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The Parks / Québec / Saguenay-St. Lawrence National Park

In the last two million years, the St.Lawrence and Saguenay rivers have undergone four glacial stages, which carved out valleys along both rivers. The 100 kilometre long fjord formed along the Saguenay River when weaknesses in the earthÆs crust allowed a deep rift or fault in the underlying crystalline rock of the Canadian Shield. One of the southernmost fjords in the world, it is also of interest to find a fjord emptying into a river estuary instead of the sea. The Marine Park takes in the north shores of the St. Lawrence for 90 kilometres northeast and southwest of the mouth of the Saguenay River where the riverbed plunges as deep as 275 metres, and the steep slopes and cliffs rise as high as 450 metres. From the mouth of the Saguenay eastward, rocky cliffs plunging as far as 100 metres underwater mark the north shore of the St. Lawrence. The coastal shelf widens at the mouth of the Saguenay to form tide flats, then gradually narrows where the Laurentian Channel deepens downstream to as much as 300 metres. Water in the Marine Park is subject to two daily tide cycles which introduce wide fluctuations “ as the St. Lawrence narrows and its bottom rises, the average tidal range increases to as much as 5 metres. Tides bring the cold salty waters of the Gulf into the Saguenay where they mix with fresh water at the confluence of the two rivers. This layering and mixing interaction of the warmer fresh water and the slower-moving icy layer beneath makes for an enriched, renewed and oxygenated plant and animal environment in the basins of the fjord.