Igneous Boulder - Toronto, ON
Posted by: 
ras258
N 43° 39.561 W 079° 24.097
17T E 628880 N 4835279
This igneous boulder is thought to have arrived at this location more than 12,000 years ago.
Waymark Code: WMCX3Q
Location: Ontario, Canada
Date Posted: 10/21/2011
Views: 22
This huge boulder is balanced and supported in an upright position on the front lawn of Lord Lansdowne Public School in downtown Toronto. At first you don't think much about this rock but then you read the attached plaque and realize this boulder has travelled quite a distance, more than 200 kilometres, because of a glacier, centuries ago. This school was first built in 1888, the present building was erected at this site in 1961.
You will find this boulder on the Spadina side of the southwest corner of Spadina Crescent and Russell Street. It is north of College Street, west of Spadina Avenue.
The plaque reads:
"This basic ingenous boulder was found at a depth of 12 feet during the course of excavation for this school.
The composition is a very rare type and is assumed to have been carried here from Caribou Lake, north of Parry Sound, by a glacier during the great ice age approximately 12,000 years ago."
Igneous rock:
"Igneous rocks are called fire rocks and are formed either underground or above ground. Underground, they are formed when the melted rock, called magma, deep within the earth becomes trapped in small pockets. As these pockets of magma cool slowly underground, the magma becomes igneous rocks.
Igneous rocks are also formed when volcanoes erupt, causing the magma to rise above the earth's surface. When magma appears above the earth, it is called lava. Igneous rocks are formed as the lava cools above ground."
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Toronto Historical Plaques: (
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