The land needs more
Than water
To sustain life
When the soil itself
Is toxic
And yet
Even here
Against formidable challenge
Life finds a way
Amongst the nooks and crannies
Of possibility
Mars-scape
Ruisseau Winter House Brook
Tablelands Hike
Gros Morne National Park
Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
Taken during travels, 2023
Pic and a Word Challenge
The orange-tinged mars-scape of Gros Morne National Park’s Tableland is a geological formation found in only two places on the Earth’s surface. Here, half a billion years ago, the North American plate collided with the African plate, thrusting a bit of the planet’s mantle up through the crust to the planet’s surface. And while the chemical composition of that mantle is entirely inhospitable to supporting life, life still finds a way to thrive in nooks and crannies along this watercourse. Go life!
In the 1960s, geologists studying the rock here realized that it was once part of the Earth’s mantle that had been somehow thrust up through the miles of Earth’s crust to the surface. They recognized this as compelling evidence for a geological mechanism that explained the then unpopular hypothesis of continental drift. That mechanism would become known as the theory of plate tectonics, but not without itself first creating a major upheaval within the community of geologists. Go science!
Last week we sought Reassurance.
This week, let’s take on a formidable Upheaval. Or find something else to inspire you in this photograph of the mighty upthrust of Earth’s mantle comprising the Tablelands of Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland, Canada.
The Pic and a Word Challenge is a weekly creativity prompt offered Mondays.
With each challenge I provide a photograph of mine along with a single word. The challenge? Use the pic and/or word as inspiration to create something — a photograph, a painting, podcast, video, prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction, longread or just a few words. You are welcome to use these two elements (photograph and word) literally, thematically or metaphorically. If you create both images and words, all the better.
To participate:
- Use any title you like
- Your response can be words and/or images
- You may use my image to illustrate your post, or any images you have created
- Mention that you are responding to the Pic and a Word Challenge
- Add a link to this post in your response
To help us find your response — whether on WordPress, Instagram, Flicker, Tumblr, etc. — you can also:
- Add a comment on this post to announce your response
- Apply the tag/hashtag “Pic and a Word Challenge” or “#picandawordchallenge” to your post
Each week, I’ll list the previous week’s responses at the end of the new challenge. I may also share some on my social media: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, etc.
The previous challenge was: Reassurance

The word for last week’s Pic and a Word Challenge #378 was Reassurance, along with this photograph of men testing the lines on the tourist boat flotilla at Dashashwamedh Ghat, on the Ganges River in Varanasi, India.
Just one formidably tenacious blogger offered some Reassurance this week. Thanks, Woolly! 🙂
View all the Pic and a Word Challenges, including the current challenge, on the Pic and a Word Challenge tag page.
Happy Creating! ❤