The Battle Formation is a geologic formation of Late Cretaceous ( Maastrichtian ) age in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin . It is present throughout much of the central Alberta plains, where it is an important stratigraphic marker in the nonmarine Upper Cretaceous sequence. It was formally named by G.M. Furnival in 1942 and given formation status by E.J.W. Irish in 1970.
29-612: The Battle Formation forms part of the Edmonton Group . A marker bed called the Kneehills Tuff is present in the upper part of the formation. The Battle Formation is easily recognized in outcrop and in geophysical well logs . It consists of distinctive mauve-grey to purplish brown mudstones with minor siltstone and rare sandstone . The mudstones contain a large component of volcanic ash that has been altered to bentonitic and montmorillonitic clay , and they form
58-576: A maximum thickness of 763 metres (2,503 ft) near the foothills of the Rockies in the west, and thins eastward to zero at its erosional edge east of Edmonton. The Edmonton Group consists of fine-grained sandstones , calcareous sandstones, siltstones , sandy shales and mudstones , bentonitic sandstones and shales, bentonite beds, ironstone concretions, carbonaceous shales and coal seams. Hard sandstones commonly cap mesas , buttes and plateaus where erosion has formed badlands topography, as
87-535: A porous, popcorn-like crust upon weathering. The Kneehills Tuff bed consists of brown-grey, hard siliceous rock. The Battle Formation is reaches thicknesses of up to about 14 m (46 ft), but in some areas it was partially or completely removed by erosion prior to or during the deposition of the overlying Scollard Formation. The Kneehills Tuff occurs as one bed about 15 cm (5.9 in) to 25 cm (9.8 in) thick, or as two or three beds each about 5 cm (2.0 in) to 8 cm (3.1 in) thick in
116-683: Is much lower in the Canadian Rockies than in the American Rockies. Five national parks are located within the Canadian Rockies, four of which are adjacent and make up the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks . These four parks are Banff , Jasper , Kootenay and Yoho . The fifth national park, Waterton Lakes , is not adjacent to the others. Waterton Lakes lies farther south, straddling the Canada–US border as
145-834: Is overlain by the Frenchman Formation . The Battle Formation is equivalent to part of the St. Mary River Formation in the southern Alberta plains and is correlative with part of the Brazeau Formation in the foothills of the Alberta Rockies . It is correlated with the part of the Fox Hills Formation in Montana and North Dakota . The Battle Formation is thought to have been deposited in sediment-starved lacustrine and marsh environments. It
174-492: Is poorly fossiliferous , but arthropods including insects and arachnids preserved in amber , spores , bone fragments, algal remains and carbonized wood have been reported. Edmonton Group Within the earth science of geology , the Edmonton Group is a Late Cretaceous ( Campanian stage ) to early Paleocene stratigraphic unit of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin in
203-677: Is the case for much of the Horseshoe Canyon Formation and the Scollard Formation. Coarse-grained sediments are rare in the Edmonton Group. Plant fossils are common in both the Late Cretaceous and early Paleocene portions of the Edmonton Group. Remains of Triceratops and other dinosaurs are found in the Late Cretaceous portion, especially the Horseshoe Canyon Formation and the lower part of
232-730: Is the eastern part of the Pacific Ring of Fire that runs all the way around the Pacific Ocean . The Canadian Rockies are bounded on the east by the Canadian Prairies, on the west by the Rocky Mountain Trench, and on the north by the Liard River. Contrary to popular misconception, the Rockies do not extend north into Yukon or Alaska, or west into central British Columbia. North of the Liard River,
261-573: Is the second-highest peak in the Canadian Rockies, and is the highest mountain in Alberta. Snow Dome (3,456 m; 11,339 ft) is one of two hydrological apexes of North America. Water flows off Snow Dome into three different watersheds, into the Pacific Ocean, Arctic Ocean , and Atlantic Ocean via Hudson Bay . The Canadian Rockies are not the highest mountain ranges in Canada. Both
