The Ronald River () is a river in the

Côte-Nord Côte-Nord (Region 09) (, ; ) is an List of regions of Quebec, administrative region of Quebec, on the Quebec-Labrador peninsula, Quebec-Labrador Peninsula, Canada. The region runs along the St. Lawrence River and then the Gulf of St. Lawrence, ...

region of Quebec, Canada. It is a left tributary of the MacDonald River.

Location

The Ronald River is the

Sept-Rivières Regional County Municipality Sept-Rivières (, "Seven-Rivers") is a regional county municipality of Quebec, Canada, in the Côte-Nord region. Its county seat is Sept-Îles. The census groups Sept-Rivières RCM with neighbouring Caniapiscau Regional County Municipality into ...

, Côte-Nord, Québec, Canada. It is in a region with

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

Dfc (Subarctic climate). It is a tributary of the Rivière MacDonald, which in turn is a tributary of the Rivière aux Rochers. The river is used by salmon. It will be completely contained within the proposed

Lake Walker National Park Lake Walker National Park () is a proposed national park in the province of Quebec, Canada, centered on the long Lake Walker. Location The proposed park is in a region of taiga in the center of the Port-Cartier–Sept-Îles Wildlife Reserve. I ...

. The river basin covers . The valley is long and is fed from lakes such as Desrosiers, Gaudreault, Rosaire and Fraser. Lac Fraser is oriented with the axis of the river valley at its head. The average elevation of the upper section is . It may be accessed by a trail for off-road vehicles. As of 2013 fishing for

atlantic salmon The Atlantic salmon (''Salmo salar'') is a species of ray-finned fish in the family Salmonidae. It is the third largest of the Salmonidae, behind Hucho taimen, Siberian taimen and Pacific Chinook salmon, growing up to a meter in length. Atlan ...

was prohibited year round. Fishing for other species was restricted to fly fishing, and was allowed from mid-May to early September.

Course

The upper part of the river has a series of short flat stretches alternating with sloping sections. The upper section of the river runs through a narrow valley in a NNE-SSW direction, cutting through a hilly plateau. The river follows many fractures in the bedrock and structural depressions, and also has winding or rectilinear

thalweg In geography, hydrography, and fluvial geomorphology, a thalweg or talweg () is the line or curve of lowest elevation within a valley or watercourse. Normally only the horizontal position of the curve is considered (as viewed on a map); the c ...

s. Lower down after crossing a rocky threshold the valley broadens into a trough-shaped glacial valley, still oriented NNE-SSW due to the structure of this part of the Laurentian shield. The river becomes more regular, and meanders through glacial materials that it has modified and redistributed over the valley floor. The flanks of the valley are steep, particularly on the east side.

Geology

The Ronald River Valley and the hills to the east have a few

gneiss Gneiss (pronounced ) is a common and widely distributed type of metamorphic rock. It is formed by high-temperature and high-pressure metamorphic processes acting on formations composed of igneous or sedimentary rocks. This rock is formed under p ...

enclaves, which differ from gneisses found elsewhere in the park in having

pyroxene The pyroxenes (commonly abbreviated Px) are a group of important rock-forming inosilicate minerals found in many igneous and metamorphic rocks. Pyroxenes have the general formula , where X represents ions of calcium (Ca), sodium (Na), iron ( ...

s associated with

amphibole Amphibole ( ) is a group of inosilicate minerals, forming prism or needlelike crystals, composed of double chain tetrahedra, linked at the vertices and generally containing ions of iron and/or magnesium in their structures. Its IMA symbol is ...

and

biotite Biotite is a common group of phyllosilicate minerals within the mica group, with the approximate chemical formula . It is primarily a solid-solution series between the iron- endmember annite, and the magnesium-endmember phlogopite; more al ...

, forming minute rust spots. Thick deposits identified as sections of

moraine A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris (regolith and Rock (geology), rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a gla ...

have been identified along the Ronald River. There

fluvio-glacial Fluvioglacial landforms or glaciofluvial landforms are those that result from the associated erosion and deposition of Sediment, sediments caused by Meltwater, glacial meltwater. Glaciers contain suspended sediment loads, much of which is initiall ...

deposits would have been torn off and transported by the glacier, then deposited in separate layers by meltwater. There are scattered accumulations of glacial deposits from dead-ice moraines along hanging valleys such as North Manikis Creek, east of the Ronald River Valley.

Notes

Sources

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT: Rivers of Côte-Nord