Grikes, Alvars, Flints & Karst Landscape

Whoever said there is no such thing as a straight line in nature had never been to a karst landscape like Manitoulin Island.

The island was formed by glaciers cutting through limestone and Dolomite rock and has such an interesting geology. Not that I’m a geologist by any means but I have become fascinated by rocks on this trip. In Michigan we searched for and found Petroskey stones and other fossils. We have a whole bag of rocks in the trunk to take home since there aren’t any shells on the Great Lakes.

Now in Manitoulin we see these big lines cut in the rock and wonder what the hell. Kendall consults his other wife, Reddit, and learns they’re called Grikes (or grykes) and are totally natural as well as a very special geological “thing”. It literally looks like someone cut lines into the rock.

The big square boulders are Clints. Again, looks like someone cut them into squares and dumped them.

And then you see these vast areas of rock that look like parking lots almost. These are called Alvars

Another interesting thing they do here is anchor their fence lines with these “boxes of rocks” as we call them. Because there is *no* topsoil here, they use these rock collection boxes to anchor the fences and sometimes the hydro (electric) poles. Helps them collect the rocks from their “pastures” and also hold the fences - many are from the 1800s!

That is what we have learned about karst landscapes this week - so interesting, especially for someone who grew up in Florida which is the exact opposite.

Tomorrow we head east towards Ottawa!