Location Taken: Ontario, Canada
Time Taken: June 2010
The hard rock of the Canadian Shield produces some odd terrain. For large stretches of Ontario the land alternates between tree covered rocks rising high over the road and water-filled swamps decending deep below. These are old rocks, and the small areas where the water gathered deepened over millions of years, carved into the rock until the land is grooved and varied.
The Canadian Shield is a craton, one of the ancient hearts of the continents. The rock here solidified from the magma a long time ago, some of it untouched for billions of years. All around these hearts, land formed and eroded, grew tall from mountain building events and cracked open when land rifted open and new oceans formed.
It’s a rough land to tame, as the rocks are hard and ice-scraped from the last ice age, with little dirt for farming. The swamps have more soil, but they’re a bit too wet. The area north of Lake Superior is especially rough, missing the smoothed out sections found further to the east near Ottawa. It’s a wild land, though, one ruled by nature. We humans may have roads through there, but only a few, and those hard-won. The roads, rails, and power lines all follow the same route. The settlements are few and small. It’s an area you can truly get lost in, and likely will stay this way for a good long time.
