Newfoundland

Long ago, plates of Earth's crust pushed together here.

Rock from deep under the ocean floor was pushed up onto the land. You can still see it today.

UNESCO calls Gros Morne National Park one of the world's best examples of plate tectonics. Long ago, an ancient ocean and the old edge of North America were destroyed and lifted into a mountain chain as the plates moved. A large piece of deep ocean crust, and even rocks from Earth's mantle, ended up on the land.

Much later, glaciers carved the park's landscape into fjords, deep valleys, sheer cliffs and waterfalls, making these rocks easy to see.

UNESCO's 1987 inscription (criteria vii and viii) describes Gros Morne as a complete portrayal of the events that destroyed an ancient ocean and the ancient continental margin of eastern North America and uplifted them into a mountain chain. Its rock sequences include intensely metamorphosed granite and gneiss of old continental crust, tropical carbonate shelf sediments and slope shales with abundant fossils, a complete cross section of oceanic lithosphere with large exposures of mantle material, and volcanic rocks of oceanic origin.

Glaciation then carved landlocked freshwater fjords, glacier-scoured headlands and highlands, and Parks Canada names the Tablelands, Green Point, Green Gardens and Western Brook Pond among the park's key geological formations.

On cliffs by the sea, rocks hold very old fossils.

They are prints of soft creatures that lived on the deep sea floor.

At Mistaken Point, on the island's southeastern tip, sea cliffs hold fossils from 580 to 560 million years ago. UNESCO says they are the oldest abundant, varied large fossils known anywhere. More than 10,000 fossil prints can be seen, from a few centimeters to nearly 2 meters long.

Most belong to rangeomorphs, soft-bodied creatures with a branching pattern that lived on the deep sea floor. Layers of volcanic ash buried and preserved them in fine detail.

Mistaken Point (UNESCO, 2016, criterion viii) is a 146-ha, 17 km strip of eroding coastal cliffs in Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve. Its 2 km thick deep-marine sequence dates to the middle Ediacaran Period (580 to 560 million years ago) and contains more than 10,000 fossil impressions, from a few centimeters to nearly 2 m, on more than 100 exhumed sea-floor surfaces, some with up to 4,500 megafossils.

Most are rangeomorphs, an extinct group of fractal organisms near the base of animal evolution, buried and preserved by influxes of volcanic ash. Radiometric dating of the ash beds is building a chronology for 20 million years of early complex life.

Caribou walk across the bogs and hills.

Moose were brought to the island long ago. The park now keeps their numbers in check.

Because Newfoundland is cut off from the mainland, Parks Canada says it has only fourteen native mammals. Woodland caribou wander from bogs and forests up to the high barrens, and in winter they dig through half a meter of snow to reach lichens. Arctic hares here are the most southerly population of this tundra animal.

Moose were brought to Newfoundland over a century ago. With no predators, they grew so numerous in Gros Morne that they stopped forests from growing back, so the park now keeps their numbers at a sustainable level.

Parks Canada lists only fourteen native mammals for the island, no native amphibians or reptiles, and many endemic Newfoundland subspecies, along with many introduced species. Moose, introduced over a century ago, peaked at 7,800 in Gros Morne in 1995; heavy browsing (up to 18 kg of trees and shrubs per moose per day) was the main stressor on the park's boreal forests of fir, spruce and birch, which cover almost half the park.

Both male and female woodland caribou grow antlers. Gros Morne Mountain closes from May to the last Friday in June to protect newborn caribou and ptarmigan, and rock ptarmigan are counted there each spring as a measure of the health of the barrens.

Bears live in the woods. Keep food put away.

If you see a bear, stay calm and walk away slowly with a grown-up.

Black bears live throughout Gros Morne but are rarely seen. Parks Canada's advice if you meet one: stay calm, do not run, back away slowly while facing the bear and talking softly, and take another route. Keep your campsite clean and store food in your vehicle.

Gros Morne Mountain closes from May to late June to protect newborn caribou and ptarmigan, so check before you go.

Parks Canada advises that black bears in Gros Morne are wary of people but attracted by food. If you encounter one, stay calm, do not run or play dead, stop, back away slowly while facing it and speaking softly, and take an alternate route; keep campsites clean and food stored in vehicles.

Gros Morne Mountain is closed from May to the last Friday in June to protect newborn caribou and ptarmigan. PlayOwl's own advice: at Mistaken Point, fossils are viewed under supervision, as UNESCO notes, so join a guided visit.