290-907: The Alberta Rockies and the British Columbian Rockies, is the Canadian segment of the North American Rocky Mountains . It is the easternmost part of the Canadian Cordillera , which is the northern segment of the North American Cordillera , the expansive system of interconnected mountain ranges between the Interior Plains and the Pacific Coast that runs northwest–southeast from central Alaska to
319-783: The Fox Hills Formation in Saskatchewan. Formations that are stratigraphically equivalent in the western United States are the Horsethief Formation in Montana ; the Fox Hills Formation and Lance Formation in Montana; and the Lennup Formation and Muteetse Formation in Wyoming . The formations of the Edmonton Group are: Canadian Rockies The Canadian Rockies ( French : Rocheuses canadiennes ) or Canadian Rocky Mountains , comprising both
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#1732793653341348-936: The Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mexico . Canada officially defines the Rocky Mountains system as the mountain chains east of the Rocky Mountain Trench extending from the Liard River valley in northern British Columbia to the Albuquerque Basin in New Mexico , not including the Mackenzie , Richardson and British Mountains / Brooks Range in Yukon and Alaska (which are all included as
377-674: The Mackenzie Mountains , which are a distinct mountain range, form a portion of the border between the Yukon and the Northwest Territories . The mountain ranges to the west of the Rocky Mountain Trench in southern British Columbia are called the Columbia Mountains , and are not considered to be part of the Rockies by Canadian geologists. Mount Robson (3,954 metres; 12,972 feet) is the highest peak in
406-599: The Northern Rockies which comprise two main groupings, the Hart Ranges and the Muskwa Ranges . The division-point of the two main groupings is at Monkman Pass northwest of Mount Robson and to the southwest of Mount Ovington . The Canadian Rockies are noted for being the source of several major river systems, and also for the many rivers within the range itself. The Rockies form the divide between
435-806: The southern Alberta plains; into the upper part of the Wapiti Group in the northern Alberta and northeastern British Columbia ; and into the upper part of the Brazeau Formation and the Coalspur Formation in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies . It is equivalent to, but not contiguous with, the Eastend Formation , Whitemud Formation , Battle Formation and Frenchman Formation in the Cypress Hills of southeastern Alberta and southwestern Saskatchewan ; and with
464-737: The "Arctic Rockies" in the United States ' definition of the Rocky Mountains system). The Canadian Rockies, being the northern segment of this chain, is thus defined as comprising the central-eastern section of the North American Cordillera, between the Prairies of Alberta and the Liard Plain of northeastern British Columbia to the east and the Interior Mountains / Plateau and Columbia Mountains to
493-563: The American Rockies are made mostly of metamorphic and igneous rock such as gneiss and granite . The Canadian Rockies are overall more jagged than the American Rockies, because the Canadian Rockies have been more heavily glaciated , resulting in sharply pointed mountains separated by wide, U-shaped valleys gouged by glaciers, whereas the American Rockies are overall more rounded, with river-carved V-shaped valleys between them. The Canadian Rockies are cooler and wetter, giving them moister soil, bigger rivers, and more glaciers. The tree line
522-681: The Canadian Rockies, but not the highest in British Columbia, since there are some higher mountains in the Coast Mountains and Saint Elias Mountains . Mount Robson lies on the continental divide near Yellowhead Pass , one of the lowest passes in the Canadian Rockies, and is close to the Yellowhead Highway . Its base is 985 m (3,232 ft) above sea level, with a total vertical relief of 2,969 m (9,741 ft). Mount Columbia (3,747 m; 12,293 ft)
551-557: The Canadian part of the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park . The four adjacent parks, combined with three British Columbia provincial parks, were declared a single UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984 for the unique mountain landscapes found there. Numerous provincial parks are located in the Canadian Rockies, including Hamber , Mount Assiniboine and Mount Robson parks. Throughout
