Discover Canada and Explore the Geodiversity and Fossils of the Cliffs of Fundy UNESCO Global Geopark
- Wayne Munday
- 1 hour ago
- 7 min read
Sip back and discover Canada and explore the geodiversity and fossils of the Cliffs of Fundy UNESCO Global Geopark. Designated in 2020, the Cliffs of Fundy UNESCO Global Geopark stretches 165 Km along Nova Scotia’s north shore, between the communities of Parrsboro to Apple River, showcasing dramatic cliffs, tidal estuaries, volcanic headlands and expansive beaches shaped by the world’s highest tides. This is a landscape of towering red cliffs, basalt flows and faulted valleys that support diverse habitats from intertidal mudflats teeming with shorebirds like Semipalmated Sandpipers to the Acadian Forest, home to Red Spruce, Sugar Maple, and wildlife such as White-Tailed Deer and Bobcats. The geopark’s cliffs and tidal zones continually expose a remarkable geological record spanning over 400 million years, from Devonian mountain-building during the Acadian Orogeny to the end-Triassic breakup of Pangaea, which unleashed lava flows now preserved in basalt headlands and sedimentary deposits rich in fossils, including some of Canada’s earliest dinosaurs. Among the key fossil sites is Wasson Bluff that reveals the fossil-rich formations of the Blomidon Formation and the McCoy Brook Formation. Here preserved trace fossils and skeletal remains of prosauropods, early crocodilians, sphenodontian lizards, and cynodonts, as well as amphibians, sharks and fish like Semionotus have been found. These deposits offer an insight into ancient riverbeds, lakes and sand dune environments, and tell a story of the transition from the Triassic to Jurassic period. The Parrsboro Formation adds another layer where Carboniferous red beds preserve some of the earliest terrestrial tetrapod's through footprints and trace fossils such as Hylopus hardingi, Dromilopus quadrifidus, and Cursipes dawsoni, capturing the pioneering steps of land-dwelling vertebrates. Visitors the Cliffs of Fundy Geopark can hike basalt headlands, explore fossiliferous beaches, observe tidal flats alive with wildlife, and trace the footsteps of dinosaurs along ancient floodplains gives a sense of standing at the edge of deep time.
Designated as a UNESCO Global Geopark in 2020 the Cliffs of Fundy UNESCO Global Geopark spans a backdrop of sea cliffs, tidal estuaries, volcanic headlands for 165 Km from the communities of Parrsboro to Apple River along the north shore of the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia. The geopark offers a living landscape where geodiversity and ecology are inseparably linked and where habitats are shaped the by underlying rock formations and the world’s highest tides.
The Bay of Fundy has the world’s highest tides reaching over 16 meters. This huge tidal range is primarily a result from the bay’s funnel-shaped coastline. Each day, the bay experiences two high tides and two low tides, moving over 100 billion tons of water in and out. At low tide, the water retreats up to 5 Km exposing vast mudflats, while incoming tides create tidal bores with waves that can surge over 3 meters high in narrow channels. This extraordinary tidal system continually transforms the Bay of Fundy’s landscape making it one of the most dynamic coastal environments on Earth.
The Bay of Fundy tides continuously expose a spectacular assemblage of rocks, fossils, minerals and semi-precious stones such as Amethyst, Agate, Calcite, Coal, Copper and Jasper.
The Cliffs of Fundy UNESCO Global Geopark is the home to Nova Scotia's first people the Mi'kmaq Nation who have lived there for over 11,000 years and continue to share their legends of "Kluskap" a central culture-hero who is revered as a wise teacher and transformer whose stories explain the natural world and teach values of living in harmony with the Earth and tied to local landmarks.
Along the Bay of Fundy’s intertidal zone which is one of the most productive marine environments on Earth huge flocks of migratory shorebirds, including Semipalmated Sandpipers (Calidris pusilla) arrive each summer to feed on nutrient-rich mudflats. Vast seaweed beds and tidal currents nurture fish and shellfish populations while whale-watching excursions from Advocate Harbour often encounter Minke, Humpback and Fin Whales drawn by abundant sources of krill, plankton and fish.
Inland, the Acadian Forest known also as the Wabanaki Forest is unique to the Maritime Provinces of the Canadian Atlantic Coast. The forest blankets the Geopark and is part of the larger ecoregion spanning 24 million hectares of the northeastern United States and eastern Canada. The forest has a rich mix of both boreal and temperate tree species including the Red Spruce, Hemlock, White Pine, Sugar Maple and Yellow Birch provide vital habitat for wildlife including White-Tailed Deer, Bobcats, Red Foxes and numerous bird species like the Red-Eyed Vireo and Blue Jay.
At Cape Chignecto are the dramatic volcanic headlands where sheer cliffs rise above sheltered valleys. Much of the area is safeguarded within the Cape Chignecto Provincial Park and adjacent wilderness reserves that protect the rare habitats such as coastal bogs.
