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Cordilleran Geoscience
For more information on geoscience of the Cordilleran region of British Columbia, please visit GSC Vancouver.
The Canadian Cordillera, the name for the mountains
of western Canada, includes not only the mountainous and plateau regions,
but also the submerged regions on the continental shelf and slope. The Cordillera
is a region where earthquakes,
recently active volcanoes,deformation of
the sediments on the continental slope west of Vancouver Island and regional
uplift over the last 10 million years, show that mountain-building is continuing.
The Canadian Cordillera is divided into five morphogeological belts
(or linear geological provinces) that run parallel with the north northwest
trend of the Cordillera. Each belt features a distinctive combination of
bedrock geology and land forms. From east to west the belts are called:
Foreland, Omineca, Intermontane, Coast and Insular belts. Cordilleran rocks
formed in a variety of different tectonic settings still observed in today's
Earth, such as continental margins, volcanic arcs and deep ocean basins.
Different rock types of about the same age are grouped into associations
called tectonic assemblages that reflect the tectonic setting in which each
association formed. In addition, it appears that many older rocks in the
four western belts probably did not form in their present positions relative
to the ancient continental margin, which today is below the Omineca Belt.
These western rocks are disposed in really extensive terranes, each of which
is relatively homogenous internally, but each of which may differ markedly
in its stratigraphy, fossil and paleomagnetic records from those of adjoining
terranes and from rocks deposited on the ancient continental margin. Finally,
the Cordillera contains a variety of economic deposits, ranging from coal,
oil and gas, mainly in the Foreland Belt, through lead, zinc, silver and
tungsten mainly in the Omineca Belt, to copper, molybdenum and gold in the
western Cordillera.
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