We would have missed Ripple Rock if we didn’t know about it beforehand. Cars zip along Highway 17 East not realizing that right by the side of the road there is an exposed ancient sea bed.
If you are in the Lake Huron’s North Shores area, go west from Bruce Mines until you just pass the community of Desbarats, keep your eyes on the north side of the road and you will be able to spot the ripples. There is a small parking lot and a plaque just west of the rock.
This unique rock was discovered during the construction of the Trans-Canada Highway along the North Shore of Lake Huron. Fortunately the construction workers called in geologists to investigate.
The ripple rock is part of the Lorrain Formation of the Proterozoic age and is about 2.4 billion years old.
The outcrop is an example of an ancient sea floor known as straight crested ripples.
The ripples formed in shallow water of an ancient ocean,
hardened into sandstone,
and later buckled and tilted to its current horizontal position.
There are no fossils in the rock because there were no animals with hard shells at that time.
You probably think that we are crazy, but this is one of the coolest things we’ve seen during our travels.
Just look at it. This was the floor of an ocean 2.4 billion years ago!
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That is fascinating! Thank you 🙂
My pleasure!
I’m sure there are a lot of things that are right in front of our face that we don’t appreciate. While I’m not much of a geology expert, I have an appreciation for how it allows us to learn about the past.
Yeah, we drove right by it before!
how nice to explore such a hidden gem; it is amazing to be up close with something that far back in time…
I just love discovering little gems such as this one!
the joy of traveling!
I have always been fascinated by sedimentary rock. This is very cool. Thanks for sharing.
I know! There is something about them!
Very cool. We rock climb on a mountain where the rock is covered in fossils from ancient sea life! The world is an amazing place.
It sure is and fossils are very cool!
And it’s probably the only seabed without plastic bottles 🙂 Thanks for sharing.
Haha, you are so right!
Wow! That is cool. Awe inspiring.
Glad you liked it!
Thanks for sharing. Interesting to see the things we miss by travelling so fast. Stay well. Allan
Yeah, for us there is always the struggle of “getting there” verses “let’s see everything there is to see along the way”. Thanks for stopping by!