Cathedral Formation

Cathedral Formation
Stratigraphic range: Middle Cambrian
~509–500 Ma
The Cathedral Formation and Cathedral Escarpment form the grey mountain in the distance, with the Burgess Shale and Walcott Quarry in the foreground.
TypeFormation
UnderliesStephen Formation
OverliesMount Whyte Formation, Naiset Formation
ThicknessUp to 610 metres (2000 ft)[1]
Lithology
PrimaryLimestone, Dolomite
OtherCalcareous mudstone
Location
Coordinates51°23′47″N 116°23′25″W / 51.39639°N 116.39028°W / 51.39639; -116.39028 (Cathedral Formation)
RegionCanadian Rockies
Country Canada
Type section
Named forCathedral Mountain
Named byCharles Doolittle Walcott, 1908[2]

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.[1][3]

The Cathedral Formation includes fossil stromatolites, oncolites, and other algal remains, as well as a few shale beds with trilobites.[1] 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.[4]

  1. ^ a b c Glass, D.J. (editor) 1997. Lexicon of Canadian Stratigraphy, vol. 4, Western Canada including eastern British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and southern Manitoba. Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists, Calgary, 1423 p. on CD-ROM. ISBN 0-920230-23-7.
  2. ^ Walcott, C.D. 1908. Nomenclature of some Cambrian Cordilleran formations. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, vol. 53, no. 1, 14 pp.
  3. ^ Slind, O.L., Andrews, G.D., Murray, D.L., Norford, B.S., Paterson, D.F., Salas, C.J., and Tawadros, E.E., Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists and Alberta Geological Survey (1994). "The Geological Atlas of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin (Mossop, G.D. and Shetsen, I., compilers), Chapter 8: Middle Cambrian and Early Ordovician Strata of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin". Archived from the original on 2016-07-01. Retrieved 2018-07-13.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Rept43 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).