Canadian Museum of Nature adds minerals to expanded Earth gallery
OTTAWA - The Canadian Museum of Nature says it has doubled the size of its Vale Earth Gallery, adding interactive displays and 14 oversized "showstoppers" from its permanent collection.
The specimens, weighing from 45 to 225 kilograms, include a giant amethyst from Thunder Bay, Ont., a large calcite from l'Ange-Gardien, Que., a gypsum from Galetta, Ont., and others from as far away as Mexico, Brazil and South Africa.
The third-floor 745-square-metre gallery, dedicated to exploring the planet's geological forces, also includes a new display of minerals from Canadian mine sites, as well as a Canadian Mining Hall of Fame exhibit with biographies of the country's mining and geology pioneers.
In addition, the downtown Ottawa museum has built a limestone cave, complete with dripping waterfall, that visitors can enter, a spokesman said.
The gallery opens Nov. 30.