Among the Geopark’s most iconic landmarks are the Three Sisters sea stacks of towering sandstone pillars carved by the Bay of Fundy’s record-breaking tides. These formations are sacred in Mi’kmaq tradition where Kluskap is said to have transformed three mischievous sisters who played a prank on him while he was hunting Moose into stone.
The coastline tells a story of a dynamic time in Earth’s history spanning hundreds of millions of years from the Pre-Cambrian through to the assembly and breakup of the supercontinent Pangea. The end-Triassic breakup of Pangea produced massive lava flows preserved today in the Geopark’s basalt headlands and islands, while Mesozoic sediments contain fossils of some of Canada’s earliest dinosaurs. Glacial activity during the last ice age sculpted valleys, deposited moraines, and, as the ice retreated between 16,000 - 11,000 years ago, paved the way for human settlement.
The rocks of the Cliffs of Fundy tell a 400-million-year-long story of tectonic upheaval, mountain building and continental drift. During the Devonian Period (roughly 400 million years ago), this region lay at the heart of the Acadian Orogeny, a mountain-building event that formed when ancestral North America collided with Avalonia, a smaller continental fragment. The evidence of this collision remains preserved in the folded and metamorphosed rocks around Cape Chignecto, where ancient sediments were compressed into slate and quartzite under enormous pressures.
The Parrsboro Formation, located in Nova Scotia, Canada, dates to the Pennsylvanian Period of the late Carboniferous, specifically the Westphalian epoch. Formed by the rapid subsidence of the Cumberland Basin, accelerated by halokinesis or salt tectonics, the movement and deformation of subsurface salt layers due to their low density and fluid-like behavior under the pressure of overlying sediments. This combination, along with sediment deposited by crevasse splays during frequent flooding events, created ideal conditions for the accumulation of sand and mud. Over time, these sediments buried and preserved plants and animals, resulting in the fossil-rich cliffs that characterise the Parrsboro Formation.
The Carboniferous red rock of the Parrsboro Formation is prominently exposed along the shores of Wasson Bluff near Parrsboro and accessible at low tide. The Fundy Geological Museum in Parrsboro offers guided tours to Wasson Bluff. This formation is renowned for preserving an important fossil record of some of the earliest terrestrial tetrapod's and providing critical insights into the evolution of early land-dwelling vertebrates.
The most distinctive fossils are trace fossils including footprints left in the soft mud of ancient floodplains. Notable ichnotaxa include Hylopus hardingi attributed to a type of amphibian-like ancestor to reptiles, found in 1882 by John William Dawson (J.W. Dawson) a prominent Canadian geologist, along with Dromilopus quadrifidus and Cursipes dawsoni, providing evidence of pioneering land vertebrates including primitive reptiles and amphibians in the area.
Perhaps the most globally significant chapter in the Geopark’s story comes from the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic. Again at Wasson Bluff step back into the "Dawn of the Dinosaurs" and preserves some of Canada’s oldest dinosaur fossils of bones, eggs and footprints of primitive prosauropods, small, brontosaurus-like herbivores alongside a diverse array of ancient vertebrates such as therapsids, early amphibians, crocodile-like reptiles, sharks and fish like Semionotus.
These remarkable fossils were entombed during the tectonic upheaval brought about by the breakup of Pangaea when sand, volcanic ash and sediment buried these creatures. Wasson Bluff exposes several fossiliferous formations like the Blomidon Formation that reveals Late Triassic to Early Jurassic lake, river and sand dune environments. Here trace fossils of dinosaur tracks have been preserved of Grallator, Anomoepus and Eubrontes.
The McCoy Brook Formation a Early Jurassic terrestrial red bed indicates a semiarid to arid climate and a diverse fossil assemblage including prosauropod dinosaurs, early crocodilians like Protosuchus micmac, sphenodontian lizards such as Clevosaurus bairdi, and tritylodontid cynodonts like Oligokyphus. Together, these formations provide an unparalleled record of the Triassic-Jurassic biotic transition and the early evolution of terrestrial ecosystems on Pangaea.
The cliffs also yield fossils of marine invertebrates, including bivalves, fish remains, and microfossils from the shallow lakes and coastal lagoons that filled the rift valleys. These fossils reveal the diversity of this ancient ecosystem.
The Cliffs of Fundy UNESCO Global Geopark is far more than a breathtaking stretch of coastline it is a place where Earth’s history is written into every cliff face, tidal flat and fossil bed. For visitors it offers the rare opportunity to walk through landscapes shaped by continental collisions, volcanic eruptions and the emergence of ancient life. Whether you’re hiking the dramatic basalt headlands, watching the Bay of Fundy’s record-breaking tides, or uncovering traces of Canada’s earliest dinosaurs, the experience is nothing short of unforgettable.
