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Walcott Quarry
The Walcott Quarry is the most famous quarry of the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale, located in the Canadian Rockies of British Columbia, bearing the Phyllopod beds. This lies at the base of the Walcott Quarry member, on a ridge between Wapta Mountain Wapta Mountain is a mountain located in the Canadian Rockies between Emerald Lake and Yoho Valley in Yoho National Park, British Columbia, Canada. It stands just north of the ridge containing the Burgess Shale fossil beds. Along with The Vice Pres ... and Mount Field, and three other quarries – the Raymond, UE and EZ – lie above it. The quarry's proximity to the Cathedral escarpment led to the preservation of spectacular fossils. History After locating soft-bodied fossils in loose fragments of rock in 1907, the Phyllopod bed was located as a source for the fragments' origins by the Walcotts in 1910. The Walcott quarry was opened the subsequent year, and extensive quarrying was performed in field seasons until 1913, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Burgess Shale
The Burgess Shale is a fossil-bearing deposit exposed in the Canadian Rockies of British Columbia, Canada. It is famous for the exceptional preservation of the soft parts of its fossils. At old (middle Cambrian), it is one of the earliest fossil beds containing soft-part imprints. The rock unit is a black shale and crops out at a number of localities near the town of Field in Yoho National Park Yoho National Park ( ) is a National Parks of Canada, national park of Canada. It is located within the Canadian Rockies, Rocky Mountains along the western slope of the Continental Divide of the Americas in southeastern British Columbia, bordered ... and the Kicking Horse Pass. Another outcrop is in Kootenay National Park 42 km to the south. History and significance The Burgess Shale was discovered by palaeontologist Charles Doolittle Walcott, Charles Walcott on 30 August 1909, towards the end of the season's fieldwork. He returned in 1910 with his sons, daughter, and wif ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phyllopod Bed
The Phyllopod bed, designated by USNM locality number 35k, is the most famous fossil-bearing member of the Burgess Shale fossil ''Lagerstätte''. It was quarried by Charles Walcott from 1911–1917 (and later named Walcott Quarry), and was the source of 95% of the fossils he collected during this time; tens of thousands of soft-bodied fossils representing over 150 genera have been recovered from the Phyllopod bed alone. Stratigraphy and location The phyllopod bed is a 2.31 m thick layer of the 7 m thick Greater Phyllopod Bed, found in the Walcott Quarry on Fossil Ridge, between Wapta Mountain and Mount Field, at an elevation of around , around north of the railway town of Field, British Columbia, in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. It is adjacent to Mount Burgess, where Walcott first discovered the Burgess Shale formation. Walcott divided the bed into twelve units based on the rock type and fossil content. Certain fossil beds provide reference levels and can b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wapta Mountain
Wapta Mountain is a mountain located in the Canadian Rockies between Emerald Lake and Yoho Valley in Yoho National Park, British Columbia, Canada. It stands just north of the ridge containing the Burgess Shale fossil beds. Along with The Vice President and Mount Burgess, Wapta Mountain forms the backdrop to Emerald Lake, and marks the southern end of the President Range. In 1901, James Outram, J. H. Scattergood, and their guide C. Bohren, became the first people to ascend Wapta Mountain. Wapta Mountain overlooks Takakkaw Falls (1,247 feet), the second tallest waterfall in western Canada. The word "Wapta" means "river" in the Stoney language Stoney—also called Nakota, Nakoda, Isga, and formerly Alberta Assiniboine—is a member of the Dakota subgroup of the Mississippi Valley grouping of the Siouan languages. The Dakotan languages constitute a dialect continuum consisting of Santee .... References {{Reflist, refs= {{cite bivouac , id=1655 , name=Wapta Mountain, access ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mount Field (British Columbia)
Mount Field is a mountain located about northeast of the town of Field in Yoho National Park, Canada. The mountain was named in 1884 after Cyrus West Field, an American merchant who had laid the first Atlantic cable, 1858, a second in 1866; Mr. Field was visiting the Canadian Rockies the year as a guest of the CPR who were building the national railway, at the naming of a station and a mountain. Precipitation runoff from Mount Field drains into the Kicking Horse River. Topographic relief is significant as the summit rises 1,360 meters (4,462 feet) above the river in two kilometers (1.2 mile). The Trans-Canada Highway ( Highway 1) traverses the southern foot of the mountain. Geology Mount Field is composed of sedimentary rock laid down during the Precambrian to Jurassic periods. Formed in shallow seas, this sedimentary rock was pushed east and over the top of younger rock during the Laramide orogeny. The Burgess Shale is located below the ridge connecting Mt. Fiel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cathedral Escarpment
