Cathedral Formation
The Cathedral Formation is a stratigraphic unit in the southern Canadian Rockies of Alberta and British Columbia, on the western edge of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. It is a thick sequence of carbonate rocks of Middle Cambrian age. It was named for Cathedral Mountain in Yoho National Park by Charles Doolittle Walcott, the discoverer of the Burgess shale fossils.
| Cathedral Formation | |
|---|---|
| Stratigraphic range: Middle Cambrian ~ | |
The Cathedral Formation and Cathderal Escarpment form the grey mountain in the distance, with the Burgess Shale and Walcott Quarry in the foreground. | |
| Type | Formation |
| Underlies | Stephen Formation |
| Overlies | Mount Whyte Formation, Naiset Formation |
| Thickness | Up to 610 metres (2000 ft) |
| Lithology | |
| Primary | Limestone, Dolomite |
| Other | Calcareous mudstone |
| Location | |
| Coordinates | 51°23′47″N 116°23′25″W |
| Region | Canadian Rockies |
| Country | Canada |
| Type section | |
| Named for | Cathedral Mountain |
| Named by | Charles Doolittle Walcott, 1908 |
| Part of a series on |
| The Burgess Shale |
|---|
The Cathedral Formation includes fossil stromatolites, oncolites, and other algal remains, as well as a few shale beds with trilobites. The Cathedral escarpment on its westernmost edge is thought to have played a major role in the deposition and preservation of the Burgess shale fossils.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.