Geologic Field Trips of the Canadian Rockies: 2017 Meeting of the GSA Rocky Mountain Section

Lower to Middle Cambrian of the southern Canadian Rockies
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Published:January 01, 2017
ABSTRACT
Lower to Middle Cambrian strata, well exposed in imbricated westward-dipping thrust sheets of the southern Canadian Rockies, host a range of geologic features from famous fossil lagerstätten to economically important ore deposits. This paper describes six localities in the Front and Central ranges west of Calgary that record tectonic, sedimentologic, and biologic events during deposition of the lower to mid-Sauk Megasequence. At the Mount Yamnuska and Castle Mountain viewpoints, Middle Cambrian platformal carbonate sections are well exposed. These were preceded by thick, siliciclastic-dominated, shallow-marine deposits of the Gog Group, which form a dramatic geologic backdrop to Lake Louise. Farther west, a platform-to-basin facies transition is recorded in the vicinity of Field, British Columbia. Pb-Zn mineralization and dolomitization are evident near or at this facies transition at the Kicking Horse Mine in Yoho National Park, and on Fossil Ridge as seen from the Emerald Lake viewpoint. A hike to the famous Trilobite Beds of Mount Stephen offers opportunity for first-hand examination of the Burgess Shale biota and associated unusual mineralogic and geologic features including anomalously Mg-rich mudstone, carbonate mounds, and apparent syndepositional faulting, dilational cracks, brine seeps, and mud volcanism.
- Alberta
- Cambrian
- Canada
- Canadian Rocky Mountains
- carbonate rocks
- field trips
- guidebook
- lead ores
- lead-zinc deposits
- lithofacies
- lithostratigraphy
- Lower Cambrian
- metal ores
- Middle Cambrian
- mineralization
- North America
- Paleozoic
- road log
- Rocky Mountains
- sedimentary rocks
- Western Canada
- zinc ores
- southern Canadian Rocky Mountains