Geology Picture of the Week, May 28 - June 2, 2007: Mont Saint Hilaire from Space and Ground

NASA Earth Observatory ^ | 05/28/2007 | NASA

[cogitator]

Go to the link in the header for the article and explanation of what these are. The picture below is of the Monteregian Hills; Mont St. Hilaire is on the left. The picture is half-size; click for full-size.

Mont St. Hilaire from the ground:

As seen from Montreal:

In winter:

In autumn (even nicer if the light poles are cropped out):

[cogitator]

Off for a week June 4-8. Have fun!

Searching for images of Mont St. Hilaire also indicated that some fine mineral specimens can be found here. Apparently there's a quarry on the not-as-picturesque side.

Please, no HRC jokes. Let us leave nature unspoiled.

[cogitator]

ping -- a little more searching had this to say about the Mont St. Hilaire minerals -- very interesting:

From: Le Mont Saint-Hilaire (English version)

"Approximately one million years ago, with the arrival of the glacial age, Mont Saint-Hilaire and the other Montérégian hills were slowly ground, sanded and rounded off by at least four successive glaciers. All of these geological processes gave rise to 293 distinct minerals, of which 16 are exclusive to Mont Saint-Hilaire." ***

*** Well, the minerals aren't due to glacial erosion, they are due to the igneous and metamorphic processes accompanying the intrusion and crystallization of the pluton.

"To give you an idea, here are the 5 most well known minerals among the hundreds: The famous serandite, a luminous orange or pink prism that can measure up to 15cm; siderite, a spectacular stone, of which we found hundreds in a single cavity; pectolite, a white transparent rock crystal; hilarite, a glassy brown prism; and leifite, a large crystal prism that is uniquely striped, and is rare at Mont Saint-Hilaire."

"Experts from all over the world have searched for minerals in our mountain. There are very few other places on earth that contain so many minerals in such a small space. In fact, Mont Saint-Hilaire has a representation of 10% of the minerals of the planet."

Now, hilarite might just be too tempting a target...

[kanawa]

I passed by it traveling from Ontario to New Brunswick a couple of years ago.
It looked quite impressive and unique from a distance.
I was curious about its origin.
Next time I'll schedule a side trip to see it close up.

[NRA2BFree]

Kewl....thanks! Enjoy your vacation. :o)

[Robert A Cook PE]

Crater alert!

[Robert A Cook PE]

Even now, 40 + years later, I recall the thrill (and awe!) of seeing the Meteor Crater (Berringer Crater) while out west with a bunch of 8-14 year old cousins.

Impressive holes knocked out of the earth with no warning. Berringer doesn’t stick “up” like these however, it’s sunken into a very large very gently sloped “mountain” so you can’t really see it while driving up. Only when you get to the top does the “hole” become visible.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Read the d*mn link Cook: Them’s plutons, not craters.

[muawiyah]

A little more grinding away and the great glaciers will eventually reveal a complete mountain range to the South exactly like this formation.

It will take a while though since there's several thousand feet of limestone deposits on top of it.

The excitement is building and I can hardly wait.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Cook points out to Cook that them there plutons are merely inverted craters poking holes in the Canadian air instead of air poking holes in the Canadian rock, and if the the good Inventer of the universe wanted craters to go where plutons are now, He’d of put the craters in the right place in the first place.

[cogitator]

Don’t worry, there’s always Sudbury and Manicougan if you’re looking for big bolide scars.