Mother Nature takes down N.S. natural landmark

Nova Scotians awoke early Tuesday to discover that one of their standout geological landmarks was suddenly much different.

A rock formation on Long Island in the Minas Basin along the Fundy shore, shaped like a natural arch and known as “The Eye,” has crumbled from the top. Now where a hole and archway once stood in the island’s sandstone and basalt rock, there are two pillars.

The arch had likely been there for thousands of years and has been an iconic landmark in the province. It has appeared in countless photographs taken by tourists and local alike.

“The arch has been a focal point for tourists and local people for many years. We are still trying to work out how long it has been present,” Tim Fedak, Fundy Geological Museum’s director and curator, tells Yahoo Canada News.

At low tides hikers could travel across the bay’s mud flats to get to The Eye. During high tides, kayakers and canoers could paddle through the hole. But those famously high tides in Fundy, where they are the world’s highest, could have also contributed to the arch’s breakdown because of the erosion they contributed to.

Long Island is one of five islands — the others are Moose Island, Diamond Island, Egg Island and Pinnacle Island — along the Fundy Coast.

“I was going to take a picture last night because it was so beautiful, with the red sunset coming through the hole,” local resident Harold Nesbitt told the Halifax Chronicle Herald on Tuesday. “This morning, I said, ‘Where’s the hole?’”

The area’s highest tides in 18 years had recently been documented, Nesbitt told CBC News, potentially serving as the final nail in the coffin — though the process of erosion happens very slowly over hundreds or thousands of years.

“Many of the islands in the area are composed of basalt, a rock that is formed from magma flooded to the surface of the earth and cooled, when the supercontinent Pangaea was breaking apart 200 million years ago,” Fedak says. “When the supercontinent was breaking apart, there was massive earthquakes that cut faults into the rocks in the area. These faults are weak spots where the tides of the Bay of Fundy can erode the shore.”

“The collapse of the arch is one example that provides an opportunity that the shores of the Bay of Fundy are actively eroding,” Fedak says. “Caution should always be used around the cliffs of the shore — as even smaller rock falls can be dangerous.”

The museum in Parrsboro, N.S., will host a public information session on Nov. 1.

“We hope to answer questions such as, how old is the arch, and how long did it take to collapse,” Fedak says. “There is also interesting information to be shared about Micmac stories related to [the] Five Islands.”

If you think Long Island is still great without its famous archway, you can make it your own — it’s listed for sale at $2.4 million.