The Niagara Escarpment

Queenston Heights is part of the Niagara Escarpment, a height of land extending 725 kilometers across Ontario from Niagara Falls to Manitoulin Island. Over 430 million years ago, a shallow tropical sea covered most of central North America, and sediments and coral reef on the seabed were compressed into dolomite, a hard type of limestone that remained more resistant to erosion than the adjacent bedrock after the water retreated. The escarpment's cliffs are the exposed floor of that ancient sea. Its rugged terrain, home to a wide variety of plants and wildlife, forms a natural corridor through urban and rural areas, and in 1990 the United Nations designated the Niagara Escarpment a World Biosphere Reserve.

Ontario · Canada