Laurentian River System (Ontario)

The Laurentian River System is an ancient river in southern Ontario, Canada.[1][2][3][4] The river predates the recent ice ages. The river valley was filled with glacial debris. Water still flows down this old valley -- underground. The source of the aquifer is thought to be near Georgian Bay, approximately 200 km away.

In 2003 Toronto city workers discovered deep, powerful artesian springs in High Park.[5][6] This is believed to be where the Laurentian River System drains into Lake Ontario.

References

  1. ^ "CAMC/YPDT - High Park". 2006. http://www.ypdt-camc.ca/Publications/FactSheets/HighParkBorehole/tabid/225/Default.aspx. Retrieved 2011-11-29. "Based on this, as well as on previous gravity work completed by the University of Waterloo (Gill and Karrow, 1996) it was suspected that one of the main outlets of the Laurentian River, a significant pre-glacial bedrock valley, was located in the vicinity of High Park." 
  2. ^ "Ancient River Found Flowing Beneath Toronto". Reuters. 2003-09-19. http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=25732. Retrieved 2011-11-29. "There's an ice-age river flowing deep under Canada's largest city. There has been for at least a million years but it wasn't until last month that anyone saw any real evidence of it." 
  3. ^ "Before the Ice Age". Lost Rivers. 2003. http://www.lostrivers.ca/points/beforeice.htm. Retrieved 2011-11-29. "The river that drained this area, the Laurentian River, flowed through the Toronto area. It had started from Lake Superior and flowed though the Lake Huron Basin, the Georgian Bay Basin and, through a valley in bedrock, now hidden by the Oak Ridges Moraine, to the Lake Ontario Basin and thence by the St. Lawrence Valley to the Ocean." 
  4. ^ "Discover the natural wonders of Toronto's High Park". High Park Nature. 2011-04-26. http://www.highparknature.org/wiki/wiki.php?n=Explore.LaurentianRiver. Retrieved 2011-11-29. "The drilling had gone down about 40 metres when a mixture of shale, gravel, sand and water exploded 15 metres up into the air. The drill had tapped into an ancient underground river! Called the Laurentian River, it is an artesian aquifer thought to be flowing very slowly from Georgian Bay through a layer of sand and gravel just above bedrock level." 
  5. ^ Jack Lakey (2003-09-18). "The hidden Toronto A river runs under it: Surprise gusher reveals ancient stream Pre-Ice Age course flows in the bedrock". The Toronto Star. p. A01. 
  6. ^ "Laurentian River System under High Park". http://www.waterconserve.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=25732. 

External links