The Hamilton ravine system is one of the most distinctive features of the geography of Hamilton, Ontario

Hamilton, Ontario

Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. It is a network of deep ravines that form a large urban forest that runs throughout much of the city. For the most part designated as parkland, the ravines are somewhat undeveloped.

Origin

Hamilton is known for having the Niagara Escarpment

Niagara Escarpment

The Niagara Escarpment is a long escarpment, or cuesta, in the United States and Canada that runs westward from New York State, through Ontario, Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois...

 run through the entire city. This was formed after the end of the last ice age some 12,000 years ago. After glaciers carved the area of which the Great Lakes

Great Lakes

The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...

 are now situated. Many of the streams located on the top of the escarpment that would drain into the higher elevated lakes would eventually form most of Hamilton's waterfalls and cascades after the lake levels receded. Eventually these streams would erode the soft sand like soils in the lower section of Hamilton area and form many of their ravines today.

Human use

Despite the moderately dense population of metropolitan Hamilton, many of the ravines have been left close to their natural state. The most important reason for this is the danger of slight flooding. The rivers and streams that flow through the ravines are highly variable. During the late summer, many of the smaller ones will slow to a trickle. During the spring and after major storms, the creeks often overflow their banks and flood the marshy lands that surround most of them. Many of these ravines located on the Stoney Creek, Ontario

Stoney Creek, Ontario

Stoney Creek is a community in Ontario, Canada.Note: This article will only deal with matters up to its amalgamation with Hamilton.-Geography and population:...

section of Hamilton have small human intervention like tunnels in them allowing the water to flow through so a road can exist above. Other human intervention includes parks, trails, nearby houses, and even small factories or warehouses nearby although they are not used to extract water or dump their wastes.

External links

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niagara_escarpment
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil%27s_Punch_Bowl_%28Hamilton,_Ontario%29