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. 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. Lithology and deposition The Cathedral Formation consists primarily of massive, cliff-forming carbonate rocks. It was originally deposited as limestone, much of which may have been secreted by marine algae. Deposition took place in shallow water on an extensive algal reef or carbonate platform that had developed along the weste ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Doolittle Walcott
Charles Doolittle Walcott (March 31, 1850February 9, 1927) was an American paleontologist, administrator of the Smithsonian Institution from 1907 to 1927, and director of the United States Geological Survey.Wonderful Life (book) by Stephen Jay Gould published in 1989, Chapter 4 He is famous for his discovery in 1909 of well-preserved fossils, including some of the oldest soft-part imprints, in the Burgess Shale of British Columbia, Canada. Early life Charles Doolittle Walcott was born on March 31, 1850 in New York Mills, New York. His grandfather, Benjamin S. Walcott, moved from Rhode Island in 1822. His father, also Charles Doolittle Walcott, died when Charles Jr. was only two. Walcott was the youngest of four children. He was interested in nature from an early age, collecting minerals and bird eggs and, eventually, fossils. He attended various schools in the Utica area but left at the age of eighteen without completing high school, the end of his formal education. His intere ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Doolittle Walcott (1850-1927), Sidney Stevens Walcott (1892-1977), And Helen Breese Walcott (1894-1965)
Charles Doolittle Walcott (March 31, 1850February 9, 1927) was an American paleontologist, administrator of the Smithsonian Institution from 1907 to 1927, and director of the United States Geological Survey.Wonderful Life (book) by Stephen Jay Gould published in 1989, Chapter 4 He is famous for his discovery in 1909 of well-preserved fossils, including some of the oldest soft-part imprints, in the Burgess Shale of British Columbia, Canada. Early life Charles Doolittle Walcott was born on March 31, 1850 in New York Mills, New York. His grandfather, Benjamin S. Walcott, moved from Rhode Island in 1822. His father, also Charles Doolittle Walcott, died when Charles Jr. was only two. Walcott was the youngest of four children. He was interested in nature from an early age, collecting minerals and bird eggs and, eventually, fossils. He attended various schools in the Utica area but left at the age of eighteen without completing high school, the end of his formal education. His interes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quarries In Canada
A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their environmental impact. The word ''quarry'' can also include the underground quarrying for stone, such as Bath stone. Types of rock Types of rock extracted from quarries include: *Chalk *China clay *Cinder *Clay *Coal * Construction aggregate (sand and gravel) * Coquina * Diabase *Gabbro *Granite * Gritstone *Gypsum *Limestone *Marble *Ores *Phosphate rock *Quartz *Sandstone * Slate *Travertine Stone quarry Stone quarry is an outdated term for mining construction rocks (limestone, marble, granite, sandstone, etc.). There are open types (called quarries, or open-pit mines) and closed types ( mines and caves). For thousands of years, only hand tools had been used in quarries. In the 18th century, the use of drilling and blasting operat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paleontology In Canada
Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossils to classify organisms and study their interactions with each other and their environments (their paleoecology). Paleontological observations have been documented as far back as the 5th century BC. The science became established in the 18th century as a result of Georges Cuvier's work on comparative anatomy, and developed rapidly in the 19th century. The term itself originates from Greek (, "old, ancient"), (, (gen. ), "being, creature"), and (, "speech, thought, study"). Paleontology lies on the border between biology and geology, but differs from archaeology in that it excludes the study of anatomically modern humans. It now uses techniques drawn from a wide range of sciences, including biochemistry, mathematics, and engineering. Us ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
