The Peace River Formation is a stratigraphical unit of middle Albian age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin .
25-684: It takes the name from the Peace River , and was first described on the banks of the river, downstream from the Smoky River confluence to the mouth of the Notikewin River by McConnell in 1893. The Peace River Formation consists of greywacke , coal , coarse to fine marine sandstone and dark, fissile, non-calcareous shale . Gas is produced from the Cadotte Member in northern-western Alberta . The Peace River Formation
50-764: A fur trading post at the river's junction with the Boyer River . In 1792 and 1793, the explorer Alexander Mackenzie travelled up the river to the Continental Divide . Mackenzie referred to the river as Unjegah , from the Dane-zaa meaning "large river." The decades of hostilities between the Dane-zaa and the Cree , (in which the Cree dominated the Dane-zaa), ended in 1781 when a smallpox epidemic decimated
75-471: Is 1,923 kilometres (1,195 mi) long (from the head of Finlay River to Lake Athabasca). It drains an area of approximately 302,500 square kilometres (116,800 sq mi). At Peace Point, where it drains in the Slave River , it has an annual discharge of 68.2 billion cubic metres (55.3 million acre-feet). A large man-made lake, Williston Lake , has been formed on the upper reaches by
100-749: Is 33 meters (108 ft) thick at its type section, and reaches up to 61 meters (200 ft) in southern Saskatchewan . It occurs throughout the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin, from the Rocky Mountain Foothills to south-central Saskatchewan. The Joli Fou Formation is the basal (oldest) formation of the Colorado Group . It is overlain by the Viking Formation ( disconformably in south-eastern Saskatchewan) and conformably underlain by
125-736: Is 60 feet (20 m) thick on average. The formation has different extents at different stages, with the Paddy Member present only in the Peace River Country in northern Alberta south of Clear Hills , while the Cadotte Member and the Harmon Member occur in both Alberta and north-eastern British Columbia . The Peace River Lowland, a landform region in the Alberta Plateau , is a gently rolling lowland without clearly defined outer boundaries extending east of
150-776: Is a 1,923-kilometre-long (1,195 mi) river in Canada that originates in the Rocky Mountains of northern British Columbia and flows to the northeast through northern Alberta . The Peace River joins the Athabasca River in the Peace-Athabasca Delta to form the Slave River , a tributary of the Mackenzie River . The Finlay River , the main headwater of the Peace River, is regarded as
175-804: The Commotion Formation in British Columbia and to the Scatter Formation in the Liard River area. It correlates to the Buckinghorse Formation in north-eastern British Columbia. The Peace River Formation is composed of the following subdivisions from base to top: The Harmon Member correlates with the Hulcross Shale of the Commotion Formation in British Columbia and the shale member of
200-516: The Rocky Mountains on both sides of the Peace River and sloping downward to the north and east. The higher hills in the foothills east of the Rockies in northeastern British Columbia have elevations of about 1000 m and the plains west of Lake Athabasca are about 300 m above sea level. The lowland's Quaternary sediments of the former lake bottom of Glacial Lake Peace are underlain by Upper and Lower Cretaceous sedimentary rocks mainly shales of
225-967: The Scatter Formation in the Liard River area. The Cadotte Member correlates with the lower part of the Boulder Creek Member of the Commotion Formation and to the sum of the sandy member of the Scatter Formation and the base of the Lepine Formation . In eastern and central Alberta , the Harmon Member can be correlated to the Joli Fou Formation , and the Cadotte Members with the Viking Formation . Peace River (Canada) The Peace River (French: rivière de la Paix )
250-693: The Vermilion Chutes , near Fort Vermilion . The first steam-powered vessel to navigate the Peace River was the Grahame , a Hudson's Bay Company vessel built at Fort Chipewyan , on Lake Athabasca . Brothers of the Oblate Order of Mary Immaculate built the St. Charles to navigate the upper reaches of the River, from Fort Vermilion to Hudson's Hope . Approximately a dozen vessels were to navigate
275-726: The Cree. The Treaty of the Peace was celebrated by the smoking of a ceremonial pipe . The treaty made the Peace River a border, with the Dane-zaa to the North and the Cree to the South. In 1794, a fur trading post was built on the Peace River at Fort St. John ; it was the first settlement established on the British Columbia mainland by Europeans. The rich soils of the Peace River valley in Alberta have been producing wheat crops since
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#1732771977964300-620: The Peace River Lowland, Otter Lakes Upland, Utikuma Lake Upland, and Clear Hills Upland. The Peace River Lowland is located in the central part of the area and is dissected by the Peace River . The Otter Lakes Upland in the northeast is a southern extension of the Buffalo Head Hills. It has a rugged moraine topography with steep slopes and isolated hills. Elevations above sea level range from 1,900 feet (580 m) to 2,600 feet (790 m). The Utikuma Lake Upland in
