The Atlantic Geoscience Society has several education videos on our YouTube Channel. Descriptions of each video are provided below.
Has Climate Change Driven Human History? Lessons from the Past for a Future Climate
Travelling Speaker Series 2022, Dr. Rob Raeside
Following the last retreat of the Ice Age, human civilization has developed during a 10,000-year long period of remarkable climate stability. Through that period, however, subtle changes in climate have driven expansion of deserts, pushing early societies on to fertile valleys, with the resulting population pressures invoking agriculture, religion, war, and taxes. In both the Old and New Worlds, civilizations have come and gone, many because of changing environmental conditions with tantalizing suggestions of human origins. Even in written history, climatic conditions have had a hand in directing the course of human activities. From Viking raiding to the French Revolution, we see hints of climatic causes. What lessons can we take from the past as we move into an increasingly warmer and wilder world?
Rockhound of York Redoubt
Join Dusty, a Golden Retriever, and the titular “Rockhound of York Redoubt”, on a geological tour of the National Historic Site situated on Purcell’s Cove Road in Halifax. As Dusty walks about the site, his long-suffering handler instructs the irreverent rockhound in how to recognize the two main rock types exposed at the Fort―metamorphosed sedimentary rocks formed on the ~400–600-million-year-old Meguma microcontinent, and granite of the ~375-million year old South Mountain Batholith. The 9-minute video is a good introduction to local geology for lay persons and can be supplemented by “A teachers guide to the geology of York Redoubt National Historic Site of Canada”, Geological Survey of Canada Open File Report 6964; https://geoscan.nrcan.gc.ca/starweb/geoscan/servlet.starweb?path=geoscan/shorte.web&search1=R=292865.
Time Travel at Arisaig, Nova Scotia
Travel through time at Arisaig, Nova Scotia.
Journey back 460 million years to a time when
volcanoes erupted and lava flowed onto the land.
Explore sedimentary rocks that make up what is
considered to be the world’s most continuous
exposure of 440 to 404 million year old sea floor.
Each step you take covers thousands of years, and
along the way you can find signs of ancient marine
life. Look out for the fossil remains of brachiopods,
fish scales, crinoids, and trilobites. You can even
find trace fossils — the behavioural traces of
extinct organisms such as burrows — preserved in
the rocks at Arisaig. So … step back in time, and
discover Arisaig’s geological history.
Joggins Fossil Cliffs
Explore the Joggins Fossil Cliffs, Nova Scotia.
Step back 315 million years to a time when giant dragonfly-like insects flew amongst the 30 metre tall lycopsid trees, and the world’s earliest-known reptile, Hylonomus lyelli, roamed. Ferns and giant horsetails grew in the warm, humid environment, home to the giant millipede, Arthropleura, as well as fish and early amphibians. Join Brian Hebert as he leads this virtual tour of the UNESCO World Heritage Site to discover why leading scientists, both past and present, have studied this fascinating place.
The Recent Ice Age (1990)
Learn more about the massive ice sheets that covered the landscape during the Recent Ice Age and why sea level continues to rise to this day. Jay Ingram explores geological processes related to glaciation and how these continue to impact human activities.
Explore Atlantic Canada’s (newest) Global Geoparks!
In this 2020 AGS Travelling Speaker Series video, explore the Global Geoparks of Atlantic Canada with John Calder (2020). Learn more about Global Geoparks and see highlights from Global Geoparks in the Atlantic Provinces – a video presented as part of the AGS Travelling Speaker Series.