Summary of the Geology of the Humber River
River systems in North America generally are subject to the physical forces of nature including erosion. The Humber River of Southern Ontario is no exception.
and owes homage to historical geological events including plate tectonics, oceanic depositional events and continental
glaciation.
The geology of the watershed generally consists of Ordivician age bedrock composed of the Georgian Bay Formation. This is overlain by Quaternary sediments infilling
an ancient fluvial valley system incised into the bedrock surface.
The Quaternary period covers the time span of glaciations classified as the Pleistocene, and includes the present interglacial period, the Holocene.
This places the start of the Quaternary at the onset of Northern Hemisphere glaciation approximately 2.6 million years ago.
The bedrock valley system, "the Laurentian Channel", drained the ancient Great Lakes basin of Lakes Superior and Huron into what is now the St. Lawrence River.
There are four main geologic features present in the watershed, including:
* A bedrock valley system that contains sand and gravel deposits
* The Niagara Escarpment forming the western boundary of the watershed
* The Oak Ridges Moraine that forms the headwater of the Watershed
* Areas where Quaternary sediments have eroded and largely in-filled with sequences of sand and silt.
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