The Rainbow Range, formerly gazetted as the Rainbow Mountains, is a
mountain range
A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have arise ...
in
British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
,
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 ...
, located northwest of
Anahim Lake
:''The subject of this article should not be confused with Anaham, which is a different community located nine kilometres east of Alexis Creek, British Columbia, which is in the same area.''
Anahim Lake is a small community in British Columbia. ...
. Located on the western edge of the
Chilcotin Plateau
The Chilcotin Plateau is part of the Fraser Plateau, a major subdivision of the Interior Plateau of British Columbia. The Chilcotin Plateau is physically near-identical with the region of the same name, i.e. "the Chilcotin", which lies between t ...
, the range adjoins the
Coast Mountains
The Coast Mountains (french: La chaîne Côtière) are a major mountain range in the Pacific Coast Ranges of western North America, extending from southwestern Yukon through the Alaska Panhandle and virtually all of the Coast of British Columbia ...
Pacific Ranges
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, photo_caption = Mount Garibaldi massif as seen from Squamish
, map =
, map_image = South BC-NW USA-relief PacificRanges.png
, m ...
to the south, and the
Kitimat Ranges
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, photo_caption = Lax Kw'alaams backdropped by Mount McNeil
, map =
, map_image = BC-relief_Kitimatranges.png
, map_caption = Kitimat Ranges ...
to the north. In some classification systems it is considered part of the Coast Mountains. It lies north of the
Bella Coola and
Atnarko River
The Atnarko River is a river in the Canadian province of British Columbia.
Course
The Atnarko River flows originates at Charlotte Lake. It flows generally west for approximately , joining the Telchako River to form the Bella Coola River. For muc ...
s and south and west of the
Dean River
The Dean River is one of the major rivers of the Kitimat Ranges subrange of the southern Coast Mountains in British Columbia. It begins at Aktaklin Lake on the Chilcotin Plateau and winds north around the Rainbow Range to enter Dean Channel at t ...
, which curves around its north flank, and is relatively drier in climate and easier of terrain than more mountainous areas immediately west.
Once called Tsitsutl, meaning "rainbow mountains" in the
Ulkatcho dialect of the
Carrier language
The Dakelh (ᑕᗸᒡ) or Carrier language is a Northern Athabaskan language. It is named after the Dakelh people, a First Nations people of the Central Interior of British Columbia, Canada, for whom Carrier has been a common English name derive ...
,
BC Parks, South Tweedsmuir Provincial Park page, Conservation section
/ref> that name is now the name of the range's highest peak.
Geology
The Rainbow Range is an eight-million-year-old (Miocene
The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...
) massive peralkaline
Peralkaline rocks include those igneous rocks which have a deficiency of aluminium such that sodium and potassium are in excess of that needed for feldspar. The presence of aegerine (sodium pyroxene) and riebeckite (sodium amphibole) are indicative ...
shield volcano
A shield volcano is a type of volcano named for its low profile, resembling a warrior's shield lying on the ground. It is formed by the eruption of highly fluid (low viscosity) lava, which travels farther and forms thinner flows than the more v ...
in the Anahim Volcanic Belt
The Anahim Volcanic Belt (AVB) is a west–east trending chain of volcanoes and related magmatic features in British Columbia, Canada. It extends from Athlone Island on the Central Coast, running eastward through the strongly uplifted and deeply ...
which includes the lower but similar Itcha and Ilgachuz Range
The Ilgachuz Range is a name given to an extinct shield volcano in British Columbia, Canada. It is not a mountain range in the normal sense, because it was formed as a single volcano that has been eroded for the past 5 million years. It lies on ...
s. The shield has a diameter of is now heavily eroded by glacier
A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its Ablation#Glaciology, ablation over many years, often Century, centuries. It acquires dis ...
s carving into the volcanic rock
Volcanic rock (often shortened to volcanics in scientific contexts) is a rock formed from lava erupted from a volcano. In other words, it differs from other igneous rock by being of volcanic origin. Like all rock types, the concept of volcanic r ...
and sand
Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class of s ...
s over millions of years. The volcanism that created the shield is not well studied and is poorly understood. It is thought to be the result of the North American Plate
The North American Plate is a tectonic plate covering most of North America, Cuba, the Bahamas, extreme northeastern Asia, and parts of Iceland and the Azores. With an area of , it is the Earth's second largest tectonic plate, behind the Pacific ...
passing over a hotspot, similar to the one feeding the Hawaiian Islands
The Hawaiian Islands ( haw, Nā Mokupuni o Hawai‘i) are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kur ...
