47 



GEOLOGY OF THE REGION AROUND 

 PORT COLBORNE. 



BY 



Clinton R. Stauffer. 



General Description. 



The region about Port Colborne is a nearly level till 

 plain, which was modified by the marginal lakes of the 

 retreating continental glacier. Much of the land to north 

 and west is covered by a great peat bog, which has been 

 utilized to a limited extent in the manufacture of briquettes 

 for fuel. The higher land usually means bed-rock close to 

 the top of the ground, and it is not uncommon to see its 

 smoothed and striated surface in the gutters along the 

 highways and railroad tracks. 



The Lake Erie beach, in the vicinity of Port Colborne, 

 is chiefly sand, and the mounds adjacent to it are of the 

 same material, which the wind has heaped into dunes. In 

 most cases the dunes have been rendered stationary by 

 the growth of vegetation, but to the west of the town 

 some of them are in a semi-active state of migration. The 

 points of land (see the accompanying map) projecting into 

 the lake, however, are almost invariably outcrops of 

 Onondaga limestone (Devonian). This rock rarely rises 

 more than a foot or two above the water level, but forms 

 an effective barrier against wave erosion, which elsewhere 

 has been so destructive. 



Port Colborne lies within the Ontario gas belt, and 

 several of the wells may be seen in and about the town. 

 The gas is obtained from a stratum of white sandstone 

 within the Medina (Silurian), which is here about 450 feet 

 (137-2) m.) below the surface. The Medina, which is 

 chiefly red shales and sandstones, was seen outcropping 

 along the Niagara gorge, especially at the Whirlpool 

 Rapids and northward. It also outcrops along the escarp- 

 ment westward to Hamilton. 



The general dip of the bed rock of this region is to 

 the south, but it is usually too variable in amount to 



