WHO KNEW?

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Q: Saskatchewan is known to be a pretty flat province although I’ve heard we have volcanoes here. Is it true, and should we worry about them erupting?
                                         - Magma Carta

Arenal volcano, Costa Rica

Dear Magma

Please don’t lose any sleep worrying about volcanoes in Saskatchewan because there aren’t any. According to Kevin Ansdell, acting head of the department of geological sciences, it has been some time since this area has seen any volcanic activity. “Back over the last three billion years, there have been various times when Saskatchewan looked like Indonesia or Yellowstone National Park,” he said, and about 100 million years ago, eruptions produced the volcanic rock kimberlite in which diamonds are now being found in the northern part of the province. Today, we are volcano-free, and Ansdell added that because volcanoes and earthquake activity generally occur near the boundaries of the earth’s tectonic plates, Saskatchewan is “one of the safest places to live, geologically speaking.”

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