A newly-unearthed boulder in downtown Toronto — perhaps billions of years old — is attracting a lot of attention.
Crews recently unearthed the giant rock, estimated to weigh 2,000 kilograms, while excavating a future parkette at Bloor and Major streets.
“I love biodiversity and I like rocks, too, and I have a collection of them at home, too,” said Farzan Farid, who was passing by the boulder with his father.
Other people in the area theorized about the boulder’s origin and makeup.
“We have quartz over here and then something like granite,” said Pasha Kulinich as he looked over the rock. “I took one geology class, but it’s definitely very interesting.
“You might see this in a museum or something.”
The sizeable stone is also piquing the interest of researchers at the Royal Ontario Museum.
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Katherine Dunnell, an earth sciences technician, estimates it to be between one and 2.5 billion years old, offering a window into Canada’s natural past.
“Canada really has a very large and old history, geologically, so these are just lovely little reminders of that, and it’s great to see how curious people are about it,” Dunnell said.
Dunnell told Global News the rock was likely dropped by a glacier 12,000 to 15,000 years ago, after dragging it all the way from northern Ontario.
“It is obviously not a rock from where we live … in southern Ontario,” she said. “Those rocks are paleozoic limestone. This is a granite.”
The Bloor Annex Business Improvement Area plans to incorporate the boulder into another new parkette a few blocks down the street.
“It’s a link to our natural history,” said its chair, Brian Burchell.
“Nothing could be more validating than finding it here.”
WATCH: (2018) Caught on Camera: Out-of-control boulder nearly crushes driver in Taiwan
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