In our own Ottawa Valley, rocks can tell stories to those who listen!

An interpreter like Ottawa geologist David Sharpe, the guest speaker at the April 3 meeting of the Macnamara Field Naturalists’ Club, can help with their unfamiliar language. He’ll be talking to members and guests about glaciation in Canada and the Ottawa Valley in particular.

The expansion and retreat of ice sheets has shaped our world over millions and millions of years. While most of us get that retreating glaciers scoured rocks, cut out valleys and dropped deposits down-ice in sometimes strange formations, the understanding — for me at least — tends to drop off there.

Did you know that we’re still in a three-million-year ice age — an interglacial period to be exact.

Dr. Sharpe will “drill down” into a number of areas in which we have details of glacial landforms and sediments, filling in how this applies to mineral exploration, groundwater investigations and other applications to land use and construction.

He will also be sharing an exciting new idea that, in addition to the glaciers, much of the glaciated Canadian landscape has been modified by very large glacial floods that discharged from under the continental ice sheets. The unique features of Cantley’s sculpted rock formations are a prime example.

Don’t miss The Significance of Glaciation in Canada and the Ottawa Valley

When: Tuesday, April 3, 7:30 p.m.

Where: Arnprior Curling Club, 15 Galvin Street, Arnprior

Cost: Meetings (and presentations) are free for Club members and $5 for guests.

Guests are welcome at this and every meeting of the Macnamara Club.

Precambrian marble sculpted by hydraulic scouring under glacial ice, Cantley, Québec.
Photo by B. Halfkenny