2006 - Into the Cariboo

Picture
For the past two years, ATLAS has conducted a field trip intended for 25 new and returning graduate students. The purpose of the trip is to highlight the work and field area of a volunteer grad student and to serve as a means to introduce new students to returning grad students. As many of you already know, Kenny will be leading this year’s instalment of the field trip to the Cariboo Mountains of east-central British Columbia.

The focus was on sedimentology/stratigraphy, structural geology and modern glaciation. The sedimentology/stratigraphic aspect of the trip focused on deep-water sedimentary rocks of the Neoproterozoic Windermere Supergroup. This succession records the evolution of a basin floor-to-slope turbidite system that developed at the base of the former (pre-Cordilleran) passive margin of western North America. This setting makes it directly analogous to modern turbidite systems along passive margin of the circum-Atlantic region being explored today. Subsequent deformation from the Jurassic to Eocene has developed textbook structural geology features ranging from cm-scale crenulations and pressure shadows to km-scale regional folds.
More recently, the rocks have been polished smooth and exposed due to the rapid retreat of a local glacier. The glacier and associated outwash plain and lateral moraines that were left during the last advance will also be visited. Rugged terrain, steeply dipping strata (ideal for walking up section) and exceptional alpine and periglacial exposure make this area ideal for examining the depositional architecture of the Windermere deep-water turbidite system, structural geology and modern alpine glaciation. And if that is not enough, mountain scenery was spectacular.
Special thanks to the following sponsors: