Views along the shoreline at Lord Selkirk Provincial Park, on the south coast of Prince Edward Island in Canada, show the red Permian sedimentary rock layers in low cliffs, and as mud beneath the water of the Northumberland Strait. The lush vibrant green of the new season’s vegetation makes a striking contrast to the outcropping red beds.
The whole of Prince Edward Island is underlain by Permian rocks which also extend outwards to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. They date from around 255 million years ago and were laid down between the Carboniferous period which came before it and the Triassic period which followed it. Towards the end of the Carboniferous, the climate started to warm up and dry out; and this marked the end of the vast wetland forests and swamps that had been so characteristic of the Carboniferous and that are recorded by numerous plant fossils and extensive coal measures.
The plants and trees that continued to grow in the Permian Period were mainly those which were resistant to drought, like conifers, although some plants such as tree ferns persisted in the wetter ares. Remains of these plants have been preserved as fossils in the Permian rocks. The terrestrial red beds of Prince Edward Island have also preserved the bones of vertebrates, reptiles, that were washed down rivers in monsoon flash floods and became buried in pebbles and debris. At Point Prim, very close to Lord Selkirk Provincial Park, trace fossils of one of these mammal-like reptiles has been found. We were not lucky enough to find fossils of any kind while we were there as our visit was so fleeting.
Stephanian to late Early Permian rocks occur in and under PEI. The fields, so famous for their potato crops, are a distinctive red colour, indicating the rock type from which the soil is derived. The rocks themselves are best seen outcropping along the coast – in fact one of the first things you notice as you cross the Confederation Bridge to get to the island is the continuous thin red rocky line along the miles of southern shore.
The Permian strata on PEI are divided into different phases, and those shown in the photographs here, from Lord Selkirk Park near Point Prim, belong to the Wood islands Member, which together with the Malpeque Member to its west, comprise the relatively recently-designated Hillsborough River Formation, that belongs to the Northumberland Strait Supergroup. The rocks are made up of conglomerates, sandstones, and mudstones.
REFERENCES
van de Poll, H. W., 1989, Lithostratigraphy of Prince Edward Island redbeds, Atlantic Geology, 25, 23-35.
Atlantic Geoscience Society, 2001, The Last Billion Years: A Geological History of the Maritime Provinces of Canada, Nimbus Publishing, ISBN1-55 109-351-0, Atlantic Geoscience Society Special Publication No 15.
Jessica's Nature Blog 
Thanks Jessica for sharing the PEI photos. Brings back so many wonderful memories of the island and it’d red soil 🙂
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It is a lovely place, ZetaCharlie, and I hope to return to explore it some more one day. In the meantime I will be posting another couple of articles about my visits to Charlottetown, Stewart Point and Wood Holes Harbour in PEI soon.
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How beautiful, and what stunning colours in that landscape!
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Fascinating, as usual Jessica, and beautifully illustrated by the photos.
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Thank you, Adrian. It was remarkable to look at all those vibrant colours. The light was very strong and contrasty, bouncing off the lens all the time, but showing off the place to good advantage.
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Thank you, Jo. This was the first time I have encountered Permian rocks. Previously, the only red rocks had been Old Devonian or Triassic strata.
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Hello Jessica,
I am glad to have found your blog. Your writing style is very welcoming.
Currently, I am camping along the shores of PEI and enjoying every moment! The red rock shore is beautiful!
In August 2023, I visited Pipestone National Monument and enjoyed learning about pipestone quartzite. It is admirable how the mining tradition of pipestone quartzite has been continued into this modern age. While the cultural significance is interesting, my curiosity goes more toward the composition of the pipestone quartzite vs. the composition of PEI red rock. Would you or your reading fans be able to help me understand (I only wish I had a degree in ecological science)?
Seems there is a hematite commonality but, beyond this similarity, I am unsure.
Thank you,
Colleen
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Hello Colleen. I am no expert in geology but as far as I can determine, the main thing in common between the red pipestone in Pipestone National Monument and the red rocks of Prince Edward Island is the coincidental presence of haematite which gives each rock a red colour. Pipestone is basically a clay turned to stone, while on PEI the red rock is made of sand. They might also have in common that they are deposits from fluvial systems (c.f. sea bed deposits) with the finer particles of the clay of the pipestone resulting from a flood in a river basin; while on PEI the coarser particles of the sandstone being deposits normally brought down rivers into estuaries and deltas (I think). Dating-wise they are very far apart. Pipestone dates to 1.6 billion years ago (Mesoproterozoic) while the PEI rock is much more recent 250 million years ago (Permian age). Both are sedimentary rocks. Hope this helps.
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