580-694: The Pacific Ocean drainage on the west and that of Hudson Bay and the Arctic Ocean on the east. Of the range's rivers, only the Peace River penetrates the range. Notable rivers originating in the Canadian Rockies include the Fraser , Columbia , North Saskatchewan , Bow and Athabasca Rivers . The Canadian Rockies are quite different in appearance and geology from the American Rockies to the south of them. The Canadian Rockies are composed of layered sedimentary rock such as limestone and shale , whereas
609-480: The Rockies, and especially in the national parks, the Alpine Club of Canada maintains a series of alpine huts for use by mountaineers and adventurers. The Canadian Pacific Railway was founded to provide a link from the province of British Columbia to the eastern provinces. The main difficulty in providing such a link were the Rockies themselves: treacherous mountain passes, fast rivers and sheer drops made for
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#1732793653341638-769: The Saint Elias Mountains (highest point in Canada Mount Logan at 5,959 m; 19,551 ft) and the Coast Mountains (highest point Mount Waddington at 4,016 m; 13,176 ft) have higher summits. The Canadian Rockies are subdivided into numerous mountain ranges , structured in two main groupings, the Continental Ranges , which has three main subdivisions, the Front Range , Park Ranges and Kootenay Ranges , and
667-491: The Scollard Formation, based on dinosaurian and microfloral evidence, as well as the presence of the terminal Cretaceous iridium anomaly . The Edmonton Group is present in the central plains of Alberta. It consists of sedimentary rocks that were deposited in nonmarine to brackish water environments between the Canadian Rockies in the west and the Western Interior Seaway to the east. Its reaches
696-757: The Scollard Formation. Molluscs such as Ostrea and Unio are found in both portions. The Edmonton Group is disconformably overlain by the Paskapoo Formation and conformably overlies the Bearpaw Formation or, where the Bearpaw is absent, the Belly River Formation . The Edmonton Group grades into the sequence of the Blood Reserve Formation , St. Mary River Formation and Willow Creek Formation in
725-465: The boundary is at the Canada–United States border on 49th parallel north , but in geological terms it might be considered to be at Marias Pass in northern Montana. The Canadian Rockies have numerous high peaks and ranges, such as Mount Robson (3,954 metres; 12,972 feet) and Mount Columbia (3,747 m; 12,293 ft). The Canadian Rockies are composed of shale and limestone . Much of
754-682: The central Alberta plains. It was first described as the Edmonton Formation by Joseph Burr Tyrrell in 1887 based on outcrops along the North Saskatchewan River in and near the city of Edmonton . E.J.W. Irish later elevated the formation to group status and it was subdivided into four separate formations. In ascending order, they are the Horseshoe Canyon , Whitemud, Battle and Scollard Formations . The Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary occurs within
783-521: The range is protected by national and provincial parks, several of which collectively comprise a World Heritage Site . The Canadian Rockies are the easternmost part of the Canadian Cordillera , the collective name for the mountains of Western Canada . They form part of the American Cordillera , an essentially continuous sequence of mountain ranges that runs all the way from Alaska to the very tip of South America. The Cordillera, in turn,
812-637: The upper part of the Battle. The Battle Formation unconformably overlies the Whitemud Formation . It is overlain by the Scollard Formation and the contact is erosional in some areas where basal Scollard paleochannels have cut into or eroded through the Battle. In other areas the contact may be conformable. In the southern Alberta plains it is overlain, apparently conformably, by the Willow Creek Formation , and in Saskatchewan it
841-820: The west. It is divided into the Northern Rockies (which is further subdivided into the Muskwa and Hart Ranges ) and Continental Ranges , separated by the McGregor River valley, the McGregor Pass and the Kakwa River valley. The southern end of the Canadian Rockies extends into the U.S. state of Montana at various sites such as the Wilson Range , Upper Waterton Lake , Boundary Creek , Cameron Lake , Forum Peak , Long Knife Peak , North Fork Flathead River and Frozen Lake . In geographic terms,
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