Canyon Sainte-Anne is a spectacular, steep-sided gorge, carved by the Sainte-Anne-du-Nord River, 6 km east of Beaupré, Quebec, Canada. The river drops over a 74 m (243 ft) waterfall within the canyon.

Location

Canyon Sainte-Anne is located 25 to 30 minutes east of Quebec City, at the edge of the Beaupré Coast and Charlevoix regions. The Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré Basilica, the ski resort Mont Sainte-Anne, the Montmorency falls and the Cap Tourmente national wildlife reserve are in the same area.

Geology

Canyon is part of the Canadian Sheild, a fundamental rock formation of northern parts of Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec, all around the Hudson Bay. It all started in the Precambrian Age (1,2 billion years ago) when hard rock formed the canyon's walls and bottom. This metamorphic rock, called granitic gneiss, was formed at high pressure in the extremely hot depths of earth then rose to the surface through movements in the earth's crust. A bit later, a second rocky mass appeared, the sedimentary Palaeozoic rock formed some 450 million years ago by the compression of underwater sediments.

Much later, two successive ice ages covered North America. It is during the melting of the second one led to the formation of the current hydrographic system (the St. Lawrence Lowerlands area with the St. Lawrence River, Orleans Island, and the Magdalene Islands, as well as all the rivers known today). Erosion then finished the job by changing the general appearance of the region.

credited to wikipedia