Barren lands and lush forests show Newfoundland's diversity

By Gisela Ostwald Sep 7, 2010, 4:43 GMT

St John's, Canada - The province of Newfoundland and Labrador, situated in the eastern part of Canada, mostly attracts visitors because of its wildlife and abundant nature.

The cliffs along the Atlantic coast are popular in summer with puffins and a host of other seabirds from across North America. The interior, meanwhile, is home to black bear, caribou and, to the bane of car drivers, the highest concentration of elk anywhere in Canada.

Newfoundland and Labrador also has several sights of geological interest.

The barren Tablelands to the west in Gros Morne National Park, for instance, are made up of the ultramafic rock peridotite and bear a closer resemblance to Arizona than to the rest of forested Newfoundland.

The formations are estimated to be 470 million years old and the area was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.

At the National Park's visitor centre, Ranger David Morrow uses Lego pieces to show how the formations originated in the earth's mantle and were forced up from the depths by the collision of two continental plates.

The rock lacks the necessary nutrients needed to sustain most plant life and also has toxic amounts of heavy metals.

'There is only the odd weed that could probably survive the harsh conditions in the Himalayas,' says Morrow. 'The Tablelands are a rarity. There are probably only a handful of areas on earth that offer this insight into the planet.'

A boardwalk weaves its way past creeks and boulders to a waterfall. There isn't a single tree or flower to be found in this moon-like landscape where the cliffs vary in colour from bright orange to dark red, caused by the peridotite's high iron content.

Some of the cliffs in Gros Morne are up to 1.5-billion-years-old, making them far older than the Himalayas, Rocky Mountains and Alps.

A car trip through Newfoundland from the capital St John's in the east to Rocky Harbor in the west offers the chance to experience another geological attraction.

Halfway along the journey west, the arid, pastoral landscape is abruptly replaced by thick forest which runs all the way to the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary.

The enormous difference between the terrain in east and west Newfoundland is explained by events that took place hundreds of millions of years ago.

Newfoundland is made up from the parts of two ancient continents which were once separated by the Iapetus Ocean. Today's western Newfoundland originates from Laurussia while the east from what was once known as Gondwana.

Fossils found in Greenland, north-western Scotland and the west of Ireland can also be seen in rocks in west Newfoundland. The fossilised arthropods seen in the east, meanwhile, match those found in Africa.

The Johnson Geo Centre in St John's offers visitors a deeper insight into the planet's geological history while those more interested in hiking should make their way along the 320km-long East Coast Trail.

Backpackers can also spend days in the Gros Morne National Park, which is open all year round, without running into another human being while, in winter, snow can reach a drift depth of up to five metres.

Amusement away from the wild can be found in St Johns with its elegant boutiques, galleries, and restaurants with a superb selection of fish and fruits of the sea. In the evening, the bars on George Street offer dancing and ale or Irish coffees, accompanied by traditional Irish folk songs.