Minas Basin

The Minas Basin (French: Bassin des Mines) is an inlet of the Bay of Fundy and a sub-basin of the Fundy Basin located in Nova Scotia, Canada. It is known for its extremely high tides.

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Minas Basin
French: Bassin des Mines
Looking east across the Southern Bight of Minas Basin from The Lookoff
Minas Basin
Location	Nova Scotia
Coordinates	45°15′N 64°10′W
Type	Inlet
Part of	Bay of Fundy
Settlements	Truro, Wolfville, Parrsboro
Ramsar Wetland
Official name	Southern Bight-Minas Basin
Designated	5 November 1987
Reference no.	379[1]

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The Minas Basin forms the eastern part of the Bay of Fundy which splits at Cape Chignecto and is delineated by the massive basalt headlands of Cape Split and Cape d'Or. The Minas Basin is divided into four sections: (1) the Minas Channel, from the shortest line between Cape Chignecto and the Annapolis Valley Shore to Minas Passage, between Parrsboro and Cape Blomidon; (2) Central Minas Basin, from Minas Passage to the mouth of Cobequid Bay, the shortest line point between Economy and the Noel Shore; (3) Cobequid Bay which extends to the mouth of the Salmon River; and (4) the Southern Bight, from the mouth of the Avon River to the shortest line between Cape Blomidon and the Noel Shore.^[2]

Several large rivers drain into the Minas Basin: the Shubenacadie River, Cornwallis River, Avon River, Gaspereau River, and Salmon River. Lesser rivers include the Canard River, Diligent River, Farrell River, and the Debert River. Along the northern edge of the Minas Basin lies a chain of intermittent high-cliffed basaltic bluffs and islands called the Basalt Headlands.^{[citation needed]}

On the northern shore of the Minas Basin, around the Gaspereau River, and around the Salmon River, extensive areas of farmland have been created using dykes with sluices (one-way flow control valves), a form of polderisation.^{[citation needed]}

Several communities border the Minas Basin or the rivers that flow into it. The largest is the town of Truro which lies at the head of Cobequid Bay. Smaller centres include Parrsboro, Wolfville, Windsor and Maitland. Other communities include Great Village, Bass River, Five Islands, Economy, Walton, and Kingsport.^{[citation needed]}

Historically, the north and southern sides of the basin were connected by a succession of ferries, which operated for more than 200 years, from Acadian times to 1941.^[5] The last ferry connected Parrsboro, Wolfville, and Kingsport and was called the MV Kipawo ferry,^[6] whose name was derived from the three communities.

During the Acadian era, virtually all inhabitants lived in distributed clusters or villages, with no single place dominating. The area was administered from Port Royal, later Annapolis Royal.^[9] The following table shows the population of the region during the Acadian era:

^[10]

The vacant Acadian settlements around the Minas Basin were succeeded by the New England Planters who arrived in 1760 and were later joined by Loyalists settlers in the 1780s. The Planters maintained operation of the ferry, rebuilt and expanded the Acadian dyke systems, and reclaimed more farmland from the Basin through projects like the Wellington Dyke in 1816.^{[citation needed]}

The communities around the Minas Basin were sustained by fishing, logging, farming, mining, boat building and shipbuilding. In the late 19th Century the Basin's shipyards produced some of the highest numbers of wooden ships in Canadian history and some of the largest, including the ship William D. Lawrence, the largest wooden ship built in Canada along with the giant barques Kings County, Canada's largest four masted-barque and Hamburg, Canada's largest three-masted barque.^[11] The tidal water also provided a means of transporting commodities such as lumber, apples and gypsum and powered Tide mills at locations such as Canning, Hantsport and Walton.^[12]

Mining included gypsum (several locations including Windsor and Cheverie), iron (Londonderry), barite (near Walton and the Eureka Mine at Five Islands), manganese (several locations including Cheverie and Tennycape), and copper (the Colonial Copper Company at Cape d'Or). Gypsum was shipped from Hantsport until 2009.^{[citation needed]}

There have been attempts to generate energy from the rough waters of Minas Basin. However, the attempts were not successful. ^[13]

This section needs additional citations for verification. (July 2021)

Marine mammals include seals and porpoises. Fish include bass, shad,^[14] and flounder; lobster, crab, mussel, and clam are common. Many types of seaweed, sponges, worms, seajellys and more are also found. Birds include sandpipers, terns (visitors only), eagles, falcons, seagulls, herons, and kingfishers.

Fossils are found near Parrsboro, Blue Beach and other areas along the Avon River.^[15] Rarely, fossils have been found at Evangeline Beach, Burntcoat Head, and other locations. These fossils include various shells (brachiopods, molluscs), sponges, trees, fish, amphibians, reptiles, and dinosaurs. Trace fossils include vertebrate footprints, fish fin-tracks, invertebrate trackways (ex. scorpions at Blue Beach), raindrop imprints, and wave ripples. They range from the beginning of the Carboniferous to the Jurassic. They were deposited when the region was warm and tropical, later when it was covered by a shallow sea, and later still when it was a desert.

Minerals include a variety zeolites from the basalt cliffs at Cape Split, the area around Parrsboro, Five Islands and Cap D'Or. These include Nova Scotia's provincial mineral stilbite, as well as heulandite, analcime, chabazite, gmelinite, natrolite and thomsonite. Other minerals found in the basalts include calcite, magnetite, copper, and quartz (often as amethyst). Beautiful agate is also found. In the sedimentary rocks, gypsum is commonly found at Blomidon, Clarke Head, and near Windsor in both the colorless variety (selenite) and the fibrous variety (satin spar), the latter sometimes being bright orange. Other minerals from the sedimentary rocks include pyrite, calcite, barite, manganite, and pyrolusite. Small amounts of fluorite, celestite, howlite have also been found at Cheverie.