulling their seals
Source here

* NOTE: The sources for the content of this blog originate from public domain sources such as Canadian Geographic, the Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage Web site, the International Marine Mammal Association, the museum of 'Home from the Sea' in Elliston-Bonavista, Arctic Ocean Diversity web site.