|
Geology Of Saskatchewan
The geology of Saskatchewan can be divided into two main geological regions, the Precambrian Canadian Shield and the Phanerozoic Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. Within the Precambrian shield exists the Athabasca sedimentary basin. Meteorite impacts have altered the natural geological formation processes. The prairies were most recently affected by glacial events in the Quaternary period. Canadian Shield The Canadian shield, Precambrian shield, makes up the bedrock geology highlighted by rocks and lakes and a boreal forest area. There are transitional areas between boreal and tundra flora. The lower boundary of the Canadian Shield cuts across the province diagonally from the latitude 57 degrees in the north west to 54 degrees in the south east. Three orogenies formed the Precambrian shield, the Kenoran (Laurentian- Algoman), Hudsonian (Penokean) and Grenville Orogeny. Kenoran (Algoman) orogeny Between 2.2 and 2.5 billion years ago was the Kenoran Orogeny, which ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greenstone Belt
Greenstone belts are zones of variably metamorphosed mafic to ultramafic volcanic sequences with associated sedimentary rocks that occur within Archaean and Proterozoic cratons between granite and gneiss bodies. The name comes from the green hue imparted by the colour of the metamorphic minerals within the mafic rocks: the typical green minerals are chlorite, actinolite, and other green amphiboles. Greenstone belts also often contain ore deposits of gold, silver, copper, zinc and lead. A greenstone belt is typically several dozens to several thousand kilometres long. Typically, a greenstone belt within the greater volume of otherwise homogeneous granite-gneiss within a craton contains a significantly larger degree of heterogeneity and complications and forms a tectonic marker far more distinct than the much more voluminous and homogeneous granites. Additionally, a greenstone belt contains far more information on tectonic and metamorphic events, deformations, and paleogeologic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laurentia
Laurentia or the North American Craton is a large continental craton that forms the ancient geological core of North America. Many times in its past, Laurentia has been a separate continent, as it is now in the form of North America, although originally it also included the cratonic areas of Greenland and also the northwestern part of Scotland, known as the Hebridean Terrane. During other times in its past, Laurentia has been part of larger continents and supercontinents and itself consists of many smaller terranes assembled on a network of Early Proterozoic orogenic belts. Small microcontinents and oceanic islands collided with and sutured onto the ever-growing Laurentia, and together formed the stable Precambrian craton seen today. The craton is named after the Laurentian Shield, through the Laurentian Mountains, which received their name from the Saint Lawrence River, named after Lawrence of Rome. Interior platform In eastern and central Canada, much of the stable craton is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
North America Craton Nps
North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' is related to the Old High German ''nord'', both descending from the Proto-Indo-European unit *''ner-'', meaning "left; below" as north is to left when facing the rising sun. Similarly, the other cardinal directions are also related to the sun's position. The Latin word ''borealis'' comes from the Greek '' boreas'' "north wind, north", which, according to Ovid, was personified as the wind-god Boreas, the father of Calais and Zetes. ''Septentrionalis'' is from ''septentriones'', "the seven plow oxen", a name of ''Ursa Major''. The Greek ἀρκτικός (''arktikós'') is named for the same constellation, and is the source of the English word ''Arctic''. Other languages have other derivations. For example, in Lezgian, ''kefer'' can mean b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rodinia
Rodinia (from the Russian родина, ''rodina'', meaning "motherland, birthplace") was a Mesoproterozoic and Neoproterozoic supercontinent that assembled 1.26–0.90 billion years ago and broke up 750–633 million years ago. were probably the first to recognise a Precambrian supercontinent, which they named 'Pangaea I'. It was renamed 'Rodinia' by who also were the first to produce a reconstruction and propose a temporal framework for the supercontinent. Rodinia formed at c. 1.23 Ga by accretion and collision of fragments produced by breakup of an older supercontinent, Columbia, assembled by global-scale 2.0–1.8 Ga collisional events.; Rodinia broke up in the Neoproterozoic with its continental fragments reassembled to form Pannotia 633–573 million years ago. In contrast with Pannotia, little is known yet about the exact configuration and geodynamic history of Rodinia. Paleomagnetic evidence provides some clues to the paleolatitude of individual pieces of the Ea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Weigl Educational Publishers Limited
Weigl Educational Publishers Limited is a publishing house in Canada, one of the country's largest. Linda A. Weigl founded the company in 1979 as a textbook publisher. First based in Saskatchewan, the company moved to Alberta in 1984, and now has its headquarters in Calgary with a warehouse in Ontario. In the 1980s, Weigl Educational Publishers Limited produced multimedia social studies kits for Alberta Education. The kits supported Alberta’s new social studies program and were distributed to all Elementary and Secondary schools in the province. Known as Kanata Kits, they included many different educational materials, including teacher guides, student booklets, audiovisual resources, picture sets, and manipulative items. At the same time, the company published ''Canada’s Political Heritage'', a Canadian history textbook for grade 8 which was a major commercial success, selling more than 70,000 copies between 1985 and 1990. The company’s main focus is now the K–12 school ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Athabasca Sand Dunes Provincial Park
