Archive - Mount Rundle

Each Sunday we present a notable item from our archives. This EPOD was originally published May 17, 2003.

Provided by: Teena Della, Terry Fox Secondary School
Summary authors & editors: Jim Foster; Teena Della

The photo above shows Mount Rundle, located in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta, Canada. In the Earth's early stages of continent building, what is now North America consisted mainly of a granite batholith. Relatively recently, about 170 million years ago, several strings of volcanic islands collided with the west coast of North America. Sedimentary layers that had piled up in the Pacific Ocean became folded and faulted (thrust faults) by the compression of the collision, resulting in the formation of the Rocky Mountains. A side view of the sedimentary layers that were thrust upwards during the mountain building process is shown in the photo. British Columbia, the province to the west of Alberta, would have been about 300 km wider (188 miles) if the collision and resulting folding had not occurred. [Revised May 2017]

Related Links:

• Fold Thrust Belts
• Mount Rundle
• About the formation of the Rockies
• Geology of British Columbia