Mount Costigan is a
summit in
Alberta
Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
.
Description
Mount Costigan is located north of the eastern end of
Lake Minnewanka, on the boundary shared by
Banff National Park with
Ghost River Wilderness Area.
Topographic relief
Terrain or relief (also topographical relief) involves the vertical and horizontal dimensions of land surface. The term bathymetry is used to describe underwater relief, while hypsometry studies terrain relative to sea level. The Latin w ...
is significant as the summit rises nearly 1,500 meters (4,920 feet) above the lake in 4 kilometers (2.5 miles). Mount Costigan was named in 1904 for
John Costigan
John Costigan (February 1, 1835 – September 29, 1916) was a Canadian judge and politician who served in the House of Commons of Canada and in the Cabinet of several Prime Ministers of Canada.
Costigan was born on February 1, 1835, in ...
(1835–1916), a
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
judge and politician who often visited this area.
The peak's toponym was officially adopted November 2, 1956, by the
Geographical Names Board of Canada.
[
]
Geology
Mount Costigan is composed of sedimentary rock
Sedimentary rocks are types of rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic particles at Earth's surface, followed by cementation. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause these particles ...
laid down during the Precambrian to Jurassic
The Jurassic ( ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of ...
periods. Formed in shallow seas, this sedimentary rock was pushed east and over the top of younger rock during the Laramide orogeny
The Laramide orogeny was a time period of mountain building in western North America, which started in the Late Cretaceous, 70 to 80 million years ago, and ended 35 to 55 million years ago. The exact duration and ages of beginning and end of the ...
.
Climate
Based on the Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...
, Mount Costigan is located in a subarctic climate with cold, snowy winters, and mild summers. Winter temperatures can drop below −20 °C with wind chill factors below −30 °C. Precipitation runoff
Runoff, run-off or RUNOFF may refer to:
* RUNOFF, the first computer text-formatting program
* Runoff or run-off, another name for bleed, printing that lies beyond the edges to which a printed sheet is trimmed
* Runoff or run-off, a stock marke ...
from this mountain drains into tributaries of the Ghost River.
See also
*
* Geography of Alberta
Alberta is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. Located in Western Canada, the province has an area of and is bounded to the south by the United States state of Montana along 49° north for ; to the east at 110° west by ...
Gallery
File:Lake Minnewanka, Mount Costigan.jpg, Lake Minnewanka with Mount Costigan centered in the distance.
File:Mount Costigan.jpg
File:John Costigan.jpg, John Costigan
References
Costigan
Costigan
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