Mountain Trip

Last week I went on a trip to the mountains with the other new hires at work, really it was just a bit of geo-tourism to familiarize ourselves with the local foothills geology. I thought I'd share some of the neat things we saw (okay, neat to geo-geeks maybe).

A view of the dam near Mt. Yamnuska where several of the following pictures were taken.

Dinosaur tracks:

I believe these trace fossils are Rosselia, which is generally interpreted as the dwelling tube of a terebellid annelid (a type of worm). This is the trace fossil Ophiomorpha, which is a combined dwelling and feeding burrow created by shrimp by lining it with fecal pellets.

This trace fossil is Diplocraterion, which is a U-shaped tube with spreite within the "U". The organism lives in the tube and moves the burrow up or down depending on sedimentation, erosion, or growth of the organism. Trace maker unknown.Trace fossil: Asterosoma, trace maker: unknown. The organism would have been farming the sediment by burrowing down and then digging burrows out from the main tunnel in a star-shaped pattern.

Mt. Kidd - one of the most photographed mountain in the Rockies. The structure here is the result of a fault-propogation fold. I had planned to sketch out how it formed in photoshop but haven't gotten around to it... so this photo may be updated at a later time (or not).

Panorama of Mt. Lorette - Tom and I took shots of this last season when we hiked Wasootch Ridge. Lots of neat thrust faults here that give repeating stratigraphy (that I also had planned to sketch in and might do later).