A Virtual Tour of The Ottawa River

The Precambrian Shield and Ottawa Valley/St.Lawrence Lowlands.

The current expression of the Ottawa River does not reflect how it always appeared. Aside from the effects of damming, the Ottawa was both a larger river and has changed channels several times. During the end of the last glaciation, as melt-waters flowed towards the oceans, the Ottawa River was quite larger than it appears today. Over time the volume of melt-waters declined and the river settled into the current channels it now flows through. This image depicts a small portion of the geographic boundary between the Precambrian Shield (to the north) and the Ottawa Valley / St.Lawrence lowlands (to the south).

In this image, the shield is expressed as the Gatineau Hills, the remnants of a once mighty mountain chain. We see the shield as a forested terrain with higher elevations, dotted with lakes. The lowlands are expressed as a flat lying, slightly undulating terrain that is now mostly converted to farmland. The soils of the farmlands were originally sediments transported by the melt-waters of the receding glaciers and help to define earlier shorelines. Examination of the image reveals the agricultural fields in shades or reds and browns. Many of these fields are of ripened hay (dry and golden) and/or tilled soils, both of which have similar reflective expressions as exposed outcrops. Some fields in shades of greens contain crops such as corn which have not yet ripened. At the edge of the shield terrain are cliffs and ridges of exposed outcrops that provide excellent opportunities for climbing or even ice climbing in the winter season. Agriculture is only one of many resource-based economies of the area. Logging was and still is a part of the Ottawa River history.

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