It was exciting to preview the new Dynamic Earth: Inco Gallery of Earth Sciences at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on May 25, 1999. This largest and most elaborate gallery of the museum has been twenty years in development and planning.

The gallery is entered through a large simulated cave entrance with quartz crystal clusters embedded in 'vugs' about the entrance. Within the interior the cave walls have brightly lit display windows showing large mineral specimens. Look up. There is a large transparent Earth globe with a glowing inner core. Doors lead to three thematic areas -- Restless Earth; Earth: the Alien Planet; and Treasures of the Earth.

Through the curved door you enter The Alien Planet, sponsored by Barrick Gold Corporation, where two new cartoon characters Trog and Algie, illustrate the birth of the planet and the beginnings of life on Earth. As you follow the large colourful graphics around the room, you can enter experiential rooms – the first, the Birth of a Planet. The third room, Life Under the Sea 420 million years ago, has a beautiful seascape of undersea life with doors that can be opened, like an advent calendar. Behind the door one finds a large fossil specimen of the creature illustrated in the painting. Other fossil exhibits show the progression of life through time and illustrate the dating of rocks as you go around this room.

Through the jagged door you enter The Restless Earth which includes a simulated volcano. Entering the volcano, you see a theatre projection ON THE FLOOR. You can watch the lava boiling up under your feet and see pieces of the Earth's crust floating on hot magma. You almost feel your feetgetting warm. Nearby is an earthquake machine – when you press the large red button a huge basalt slab begins shifting and shaking like an earthquake. There are many large touchable rock specimens mounted on tables so anyone can feel their textures.

If you decide to go to the washroom at this point, you will be surprised to find minerals displayed to demonstrate how they are used in everyday products such as talcum powder and toothpaste.

Another door leads you to the Earth Theatre screening a film 360 degrees around the theatre's circular walls. The crystal door leads you to The Treasures of the Earth with display stations of minerals grouped according to the geological processes that produced them – "Chilling Out", "In and Out of Hot Water", "Changing Identity", and "Under Stress". More displays along the walls include computer terminals for watching gem production videos. From this area the visitor can enter the spectacular S.R. Perren Gem and Gold Room.

The S.R. Perren Gem and Gold Room contains close to one thousand gems and seventy gold specimens.The gems, lit by beautiful fibre optic fixtures, are arranged according to their mineralogical and gemmological groups with special attention to colours and varieties. Highlights include a magnificent peach-coloured beryl weighing 1,625 carats and a 3,000 carat natural blue topaz. Outstanding opals, diamonds, rubies and jade are displayed. This fabulous room is named after Dick Perren (1907-1986), an internationally-known gem dealer and mentor to many young jewellers and gemmologists.

The Dynamic Earth Gallery, measuring over 14,000 square feet, is located at street level in the south-west corner of the ROM. It is designed to show the story of Earth's evolution – how it was formed, how it is unique among the planets and how it has changed, and continues to change. As Dr. Fred Wicks, Head of the Department of Earth Sciences, said in his introductory remarks, Earth is a host of inter-connected systems that are still very controversial. It is the aim of the gallery to make the content interesting, particularly for children, and to make it as touchable and inter-active as possible. At a cost of $4.25 million for 40,000 hours of labour, it is the most extensive gallery, developed through the funding and sponsorship of Inco Limited, major companies in the mining industry, the numerous rock and mineral clubs of Ontario and the Ontario Ministry of Citizenship, Culture and Recreation.

Dynamic Earth is certainly an exciting hot new learning experience that illustrates nature's spectacular works of art and simplifies complex subjects with an interdisciplinary approach.

Royal Ontario Museum:

The Dynamic Earth Inco Limited Gallery of Earth Science at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto was officially opened to the public on May 30, 1999.

Copyright ©1999 Marilyn Fraser
E-mail: silver@tor.axxent.ca

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