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30 December 2014
Skolithos in Gog quartzite, on the trail to Helen Lake
Some boulders seen on the trail to Helen Lake sported lovely sets of Skolithos trace fossils. Here are two boulders, with the perspective on the tubular paleo-vertical Skolithos burrows being “map view”: Another boulder, in the middle of the trail, showed them in a fine cross-sectional view: (click to enlarge substantially) It also included some interesting “ribbed” vertical traces that I didn’t recognize as familiar: …Diplocraterion, perhaps? Seems too “linear” …
29 December 2014
Intense bioturbation in limy mudrock on the trail to Helen Lake
Look at this! A whole boulder made of trace fossils. Three photos, each more progressively zoomed in than the last. Update: The @ichnologist identifies these as perhaps Thalassinoides.
26 December 2014
Friday fold: another gem from the Chancellor Slate
That pretty much speaks for itself, I reckon.
25 December 2014
The stromatolites of Helen Lake 2: GigaPans
Posted this morning as my “Christmas gift” to blog readers in both photo and GigaPan form, here are the exquisite stromatolites of Helen Lake, Banff National Park, Alberta. link link link link link link link Finally, three other non-stromatolitic GigaPans from the site: One of Artomys Formation siltstone / shale interbeds… link …and two of Cirque Peak itself, showing its gorgeous internal folding: link link Happy holidays to you!
The stromatolites of Helen Lake 1: photos
The exquisite stromatolites of Helen Lake, Banff National Park, are presented in photographic and GigaPan renditions. Enjoy unwrapping them as your “Christmas gift” from Callan.
24 December 2014
A rock slide and a protalus rampart (?) on the trail to Helen Lake
A hike to Helen Lake, Banff National Park, Alberta, brings your intrepid geoblogger face to face with a fresh landslide and a curious landform parallel to the glacial valley. Is it a pro-talus rampart?
23 December 2014
More oncoids (from the Peyto Formation?)
Two years ago, I posted on some interesting structures my students and I saw at Consolation Lakes, near Moraine Lake in Banff National Park. They were little concretions, “oncoids” roughly speaking, and may have indicated (thanks Howard!) that the boulders were sourced to the Peyto Formation, a Cambrian carbonate within the Gog group: The purpose of today’s post is to confirm that these structures are still there two years later, …
22 December 2014
Digitate stromatolites
Want to see something cool? Itty bitty stromatolites… like baby’s fingers! There’s a big weathered-out stylolite at the base of this stromatolite-bearing layer, too. These elfin stromatolites are part of the boulder in the lower left (foreground) of this GigaPan, taken at the Icefields Center parking area in Jasper National Park, Alberta: link
19 December 2014
Friday Fold: Mist Mountain Formation in Canmore, Alberta
Let’s journey to the Cretaceous today, to see sandstones, shales, and even some coal strata that have been folded during the eastward thrusting that built the Canadian Rockies. Here’s the same fold, in context, shot in GigaPan on a different day, from a different angle. Can you match it up? link Ben Gadd showed me (and my field class) this site last summer. It’s a little west of Canmore. There’s …