Niagara Falls
Geography of Niagara
The Niagara Region is located on a portion of a great plain which runs east to west from the northern Laurentian Highlands (Canadian Shield) approximately 161 kilometers north of Toronto, Ontario to the southern Allegheny Plateau which form the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains and the Appalachian Mountains.
The Niagara table land mass extends 100 kilometers (62 miles), both east and west from the Niagara River.
This plain is a small part of the Great Lakes low lands in which Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario lie.
The areas north and south of the Great Lakes low lands are the high lands.
Climate in Niagara has been similar to the current weather patterns for the past 5,000 years.
Today the Great Lakes hold twenty percent of the worlds fresh water supply. Ninety-nine (99%) percent of this water is of glacial origin.
The Niagara Peninsula is actually an isthmus.
The Niagara Escarpment begins in Watertown New York, USA and ends on the Manatoulin Island in the Province of Ontario, Canada.
It is 1,609 kilometers in length and is the weathered edge of a very ancient sea bottom. Throughout its length from Hamilton, Ontario to Watertown, New York the escarpment ranges from 183 meters (600 feet) above sea level to 189 meters (620 feet) above sea level.
The Niagara Escarpment is the ultimate reason the Falls of Niagara was born. Without the escarpment, Niagara Falls may never have materialized. After millions of years, the Niagara Escarpment continues to erode in a southward direction.
The Niagara Escarpment was formed and existed before glaciations. The land that is now Southern Ontario emerged from the sea of the Paleozoic Era at least 245 million years ago or more.
The Ordovician and the Silurian rocks of the Niagara Escarpment are of the oldest found in Niagara dating back to 430 - 415 million years ago.
The escarpment is not a fault line or a rift line but was created through erosion. It is a "cuesta".
