A rich ecosystem that deserves to be preserved

The Société des établissements de plein air du Québec (Sépaq) called on Voilà: to redesign two discovery activities at the Parc national du Fjord-du-Saguenay. We designed fifteen illustrated panels to present the geological formation of the fjord and the marine biodiversity of the region.

Poster of a scientific illustration showing underwater life.

A common thread: time

For the formation of the Saguenay Graben activity, spectators are invited to travel through geological time several thousand years ago. These ancient periods are in reality quite recent, when compared to the amount of time that has passed since the formation of the Earth 4.5 billion years ago. 

Fitting such a long period into the panel format required transforming the timeline into an organic “thread,” with each curve equivalent to 6 million years. This method allowed us to gain flexibility in arranging the information.

Introductory panel presenting the formation of the Saguenay graben on the time scale. The timeline is a long line condensed in the form of many oscillations. These are linked together in a total of 11 rows in the middle of the panel. Very tight on the first rows, the oscillations are more and more dilated as time passes. The last row of the timeline is therefore the most airy. Each billion years is marked by a small label on its oscillation highlighted in green. The timeline is also punctuated by major historical milestones, located by pointers. In chronological order, it begins with the formation of the Earth, 4.5 billion years ago. Then, life appeared with the first bacteria, then primitive fish. Geologically, Pangea was formed several million years later, followed by the formation of the Saguenay graben. The last four dates are the disappearance of the dinosaurs, the appearance of the first hominids, the period of the last ice age and, the most recent, the construction of the first trading post in Tadoussac. Each of these dates is illustrated by a white drawing on a green rectangle. These illustrations are divided into two columns on either side of the timeline.

A question of movement…

The formation of the Saguenay graben is the result of plates stretching, faults being created and the collapse of the earth’s crust finally being sculpted by glaciers. This idea of movement, at the heart of the presentation, was not very perceptible in the old panels. The client therefore asked us to accentuate the illustrations so that the public could better understand the dynamics at play. 

The title of the image is: "the formation of the Saguenay graben". This panel illustrates this phenomenon in three chronological steps. The image represents 3 blocks side by side in aerial view from the front. Each block is colored as follows: the surface, the outer layer, is green. Underneath, the thick layer of rocks is presented in grey. Finally, the last layer, the deepest, is in purple to remind the magma. The first block on the left illustrates the extension of the plates. The second block, in the center, shows that at the surface, between two faults, the crust collapses in the center to form a trough. The third and last block, on the right of the panel, shows the final formation of the graben. Here we see that the surface crust has collapsed along two other faults, creating an even more pronounced trough in the form of a stepped V. The panel also contains a strip of technical information, located at the bottom of the illustration. It shows that the formation of the graben started 350 million years ago and ended about 200 million years ago. In the center of the technical panel, a compass rose indicates that North is to the right of the panel.
The title of the image is: "Glacial erosion". This panel illustrates this phenomenon in three chronological stages and it uses the same graphic elements as the previous panel. The image represents 3 blocks side by side in aerial view from the front. Each of the blocks is colored as follows: the surface, the outer layer, is green. Underneath, the thick layer of rocks is shown in grey. Finally, the last layer, the deepest, is in purple to remind the magma. The first block on the left illustrates the invasion of the graben by the glacier at the beginning of the Ice Age. We see the graben, cut in a V shape in the previous panel, gradually covered by a thick white glacier. The second block, in the center, shows the sinking of the earth's crust due to the weight of the huge glacier that has now covered its entire surface. The third and last block, on the right of the panel, shows the retreat of the glacier at the end of the ice age. The crust that had sunk under its weight has not yet risen and is now below sea level. The water, colored in blue, has invaded the valley where the glacier is no longer. We can also see in this third stage that the glacier has caused the erosion of the sides of the valley. The panel also contains a strip of technical information, located at the bottom of the illustration. We can read that the ice age started 65,000 years ago, reached its maximum 18,000 years ago and ended about 12,000 years ago. In the center of the technical panel, a compass rose indicates that the North is located to the right of the panel.

… And a question of relief

Many aerial views are presented in both activities. One of the advantages of illustration is that it can highlight important parts of an image to convey a message. Here, the client particularly wanted the audience to visually understand the important hollow of the area, both on land and underwater.

