Quarry “glacier” is back
The “glacier” in the old Francon quarry, which hasn’t completely melted since the snowy winter of 2007‑2008, had been subsiding for some years, but this winter’s snowfall has filled it back up.
Off season, the city has a team spreading the snow out to encourage melting. The water that accumulates at the bottom of the quarry is pumped up and sent to the city sewage treatment plant, presumably via the sewer system.
Orr 17:58 on 2025-03-03 Permalink
The quarry behind Westmount public works site on top of Cote-des-Neiges street used to be a snow dump and was Montreal’s “alpine glacier” that would sometimes last until September.
Kate 20:11 on 2025-03-03 Permalink
I remember seeing that as I went by on the bus. It was nearly black by late summer.
There is also a natural # sign in the cliff above it.
Ian 00:19 on 2025-03-04 Permalink
It’s also a really intersting site geologically, with lots of minerals in unusually high concentrations not only of individual type but also variety. It’s a shame it’s not open to the public at all.
81 valid minerals. 10 (TL) – type locality of valid minerals.
“Type locality, also called type area, is the locality where a particular rock type, stratigraphic unit or mineral species is first identified.” (wikipedia)
https://www.mindat.org/loc-597.html
Kate 17:36 on 2025-03-04 Permalink
Editor’s note: Ian is talking here about the old Francon quarry, not the Westmount site.
Ian 18:37 on 2025-03-04 Permalink
Lol yeah, sorry 😀