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Reversing Rapids, Saint John

Many visitors to southern New Brunswick are familiar with Precambrian rocks. They are prominently featured at one of the Province’s most popular tourist attractions, Reversing Rapids. As the St. John River makes its way to the Bay of Fundy, the river flows over the Precambrian rocks of the Green Head Group.


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North of the bridge are the light grey rocks of the Precambrian Brookville Terrane, part of Ganderia. To the south of the bridge are the dark grey, layered Cambrian shales of the Caledonia Terrane, part of Avalonia. This place marks the contact of two terranes, the microcontinents that split apart from the continent of Gondwana half a billion years ago and became welded to the margin of ancient North America.