Gros Morne National Park is a Canadian national park and World Heritage Site located on the west coast of Newfoundland. It covers an area of 1,805 square kilometers (697 square miles), making it the second largest national park in Atlantic Canada after Torngat Mountains National Park, which is 9,700 square kilometers (3,700 square miles) in size.
The park is named after the second-highest mountain in Newfoundland, which is 806 meters (2,644 feet) tall and located inside the park. The French name means "large mountain standing alone" or "great sombre." Gros Morne is part of the Long Range Mountains, an extension of the Appalachian Mountains that run along the west coast of the island. These mountains are the remains of a mountain range that formed 1.2 billion years ago. In 1987, UNESCO gave the park World Heritage Site status because it shows a rare example of continental drift, where ocean crust and mantle rocks are exposed.
The park was first created as a reserve in 1973 and became a national park on October 1, 2005. A short film about the park was made as part of the 2011 National Parks Project.
Geology
The park's rock formations, made famous by Robert Stevens and Harold Williams, include oceanic crust and mantle rock exposed by the obduction process of plate tectonics, as well as sedimentary rock formed during the Ordovician, Precambrian granite, and Palaeozoic igneous rocks. The Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) of the Tremadocian stage and the entire Ordovician system is defined in the Green Point section within this park.
The park is located in the Great Northern Peninsula of Western Newfoundland. This peninsula is referred to as the Humber Zone, a Miogeocline, the Highlands of which contain the largest external basement massif of the Grenville Orogeny in the Appalachian Orogen. This Precambrian basement is known as the Long Range Inlier, Long Range Complex, or Basement Gneiss Complex, consisting of quartz-feldspar gneisses and granites that are up to 1,550 million years old. Mt. Gros Morne and Mt. Big Level lie within this Inlier. The western boundary of this inlier (along Western Brook Pond, St. Pauls Inlet, and south of Portl Creek Pond) consists of Devonian and Ordovician thrust faults, where crystalline rocks are thrust over Cambrian-Ordovician carbonate rocks and the Lower Paleozoic Humber Arm Allochthon. The Rocky Harbour mélange is a Lower–Middle Ordovician collection of greywacke, quartzite, dolomite shale, chert, limestone blocks within a black, green, and red scaly shale matrix, which occurs along the shore from West Brook Pond to Humber Arm (Bay of Islands). The south portion of the park, Table Mtn. (Tablelands) and North Arm Mtn., consists of Upper Cambrian and Lower Ordovician ophiolites known as the Bay of Islands Complex, Little Post Complex, and Old Man Cove Formation. Finally, a Pleistocene ice cap flowed radially across the island, developing fjords such as Bonne Bay.
The Tablelands, found between the towns of Trout River and Woody Point in the southwest of Gros Morne National Park, look more like a barren desert than traditional Newfoundland. This is due to the ultramafic rocks—varieties of peridotite and serpentinite—which make up the Tablelands. They are thought to originate in the Earth's mantle and were forced up from the depths during a plate collision several hundred million years ago. Ultramafic rocks lack some of the usual nutrients required to sustain most plant life and have a toxic quality, hence their barren appearance. Ultramafic rocks are also high in iron, which accounts for their brownish color (rusted color). Underneath the weathered surface zone, the unweathered rock is a dark green color.
Soils
The park has many different types of soil because they formed from various kinds of bedrock. In the northeast, the most common soil group is the Silver Mountain association. These soils are sandy loams with many stones, and they developed from glacial till that covers granite, granitic gneiss, and schist. Similar rock types are found under the St. Paul’s Inlet association farther west.
In the southeast, sedimentary rocks, including dolomitic limestone, support the North Lake association, which also has stony sandy loam. Near the coast, a narrow and uneven area of shallow loam called the Cox’s Cove association lies over shale, slate, limestone, and sandstone.
North of Bonne Bay, the coastal area is mostly covered by peat-rich soils of the Gull’s Marsh association and coarser soils of the Sally’s Cove association. An exception is the area around Rocky Harbour, where clay-based soils of the Wood’s Island association are found.
South of Bonne Bay, the park’s ultramafic tablelands have stony, nutrient-poor soils that belong to the Serpentine Range association. Similar soils also occur on nearby mafic uplands, where they are slightly more fertile and can support forest growth.
Western Brook Pond – Fjord
Western Brook Pond is a freshwater fjord formed by glaciers during the last ice age, between 25,000 and 10,000 years ago. After the glaciers melted, the land, which had been pressed down by the ice, rose back up, blocking the connection to the sea. The 16-kilometer (9.9-mile) long, narrow "pond" then filled with fresh water. The water in the fjord is extremely pure and has the highest purity rating given to natural water sources. Pissing Mare Falls, the highest waterfall in eastern North America and the 199th highest in the world, flows into Western Brook Pond. Sedimentary rocks, some containing limestone, are found along the westernmost shores. In other areas, granitic gneiss is the main type of rock.
Nature and wildlife
Gros Morne National Park has many types of land and ocean animals living in its coastal, forest, bog, and mountain areas.
Moose are a common animal in the park. They were brought to Newfoundland from the Maritimes around the year 1900. Research by Parks Canada shows that there are five to 20 times more moose in Gros Morne than in similar areas in other parts of Canada. Other large animals in the park include caribou that are found only in Newfoundland (Rangifer tarandus terranovae), black bears native to Newfoundland (Ursus americanus hamiltoni), and Canada lynx.
Smaller mammals in the park include Arctic foxes, beavers, red foxes, red squirrels, river otters, and snowshoe hares.
Harbour seals are often seen in St. Pauls Inlet. During the early summer, when capelin fish swim near the shore, several types of whales and dolphins may be found offshore. These include Atlantic white-sided dolphins, fin whales, harbour porpoises, humpback whales, killer whales, minke whales, and pilot whales.
The park is home to many bird species. Shorebirds live along the coast, while other birds live in bogs and forests. High mountain areas have rock ptarmigan and willow ptarmigan.
World Heritage Site
In 1987, the park was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of its geological history and remarkable scenery. The park’s geology helps explain the idea of plate tectonics and has helped scientists learn more about how Earth’s surface changes over time.
Because of its important role in helping people understand plate tectonics, the Mohorovičić discontinuity at Gros Morne was added by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) to its list of 100 "geological heritage sites" worldwide. This list was published in October 2022.
Trails
Hiking is a common activity at Gros Morne National Park. There are about 20 marked trails for day trips, which allow visitors to explore both the coastal and interior areas of the park. One of the most challenging day hikes is the 16 km trail over Gros Morne Mountain. This trail is also known as the James Callaghan Trail, named after a former British Prime Minister who visited the park in 1976 to support conservation efforts. A small disagreement occurred because Callaghan did not visit the trail that was named in his honor.
The interior of the park can also be reached through the multi-day Long Range Traverse, a trail that connects Western Brook Pond to Gros Morne Mountain.
Arts and culture
The park has many arts festivals, such as Gros Morne Theatre Festival, Writers at Woody Point, Gros Morne Summer Music, and Trails, Tales and Tunes.