Gros Morne National Park is considered a textbook example of plate tectonics, the theory that suggests the Earth's crust is composed of large plates that repeatedly collide and separate over geological time, opening and closing oceans between them. The park provides us with rare specimens of continental drift, where deep-sea crust and continental mantle rocks are exposed. Recent glacial activity has created many stunning landscapes, including coastal lowlands, mountain plateaus, fjords, glacier-carved valleys, sheer cliffs, waterfalls, and pristine lakes.

Six hundred million years ago, Europe and North America were connected but began to drift apart. Magma from the lower crust erupted and filled the gap - solidified magma can now be seen in the cliffs of Western Brook Pond in Gros Morne. From 570 to 420 million years ago, there was an ocean between the two continents called the Iapetus Sea. The sedimentary layers within the park preserve fossils of nearly all known phyla of that time - a virtual catalog of evolution. Around 460 million years ago, North America and Europe collided, uplifting the Appalachian Mountains and closing the Iapetus Sea. Some oceanic crust and mantle pieces were thrust westward and brought to the Earth's surface. Hundreds of years later, glaciers sculpted the region, creating fjords and carving cross-sections of the mountains, revealing their geological history.