Posted on 09/19/2003 2:54:36 PM PDT by blam
Ancient River Found Flowing Beneath Toronto
TORONTO (Reuters) - A river runs through it -- wide, deep, cold and ancient -- and few people in Toronto suspect it's even there.
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.
The discovery of the glacial river happened when workers were trying to cap two artesian wells, part of a stormwater runoff project in High Park, one of the city's largest parks, near the shore of Lake Ontario.
One well was capped, and then, as the other was being capped, the first well blew off like a broken water main, spewing water 15 feet into the air.
As that cap was being repaired, the second blew off, shooting up water and gravel.
Consultation with experts confirmed the workers had siphoned into the rumored, yet still largely unknown, Laurentian River system running underneath the city.
"We've discovered where it probably comes out into Lake Ontario," said an elated Bill Snodgrass, senior engineer responsible for groundwater quality management for the city of Toronto. "What we never really knew before was where it connected to Lake Ontario."
The existence of a bedrock valley was first documented in the first half of the century, but its exact location remained largely unknown, said Steve Holysh, a hydrogeologist working on the project.
It was likely formed one to five million years ago when layers of debris carried by glaciers covered up the bedrock valley.
In tests done in August, researchers at the High Park site expected to hit bedrock at about 40 feet, but it wasn't until a depth of 123 feet that they hit the river system, technically known as an artesian aquifer. They hit bedrock at 145 feet.
The water flows extremely slowly in a sand and gravel stratum, which could be a 20- to 30-foot layer on top of bedrock.
It would take thousands of years for the water to travel to Toronto from the groundwater system's origin. City hydrogeologists say the Laurentian travels at the stunningly slow rate of about one centimeter a year.
It's origin is likely near Georgian Bay, about 93 miles north of Toronto.
The water is drinkable, but it tastes distinctly of iron, and the city of Toronto has no plans to tap the underground river as a source of drinking water.
How do they know it has been there a million years?
Based on the rate of flow I would guess. Presuming that Georgian Bay is the source and the rate of flow is 1 cm / year, the math is relatively straight forward.
The damned being driven off the boat into hell.
Some trivia you: Contrary to common assumptions, the city of Pittsburgh doesn't get its water from any of its famous Three Rivers. Instead, they tap into a similar underground aquifer, often called "The Fourth River", which happens to pass directly under "The Point" and the other three surface rivers. The fountain at Point State Park taps directly into this aquifer, as do many of the office buildings and the convention center.
Like I said, it's not common knowledge, and I'm sure many of the surrounding smaller communities may get their water out of the other rivers.
It's possible that I knew about it since I grew up in a community near the old Aspinwall Water Filtration Plant (now Waterworks Mall), which used to supply the city. I'm not 100% certain that tapped the aquifer, though.
But I can also remember a bit about it from going downtown with my Dad when I was a kid. We'd drive down Rt 28, and just as we passed the Heinz Plant coming in to the North Side, there was a funky intersection near the old Fort Wayne Cigar Store where the street split at a sharp angle. Anyway, right on that pointy intersection there was a big set of steps leading down, underground -- and there was a big cast-iron railing around it, but it was fenced off so nobody could use the steps. I remember asking my Dad what that was for, and he said they built that back in the early 1900~20s (or something like that) when they were first trying to put in a subway. But construction stopped and the project flopped because they kept running into that dang "underground river". LOL!
this ones about the flooding and loss of a western NY salt mine - which is about 60 miles south of Toronto -
Yes you are, you FReak...
;^P
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