Looking up at Entrance to Marble Canyon - panoramio

Marble Canyon is in the south-central

Interior of British Columbia , settlement_type = Region of British Columbia , image_skyline = , nickname = "The Interior" , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = Province , subd ...

, a few kilometres east of the

Fraser River The Fraser River is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Blackrock Mountain in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia just south of the City of Vancouver. The river's annual d ...

and the community of

Pavilion In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings: * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

, midway between the towns of

Lillooet Lillooet () is a district municipality in the Squamish-Lillooet region of southwestern British Columbia. The town is on the west shore of the Fraser River immediately north of the Seton River mouth. On BC Highway 99, the locality is by road abou ...

and Cache Creek. The canyon stems from a collapsed

karst Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It has also been documented for more weathering-resistant ro ...

formation.

Nomenclature

Marble Boulders at Marble Canyon - panoramio

The canyon's name comes from the brilliant

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

of its walls. The bedrock is microcrystalline limestone (

sedimentary Sedimentary rocks are types of rock (geology), rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic matter, organic particles at Earth#Surface, Earth's surface, followed by cementation (geology), cementation. Sedimentati ...

rock) rather than

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite. Marble is typically not Foliation (geology), foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the ...

(metamorphic rock). The native name of the canyon in the

Shuswap language The Shuswap language (; shs, Secwepemctsín ) is the traditional language of the Shuswap people ( shs, Secwépemc ) of British Columbia. An endangered language, Shuswap is spoken mainly in the Central and Southern Interior of British Columbia b ...

is, when referring to the whole, ''sxmeltám'', possibly referring to "Indian doctors", while the name for the area of Crown and Turquoise Lakes and the provincial campground and adjoining south wall is ''getsgátsp'', of unknown meaning. In addition to the steep walls rising from the lake's southeastern end, there is an eroded pinnacle known as Chimney Rock, or in a translation of ''K'lpalekw'', the Secwepemc ( Shuswap) name for it, Coyote's Penis.

Geography

The north wall is over 965 m (3150 ft) high above

Pavilion Lake Pavilion Lake is a freshwater lake located in Marble Canyon, British Columbia, Canada home to colonies of freshwater microbialites. Location and Local Communities It is located between the towns of Lillooet and Cache Creek (29.44 kilometres WNW, ...

and is the southernmost extent of the Marble Range; the south wall is c. 515 m (1500 ft) and is the northern extremity of the

Clear Range The Clear Range is a small mountain range located in the angle of the Fraser and Thompson Rivers in south-central British Columbia. It has a small subdivision just northeast of that confluence named the Scarped Range. The Clear Range totals 16,27 ...

. Higher peaks lie in behind the walls, increasing the depth if measured from their summits.

Stromatolites

Within the canyon are a series of lakes draining towards the

via Pavilion Creek. The largest of these is Pavilion Lake, which is home to a colony of

microbialites Microbialite is a benthic sedimentary deposit made of carbonate mud (particle diameter < 5 μm) that is formed with the mediation of microbes. The constituent carbonate mud is a type of

stromatolite Stromatolites () or stromatoliths () are layered sedimentary formations (microbialite) that are created mainly by photosynthetic microorganisms such as cyanobacteria, sulfate-reducing bacteria, and Pseudomonadota (formerly proteobacteria). The ...

s), unusual carbonate structures built by bacteria which resemble freshwater "coral" and which are the largest freshwater stromatolites in the world.

Rock and ice climbing

Marble Canyon is popular with climbers, both for its clean rock walls and also for its ice climbs, including one waterfall that freezes solid in midwinter (officially Crown Lake Falls but to climbers, "Icy BC"), and which is immediately opposite the provincial park campground adjacent to Highway 99 from

Cache Creek, British Columbia Cache Creek is a historic transportation junction and incorporated village northeast of Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada. It is on the Trans-Canada Highway in the province of British Columbia at a junction with Highway 97. The same in ...

Cultural rights

These areas and

, in addition to being provincial park, are also governed by special cultural rights and have important spiritual significance of the Pavilion Band.BC Parks Marble Canyon Provincial Park webpage
/ref>

References