325-849: The Rockies, it nowadays flows into Dinosaur Lake, a reservoir for the Peace Canyon Dam . After the dams, the river flows east into Alberta and then continues north and east into the Peace-Athabasca Delta in Wood Buffalo National Park , at the western end of Lake Athabasca. Water from the delta flows into the Slave River east of Peace Point and reaches the Arctic Ocean via the Great Slave Lake and Mackenzie River . Communities located directly on
350-609: The Shaftesbury formation and sandstones of the Dunvegan and Peace River formations. The Peace River and its immediate tributaries have incised almost 200 meters into the sediments and into the Cretaceous bedrock in the western section but only about 70 meters in the east side further north around Fort Vermilion . On the basis of topography and landscape pattern, the area may be subdivided into four local physiographic units:
375-742: The construction of the W. A. C. Bennett Dam for hydroelectric power generation. Prior to its flooding, the confluence of the Finlay and Parsnip Rivers at Finlay Forks was distinct. A half mile east of that location were the half-mile long Finlay Rapids and a further seven miles east is the Peace Pass , which separates the Muskwa Ranges and the Hart Ranges of the Canadian Rockies . The only river cutting completely through
400-493: The late 19th century. In the early 21st century, the BC Grain Producers Association was researching the productivity of wheat and other grain crops near Dawson Creek . The Peace River region is also an important centre of oil and natural gas production. There are also pulp and paper plants along the river in Alberta and British Columbia. The Peace River has two navigable sections, separated by
425-559: The river banks, among them Beaver Ranch 163 , John D'Or Prairie 215 , Fox Lake 162 , Peace Point 222 and Devil's Gate 220 . Tributaries of the Peace River include: Joli Fou Formation The Joli Fou Formation is a allostratigraphical unit of middle Albian age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin . It takes the name from the Joli Fou Rapids on the Athabasca River , and
450-580: The river include: Many provincial parks and wildland reserves are established on the river, such as Butler Ridge Provincial Park , Taylor Landing Provincial Park , Beatton River Provincial Park , Peace River Corridor Provincial Park in British Columbia and Dunvegan Provincial Park , Dunvegan West Wildland Provincial Park , Peace River Wildland Provincial Park , Greene Valley Provincial Park , Notikewin Provincial Park , Wood Buffalo National Park in Alberta. A few Indian reserves are also on
475-464: The river. Most of the early vessels were wood-burning steamships, fueled by wood cut from the river's shore. The last cargo vessel was the Watson's Lake , retired in 1952. Hydroelectric development began on the Peace River in 1968 and continues to be an important source of renewable energy for British Columbia's main electricity provider, BC Hydro . The river’s first dam, the W. A. C. Bennett Dam ,
500-605: The southeast also ranges from 1,900 feet (580 m) to 2,700 feet (820 m). The Clear Hills Upland in the west ranges from 1,900 feet (580 m) to 2,700 feet (820 m). The Peace River Formation is a sub-division of the Fort St. John Group . It is conformably overlain by the Shaftesbury Formation shale and is conformably underlain by the Spirit River Formation . It is equivalent to
525-701: The ultimate source of the Mackenzie River. The combined Finlay–Peace–Slave–Mackenzie river system is the 13th longest river system in the world . The regions along the river are the traditional home of the Dane-zaa people , called the Beaver by the Europeans. The fur trader Peter Pond is believed to have visited the river in 1785. In 1788 Charles Boyer of the North West Company established
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#1732771977964550-783: The upper Mannville Group ( Grand Rapids Formation in north-eastern Alberta, Pelican Formation in southern Alberta). It is equivalent to the lower Ashville Formation in southern Manitoba , the Skull Creek Shale in North Dakota and parts of the Blackleaf Formation in northern Montana . In south-eastern Alberta, the base of the Formation contains the Cessford Sand marker, consisting of sandstone, siltstone and mudstone. The Joli Fou Formation
575-409: The upstream dams and generate additional electrical capacity to meet British Columbia's growing demand for green energy and reduce the carbon footprint of residents. As of 2020 both the Alberta government and private producers were studying the possibility of hydroelectric development on the Alberta stretch of the river with one run-of-the-river project currently being proposed. ( MW ) This river
600-489: Was completed in 1968 and is British Columbia's largest dam and the third-largest hydroelectric facility in Canada. It supplies over 30% of British Columbia's total power demand. Engineers took advantage of the W. A. C. Bennet Dam's large reservoir storage to further develop the river with the Peace Canyon Dam opened in 1980. The Site C dam is under construction and scheduled to be finished in 2025; it will further benefit from
625-459: Was first described in an outcrop along the river, 8 kilometers (5.0 mi) downstream from Joli Fou Rapids, by RTD Wickenden in 1949. The Joli Fou Formation is composed of shale with minor sandstone lenses. The shale is non-calcareous, dark grey, while the sandstone lenses are fine to minor medium grained, quartzose or micaceous. In central Saskatchewan, the unit contains glauconitic sandstone and mudstone interbeds. The Joli Fou Formation
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