The Athabasca Sand Dunes Provincial Park was created to protect the Athabasca sand dunes, a unique boreal shield ecosystem located in the far-north Northern Saskatchewan Administration District. The Athabasca sand dunes are the most northerly active sand dune formations on Earth. It first came to attention that it should be a protected area in 1969, finally becoming the Athabasca Sand Dunes Provincial Wilderness Park on August 24, 1992. The park extends for 100 kilometres along the southern edge of Lake Athabasca and lies within the Athabasca Basin of the Canadian Shield. The sand dunes are 400 to 1,500 metres long, and their maximum height is approximately 30 metres. The park is accessible by float plane or boat only. The William River flows through the western section of the park ending in a large river delta. The McFarlane River flows through the far eastern section of the park. The park goes around the Fond du Lac 231 (First Nations Reserve) located on the McFarlane Rive ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clastic
Clastic rocks are composed of fragments, or clasts, of pre-existing minerals and rock. A clast is a fragment of geological detritus,Essentials of Geology, 3rd Ed, Stephen Marshak, p. G-3 chunks, and smaller grains of rock broken off other rocks by physical weathering.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Ed, Stephen Marshak, p. G-5 Geologists use the term clastic to refer to sedimentary rocks and particles in sediment transport, whether in suspension or as bed load, and in sediment deposits. Sedimentary clastic rocks Clastic sedimentary rocks are rocks composed predominantly of broken pieces or ''clasts'' of older weathered and eroded rocks. Clastic sediments or sedimentary rocks are classified based on grain size, clast and cementing material (matrix) composition, and texture. The classification factors are often useful in determining a sample's environment of deposition. An example of clastic environment would be a river system in which the full range of grains being transported by th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Statherian
The Statherian Period (; grc, σταθερός, statherós, meaning "stable, firm") is the final geologic period in the Paleoproterozoic Era and lasted from Mya to Mya (million years ago). Instead of being based on stratigraphy, these dates are defined chronometrically. The period was characterized on most continents by either new platforms or final cratonization of fold belts. Oxygen levels were 10% to 20% of current values. ''Rafatazmia'', controversially claimed to be present in Statherian beds in India, may be the oldest known confirmably eukaryotic fossil organism. By the beginning of the Statherian, the supercontinent Columbia had assembled. At roughly 1.7 billion years before present a series of natural nuclear fission reactors was operational in what is now Oklo Oklo is a region near the town of Franceville, in the Haut-Ogooué province of the Central African country of Gabon. Several natural nuclear fission reactors were discovered in the uranium mines in th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Athabasca Basin
The Athabasca Basin is a region in the Canadian Shield of northern Saskatchewan and Alberta, Canada. It is best known as the world's leading source of high-grade uranium and currently supplies about 20% of the world's uranium. The basin is located just to the south of Lake Athabasca, west of Wollaston Lake, and encloses almost all of Cree Lake. It covers about in Saskatchewan and a small portion of Alberta. The surface of the basin consists of main sandstone sediment varying from in depth. The uranium ore is mostly found at the base of this sandstone, at the point where it meets the basement. On the northern and eastern edges are the communities of Fort Chipewyan in Alberta and Camsell Portage, Stony Rapids, Fond du Lac, Black Lake and Wollaston Lake in Saskatchewan. Much of the Athabasca Basin is within the migratory range of the Beverly caribou herd a major source of sustenance for the Denesuline communities. Within the basin are the Athabasca Sand Dunes Provincia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paleoproterozoic
The Paleoproterozoic Era (;, also spelled Palaeoproterozoic), spanning the time period from (2.5–1.6 Ga), is the first of the three sub-divisions (eras) of the Proterozoic Eon. The Paleoproterozoic is also the longest era of the Earth's geological history. It was during this era that the continents first stabilized. Paleontological evidence suggests that the Earth's rotational rate ~1.8 billion years ago equated to 20-hour days, implying a total of ~450 days per year. Atmosphere Before the enormous increase in atmospheric oxygen, almost all existing lifeforms were anaerobic organisms whose metabolism was based on a form of cellular respiration that did not require oxygen. Free oxygen in large amounts is toxic to most anaerobic organisms. Consequently, most died when the atmospheric free oxygen levels soared in an extinction event called the Great Oxidation Event, which brought atmospheric oxygen levels to up to 10% of their current level. The only creatures that survi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Volcanic Arc
A volcanic arc (also known as a magmatic arc) is a belt of volcanoes formed above a subducting oceanic tectonic plate, with the belt arranged in an arc shape as seen from above. Volcanic arcs typically parallel an oceanic trench, with the arc located further from the subducting plate than the trench. The oceanic plate is saturated with water, mostly in the form of hydrous minerals such as micas, amphiboles, and serpentine minerals. As the oceanic plate is subducted, it is subjected to increasing pressure and temperature with increasing depth. The heat and pressure break down the hydrous minerals in the plate, releasing water into the overlying mantle. Volatiles such as water drastically lower the melting point of the mantle, causing some of the mantle to melt and form magma at depth under the overriding plate. The magma ascends to form an arc of volcanoes parallel to the subduction zone. Volcanic arcs are distinct from volcanic chains formed over hotspots in the middle of a te ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
