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Geology of Glacier National Park
The geology of Glacier National Park began around 1600 million and 800 million years ago. At this time a shallow sea of water covered the park during the Precambrian time period. To the north, east, and south were mountains. The rivers from these mountains slowly deposited sediments to lower lying areas and into the sea. After thousands of years these sediments accumulated and were lithified into rock preserving the history's past. Locked in these rocks were preserved ripples from water currents and desiccations cracks from periods of mud drying out. These can be observed in both the red, blue, brown, and green rocks today since not much metamorphosism has occurred in this strata. As far as fossils go, the age of the rock is very old and only life was just beginning. In certain areas stromatolites may be found and the occasional trilobite but other than that the strata in Glacier National Park is devoid of fossils.
So why is Precambrian strata located on the top of the mountains? A geological event about 160 million years ago took place where the crustal plates along the western edge of North America collided which resulted in buckling and folding of the landscape. This land deformation led to the formation of the Rocky Mountains we see today. During this process large masses of hard Precambrian strata were pushed up and over much younger softer strata. This event was named the Lewis Overthrust. Overthrust events on this magnitude are very rare and is an excellent place to study the Precambrian strata and related geologic features from this overthrust. To the north of Glacier National Park in the Yoho Provincial Park in Alberta, Canada, is the world famous Burgess Shale which displays the oldest and most well preserved fossils ever found on earth. These are found on top of mountains close to 13000ft in height!! It is only here that the origins of life on earth can truly be studied from the very beginning. Today many of the mountains and valleys we see in Glacier National Park are due to glaciers during the Ice Age around 2 million years that have carved and shaped everything we see today exposing millions of years of preserved sedimentary rock for all of us to enjoy. Glacier National Park is truly a geologist's paradise and natural science laboratory. - JOHN.
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