The title of the image is "The Saguenay relief today". This panel shows an illustrated aerial view of part of the Saguenay region, from the front: it starts at Tadoussac, at the bottom, and ends at Lake Saint-Jean, at the top, in the background. We can see the Saguenay River, in blue, flowing between these two places. The relief of the region is exaggerated to show the shape of the graben: hollow along the river and bulging on the edges of the valley. Legends point to the following geographical landmarks: on the left, the Laurentian Wildlife Reserve; higher up, at the bottom, the Lake Kenogami fault; in the center, lower down, the Saguenay Fjord; on the right, along the river, the Sainte-Marguerite River fault; further to the right, where the relief is more rugged, a pointer indicates the Monts Valins. At the bottom of the panel, a compass rose indicates that North is to the right of the panel.
The title of the image is "The Laurentian Channel". This panel shows an illustrated aerial view of the channel. On the mainland, colored in green, the provinces of Canada around the Channel and the border with the United States serve as geographical markers. In the water, colored in blue, the Laurentian Channel, the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Atlantic Ocean delineate the marine regions. This image shows the depth of the marine estuary. The seabed is shown in transparency below the water surface and the depth levels are exaggerated. We can see that the Atlantic Ocean is the deepest part, but also that the entire Laurentian Channel is very deep, all the way to its tip at Tadoussac. Tadoussac is pointed out by a small sticker containing an illustration of the Tadoussac lighthouse, allowing the public to locate where they are. At the bottom of the panel, a compass rose indicates that North is towards the top of the panel.

Biodiversity and climate change

The second activity introduces the public to the richness of the marine biodiversity of the region. This biodiversity exists because it is part of a complex process linked to the movement of marine currents. 

Two panels mirror each other in this presentation; one shows that the proper functioning of the marine food chain depends on the supply of oxygen and mineral salts by the upwelling of cold water to the surface. The other shows that due to climate change, this upwelling is increasingly warm and impoverished. The impacts are and will be dramatic for the region, causing the disappearance of a large quantity of living beings. This loss is illustrated in the form of pale silhouettes that appear to have been cut out of the image. They allow the viewers to visually recognize the absence of the living beings observed in the previous panel.

The title of the image is: "The lush food chain of the St. Lawrence Estuary". This is a cross-section of the sea floor, colored in blue. The illustration shows the global food chain in the underwater biodiversity. At the bottom left of the panel, a gray reef covered with green algae, sea urchins, yellow anemones and orange sea stars is shown. Along this reef, a thick blue arrow comes from the depths of the water to the surface. It represents the upwelling of water from the cold intermediate layer. This water contains oxygen and mineral salts. These elements are used to feed the phytoplankton, which also develops thanks to the action of the sun's rays, drawn above the water. The phytoplankton is then eaten by the zooplankton. These two types of plankton are represented as a thick cloud of blue dots on the surface of the water. Two magnifying glasses pointed at this cloud allow us to see what zooplankton and phytoplankton look like up close. Arrows in the illustration show that zooplankton is ingested by the large blue whale, represented in blue at the bottom of the panel, but also by small fish and by seabirds, of which we see 3 specimens flying over the water. The small fish are also eaten by the seabirds, but also by the larger fish on the right of the panel, and by the harbor seal, the beluga whale and the minke whale, all 3 of them drawn next to the blue whale. A last arrow points out that seabirds also eat the big fish.
The title of the image is: "The St. Lawrence Estuary in warm water". This illustration has the exact same elements as the previous panel. The difference here is the fact that climate change has resulted in warmer water rising to the surface. The water is therefore no longer blue but mauve, to emphasize the fact that the environment is no longer at the right temperature. As a consequence of this temperature increase, the water is low in mineral salts and oxygen. This impacts the first link of the food chain, the phytoplankton, and all the other living beings that depend on it. The panel presents all the living beings that are going to disappear. The disappeared animals are replaced by a beige silhouette in the image. We can see that a large quantity of anemones, starfish, phytoplankton, zooplankton, small fish, large fish and seabirds are concerned, because many of them are colored in beige. The blue whale and the beluga whale will probably also be the first to disappear.

Discover these two interpretation activities every summer in Tadoussac and in the Saguenay Fjord National Park.

Presentation of all the panels that were made for this project, for a total of 17 panels. The first collection of panels is called "A breathtaking landscape" and contains all the panels that describe the formation of the graben. The second collection of panels is called "Meeting Two Giants" and contains all the panels that describe the marine biodiversity and the marine currents of the region.
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