Saturday, November 1, 2008

Volcanic Rocks in Wells Gray Provincial Park

Although, I am not really into non-sedimentary rocks, the lavaflows that are beautifully exposed in Wells Gray Provincial Park (BC, Canada) really attracted my attention. I got there rather coincidentally when visiting my cousin in Summer 2007. He took me out to visit Wells Gray. Awesome place to rearrange the picture I once thought how Canada is like. I spent two months in Saskatchewan before this trip and did not see anything that usually pops into your mind when you think of Canada - just vast plains with nothing but corn elevators and endless roads and rails. Back to Wells Gray. Although i don't like articles from Wikipedia too much, this one about the Wells Gray-Clearwater volcanic field is well written and extraordinarily well referenced. Essentially, i picked the information from the references therein.

This is Pyramid Mountain. Although it looks like a typical cinder cone, it is proven to have been formed beneath a remarkable glacial cover. However, the eruption was presumably vigorous but short. Accordingly, this volcano lacks the flat-topped Tuya-morphology that is expected for subglacial volcanoes. The volcanic activity of this particular region spans from the Pleistocene to the Holocene.


Helmcken Falls. Water that incises basaltic lava-flows.


Cliff of eroded stacks of lava-flows.


Close-up of the same outcrop. The flow dircetion is hardly to identify. In the upper third you see a fairly lenticular body. This might represent a lava flow perpendicular to the cliff-face. However, all "beds" are quite parallel and very regular.


Me being happy with a hard-earned sundae. At my place in Saskatoon, I watched TV sometimes and always got tempted by stupid but effictve (as you see) commercials from Diary Queen. They always showed sundae copulating with fudge, cream, chocolate chunks and so on. Accordingly, I decided that I won't leave Canada without plundering a DQ. What could I say - was worth it.

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