, known as the Anahim hotspot
The Anahim hotspot is a hypothesized hotspot in the Central Interior of British Columbia, Canada. It has been proposed as the candidate source for volcanism in the Anahim Volcanic Belt, a long chain of volcanoes and other magmatic features tha ...
. The only real separate volcanic peak associated with the Rainbow Range is Anahim Peak
Anahim Peak, also spelled Anaham, ʔAnaghim, or Anaheim, is a volcanic cone in the Anahim Volcanic Belt in British Columbia, Canada, located northwest of Anahim Lake and east of Tsitsutl Peak. It was formed when the North American Plate moved ...
which sits on its northeast flank. Other peaks in the range are other high eroded remnants of the shield, including Beef Peak, TaiaTaeszi Peak, Mount MacKenzie
Mount Mackenzie is a mountain just southeast of the city of Revelstoke, British Columbia, Canada. Part of the Selkirk Mountains, it is the site of the Revelstoke Mountain Resort ski area and was named for the Right Honourable Sir Alexander Mac ...
and Tsitsutl Peak , which is the highest summit of the Rainbow Range.
The range gets its name from the intense and varied colours of its terrains' volcanic lava
Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a fracture in the crust, on land or un ...
s and sands from heavy mineralization, like the Spectrum Range
The Spectrum Range, formerly called the Spectrum Mountains and the Rainbow Mountains, is a subrange of the Tahltan Highland in the Stikine Country of northwestern British Columbia, 20 km west of the Stewart-Cassiar Highway, south of Mount ...
in the Spatsizi Plateau
The Spatsizi Plateau is a plateau in the upper basin of the Stikine River in north-central British Columbia, Canada. Most of the plateau, which is a sub-plateau of the Stikine Plateau, is enshrined in either Spatsizi Plateau Wilderness Provincial ...
.
Tweedsmuir South Provincial Park
The Rainbow Range lies partly in the Tweedsmuir South Provincial Park
Tweedsmuir South Provincial Park is a provincial park covering parts of the eastern Kitimat Ranges, northern Pacific Ranges, and the Rainbow Range in British Columbia, Canada. It was established on May 21, 1938 in the western interior of the pro ...
, while to its east the Itcha and Ilgachuz Ranges form the core of the Itcha Ilgachuz Provincial Park.
See also
*List of volcanoes in Canada
List of volcanoes in Canada is an incomplete list of volcanoes found in Mainland Canada, in the Canadian islands and in Canadian waters. All but one province, Prince Edward Island, have at least one volcano.
Alberta
British Columbia
Ne ...
*Volcanism of Western Canada
Volcanism of Western Canada has produced lava flows, lava plateaus, lava domes, cinder cones, stratovolcanoes, shield volcanoes, greenstone belts, submarine volcanoes, calderas, diatremes and maars, along with examples of more less common volcanic ...
*Rainbow Range (Rocky Mountains)
The Rainbow Range is a small subrange of the Park Ranges subdivisions of the Northern Continental Ranges of the Rocky Mountains on the border between Alberta and British Columbia in Mount Robson Provincial Park.
Its highest summit, and the high ...
*Spectrum Range
The Spectrum Range, formerly called the Spectrum Mountains and the Rainbow Mountains, is a subrange of the Tahltan Highland in the Stikine Country of northwestern British Columbia, 20 km west of the Stewart-Cassiar Highway, south of Mount ...
References
External links
Rainbow Range entry in Canadian Mountain Encyclopedia
Skiing the Pacific Ring of Fire and Beyond
{{Anahim Volcanic Belt
Anahim Volcanic Belt
Volcanoes of British Columbia
Mountain ranges of the Interior Plateau
Shield volcanoes of Canada
Extinct volcanoes
Miocene shield volcanoes
Polygenetic shield volcanoes
Landforms of the Chilcotin
Range 3 Coast Land District