T12.4 Glacial Deposits and Resources

Glacial and post-glacial events in Nova Scotia have produced a wide variety of glacial deposits and features inland, along the coast and in the province's offshore waters. Glacial features such as drumlins and eskers have influenced settlement patterns by providing agricultural land, good sites for housing development and workable aggregate resources for building and road construction. Materials range from large till with cobbles or boulders to fine-grained-sand deposits. Glaciation is also responsible for the large numbers of glacial lakes in Nova Scotia, formed by erosion and damming by deposits that obstructed water flow (see T8.2).

The most important areas, from an economic standpoint, are the glacial-retreat and post-glacial deposits, which include ablation till, glacio-fluvial and alluvial deposits (see T3.4). These deposits are found throughout the entire province and constitute the main source of (nonquarry) aggregate material. Glacial till is also the basis of many of the soil formations in the province (see T12.9)

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Additional Keywords:
hardwood forests, Ross Farm, Barrow pits, Silica Sand, Belmont operation, farms, Christmas tree farming, Cow Bay, Beaches Protection Act, kames, eskers, clays, drumlin fields, agriculture

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