• Old Wife

    The end of one world and the birth of another. Walk on the ocean floor and explore the last days of the supercontinent Pangea.

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View from the Old Wife Seastack. Image courtesy of Caleb Grant

 

Old Wife

The Old Wife is at Five Islands Provincial Park. One of the most striking coastal vistas in Nova Scotia, and one of the best exposures of a monumental event in Earth history – the breakup of the supercontinent Pangea 200 million years ago, and birth of the modern continents and Atlantic Ocean.

As Pangea ripped apart, the greatest outpouring of lava in Earth history gave rise to one of the Five (or Six) mass extinction events in the history of Life, wiping out the competitors of the dinosaurs and ushering in the true reign of the famous reptiles. The dark rocks are basalt – cooled lava – and the red rocks below are the sediments swept by rivers and winds in the rift valley

Geological Formation: Blomidon and North Mountain formations
Age: Late Triassic-Early Jurassic (circa 200 million years)
Directions: Five Islands Provincial Park is located 9 km west of Economy on Highway 2. Follow Bentley Branch Road approximately 3 km to the Park office. Ask for tide times and directions to the day-use picnic park where you can access the beach.
GPS Coordinates: 45.38798622, -64.05018408
Tide Times: http://www.tides.gc.ca/eng/station?sid=260

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