![]() At the centre of the park is Wonderland Mountain, around which all of the attractions are situated. It has a waterfall, and at least two roller coasters pass through the inside of the mountain. In addition, divers plunge off the top of the waterfall, and for at least one season, just before the park closed, the mountain turnd into a volcano and erupted. All this suggests some interesting ideas from geology which we will examine a little more closely. Erosion This isn't a real mountain, of course, and the falls aren't a river. The water must be pumped back up from the pool below to keep the falls in operation. A real waterfall would continually be eroding the rock beneath the falls. As the water streams over the edge at the top, it would be eroding the lip of the falls bit by bit, especially if the rock is soft, like limestone. This is the case with a real waterfalls like Niagara Falls, which is slowly eating away the rock beneath it, and causing Niagara Falls gradually, over the course of thousands of years, to work its way up the Niagara River. Wonderland Falls don't erode. Here's why. First of all, the entire mountain is made from concrete. This doesn't erode easily, and even if there is damage (perhaps from remaining moisture freezing in winter when the falls are shut down, and cracking the concrete), it is easily patched. Because the falls are shut down in winter, repairs are possible. At the lip, where there is a lot of friction, we noticed that the water doesn't actually run over concrete ... the top of the falls is covered in a thick layer of plexiglass. No erosion ... and it gives the falls a pleasing arc away from the rock face as well. Volcanoes It was very realistic ... so much so that one of the special effects had to be removed after the first year of operation, because of the fear of panic in the tightly packed crowds. Gas jets on nearby buildings, following the 'eruption', made it look like sparks from the volcano had ignited those buildings. Apparently some spectators thought that a real fire had started! In any case, they don't do the volcano any more. It was probably too much of a disturbance to the neighbouring subdivision. Before the park was built, the region was pretty sparsely populated. In fact, there was a small airport nearby where I almost learned to fly a plane. (Don't ask!) Now the region all around the park is packed with homes. You can learn more about real volcanoes here. In a real volcano, a fissure exists through the crust, down into a lower layer of the earth where heat makes the rock molten. When pressure builds sufficiently, this molten rock, called magma, can make its way to the surface through the fissure, and it exits the volcano as lava. This molten rock at thousands of degrees burns everything in its path, and will flow until it cools. Eventually it will break down into particles, rich in minerals, which become the basis for a new, very rich, soil layer. The 'volcano' at Wonderland imitated this process very well, with the use of lighting, sound, fireworks, and gas jets. Lighting on the flowing water simulated flowing lava, and background sound effects and music made the event overwhelmingly real. Here are a few more pictures to give you an idea of what happened. |