Discover

'Mont Saint-Hilaire' (en. ''Mount Saint-Hilaire'') is a mountain in the Montérégie region of southern Quebec. The area surrounding the mountain is a biosphere reserve.

Contents

Geology

Ecology

History

See also

External links

References

Geology

Mont Saint-Hilaire is a famous mineral locality because of its great number of rare and exotic mineral species. Annite from Mont Saint-Hilaire is among the most iron-rich found in nature. In the gabbro, biotite is less iron-rich, has lower manganese content, but is titanium-rich. Phlogopite is found as small metamorphic crystals in marble xenoliths within the syenite. Siderophyllite, a relatively rare mineral, occurs as large crystals in a metasomatized albitite dike.
Mount Saint-Hilaire is one of the Monteregian Hills, a group of intrusive mountains spreading across southern Quebec. The "mountain" is composed of three distinct plutonic intrusions that formed during the Cretaceous Period. More precisely, it is composed of agpaitic pegmatite, a rare type of intrusion, making it a favored site for mineralogical research. There have been over 369 distinct species of minerals collected at Mount Saint-Hilaire, over 60 of which are unique to this site. Mont Saint-Hilaire is the remnants of an eroded volcanic complex, which was probably active about 125 million years ago.^[1] It was created when the North American Plate moved over the New England hotspot, along with the other mountains of the Monteregian mountain chain.

Ecology

As the last remnant of the ancient Gulf of St. Lawrence lowland forests, the area has been a biosphere reserve since 1978 and a federal Migratory Bird Sanctuary since 1960 and a provincial. The area hosts 21 at risk and two endangered species of plant under current statutes.

History

The name Saint-Hilaire was introduced in 1823 (The mountain was originally called Mount Rouville or Beloeil.) after the creation of a parish under the name of Saint-Hilaire-de-Rouville (Rouville is also the name of the township where the mountain is located)

See also

★ Mont-Saint-Hilaire, Quebec

★ Monteregian Hills

External links

★ Alkali nuts

★ Mount Saint-Hilaire at the Mineral Gallery

★ UNESCO MaB page

★ Mount Saint-Hilaire at McGill University

References

1. A Hundred-Million Year History of the Corner Rise and New England Seamounts Retrieved on 2007-08-01