In its long and rocky past, the place we call Ontario has traveled across the equator, been peppered and pockmarked by meteorites, seen the rise and decline of towering mountains, and gave rise to some very strange and now extinct organisms. In fact, what seems like a changeless landscape was once covered by vast seas and huge, continent-wide ice sheets which measured 2 kilometres thick, leaving in their wake, the Great Lakes. Ontario Rocks tells this fascinating 3 billion year long story of Ontario's geological evolution, from its beginnings as part of an early landmass called Arctica, its incorporation into enormous supercontinents, through to the repeated ice ages and abrupt climatic changes of the last few thousand years. Merging Canadian geology with global evolution, this highly illustrated survey also touches on the development of Ontario's mining and oil industries, and the commercial use of rocks as building material. Ontario Rocks concludes with an exploration of the "artificial" urban landscape, and how geologists use their knowledge to safeguard groundwater and rivers, dispose of wastes and understand the hazards posed by earthquakes and erosion. Ontario Rocks is a highly accessible sourcebook, perfect for students and all those intrigued by the history and formation of the land under us.

"We use our knowledge of geology to build safer cities." (from Toronto Rocks) With its dense streetscapes, the Toronto region seems an unlikely location for a geological field trip, yet as our cities expand and natural landscape becomes buried, the greater the importance of the geology beneath our feet to our everyday existence. Where can we build safely? Where do we dump our garbage? Where are our ground waters and how can we protect them? What happens to salt we put on icy roads when it permeates into the ground in the spring? How can we protect and preserve such national treasures as the Niagara Escarpment and the Oak Ridges Moraine? As cities continue to expand, altering the natural landscape and changing the natural balance of the planet beneath our feet, the answers to questions about our geological past are more important today than ever before. Where can we build safely? How strong are the rocks beneath the buildings we continue to push skyward? What do we do with polluted soil? Will the CN Tower fall? What does the history of earthquakes tell us of possible future events? In Toronto Rocks, University of Toronto geology professor Nick Eyles conducts a unique tour of Canada's largest city past and present; a city of more than 6 million people where the past beneath our feet is perhaps more important than ever before.