Geological maps of British Columbia

Asked by: Curtis Cavenaugh

What is the geological history of British Columbia?

British Columbia is composed of a portion of the ancestral North American Craton as well as two superterranes that were appended to the continent during a pair of Mesozoic collision events. The Coast Range Batholith intruded into the Insular Superterrane about 100 million years ago.

How to read geologic maps?

The letter symbols signify the name and age of the rock units in an area. The first letter refers to the geologic age, as shown above. The other letters refer to the formation name or the rock type. The geologic map of Rhode Island is a good example of how the symbols are used.

What is a minfile?

MINFILE contains geological, location and economic information on more than 14,750 metallic, industrial mineral and coal mines, deposits and occurrences in British Columbia.

What is surficial geology?

Surficial geology, also referred to as Quaternary geology, refers to those unconsolidated geologic materials lying on top of the bedrock. Although the Quaternary era covers the last 1.81 million years of earth history, in Ontario almost all surficial sediments are much younger (<45,000 years old).

What are the three mountain ranges in British Columbia?

The province is dominated by mountain ranges, among them the Canadian Rockies but dominantly the Coast Mountains, Cassiar Mountains, and the Columbia Mountains.

How was British Columbia created?

The colony of British Columbia was founded in 1858 in response to the Fraser River Gold Rush. (See also The Fraser River Gold Rush and the Founding of British Columbia.) The colony established representative government in 1864 and merged with the colony of Vancouver Island in 1866.

What does the red line on the geological map indicate?

The colors of the lines usually indicate similar classes of information: topographic contours (brown); lakes, streams, irrigation ditches, and other hydrographic features (blue); land grids and important roads (red); and other roads and trails, railroads, boundaries, and other cultural features (black).

What are the geologic map symbols?

Geologic maps include strike and dip symbols showing the orientation and slope of rock beds, which we covered in an earlier lab (see Tilted Beds and Strike and Dip). Some geologic maps also show the orientation of the foliation in metamorphic rocks with special foliation strike and dip symbols.

What does the letter symbol signifies in a geologic map?

The letters indicate the rock formations, with the first letter being the geologic period. The remaining lower case letters abbreviate the formation name, which includes a geographic name where you could go to see the rocks.

Is BC bigger than Alaska?

British Columbia (Canada) is 0.55 times as big as Alaska (US) British Columbia (BC) is the westernmost province in Canada, between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. With an estimated population of 5.1 million as of 2020, it is Canada’s third-most populous province.

Which Canadian province has the most mountains?

Most mountain peaks of Canada lie in the west, specifically in British Columbia, Alberta, and the Yukon. Mountains can be found all over British Columbia while those in Alberta are mainly situated on the eastern side of the Canadian Rockies.

During which geologic era were most of the terranes of British Columbia accreted?

Terrane Accretion in British Columbia and Yukon



During the Cenozoic, additional terranes (the Outboard terranes) were added to the western edge of North America.

What kind of rocks are in British Columbia?

The most extensive are: (1) granitic and (2) metamorphic rocks of the Coast and Cascade Mountains. Overlying these within the Fraser Valley is a thick sequence of (3) sedimentary rock (sandstone and shale). Volcanic intrusions (4) fill fractures within granitic, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks.

What processes led to the formation of BC’s Rocky Mountains?

The Canadian Rocky Mountains were formed when the North American continent was dragged westward during the closure of an ocean basin off the west coast and collided with a microcontinent over 100 million years ago, according to a new study by University of Alberta scientists.

How old are rocks in BC?

The high peaks of the Purcell Mountains east of Kootenay Lake are carved from sandstone as old as 1.5 billion years old, the oldest sedimentary rock in BC. A younger belt of limestone, sandstone, and shale extends along Kootenay Lake and the Salmo River valley and ranges from 700 to 300 million years old.

Where is the oldest exposed rock on Earth?

Hudson Bay, Canada

Bedrock in Canada is 4.28 billion years old



Bedrock along the northeast coast of Hudson Bay, Canada, has the oldest rock on Earth.

Which country has the oldest rocks?

That’s right, geologists, Canada is home to the world’s oldest discovered rocks! When the Earth was formed about 4.6 billion years ago, the molten rock on the surface hardened to form a solid crust.

Whats the oldest rock in the world?

Earth’s oldest known rock is composed of the mineral amphibole, which contains abundant garnet, seen as large round “spots” in the rock.