We went for a drive yesterday to get out of the city. We have driven through Okotoks many times and saw the "Big Rock" but never stopped to see what it was about. Below is the story:
The Okotoks Erratic is the largest rock in what’s known as the
Foothills Erratic Train. The Foothills Erratic Train is essentially a group of
rocks that were fallen here as the glacier melted after being transported by ice
along the mountain front some 10,000 years ago. Also known as "The Big Rock",
the Okotoks Erratic is the world’s largest glacial erratic. By definition, a
glacial erratic is rock that is transported far from its origin by glacial ice.
The Okotoks Erratic is one of plenty that lie in a narrow band from northern
Montana up to Jasper National Park. "The Big Rock" is a large landmark that
looks misplaced in the flat prairies and with time, has been eroded into
pieces.
The Okotoks Erratic is said to most likely be from Mount Edith
Cavell in Jasper National Park. In present day Athabasca River valley some
18,000 years ago, a rockslide brought rock material and other sediments to the
surface of a glacier and the erratic was slowly carried on the back of the
glacier as the glacier moved eastwards. Of course this was a slow process that
took thousands of years for the glacier to move to the plains where it then
collided with the great Laurentide ice sheet, another continental glacier. The
Athabasca River valley glacier was then diverted becoming parallel to the
mountain front, towards the southeast and is the reason why the erratics were
deposited as a narrow band from Jasper National Park to Montana as the ice
melted.
There
is a story stemming from the Natives, specifically the Blackfoots, of how the
Okotoks Erratic came to split. The story provides a curious explanation to why
bats have faces that look as though they have been squashed as well. It is a
good tale with a moral lesson and even caution of taking back what you have
given away. The name of the erratic was originated from the Blackfoot word for
rock, "okatok".
“One hot summer day, Napi, the
supernatural trickster of the Blackfoot peoples, rested on the rock because the
day was warm and he was tired. He spread his robe on the rock, telling the rock
to keep the robe in return for letting Napi rest there. Suddenly, the weather
changed and Napi became cold as the wind whistled and the rain fell. Napi asked
the rock to return his robe, but the rock refused. Napi got mad and just took
the clothing. As he strolled away, he heard a loud noise and turning, he saw the
rock was rolling after him. Napi ran for his life. The deer, the bison and the
pronghorn were Napi's friends, and they tried to stop the rock by running in
front of it. The rock rolled over them. Napi's last chance was to call on the
bats for help. Fortunately, they did better than their hoofed neighbours, and by
diving at the rock and colliding with it, one of them finally hit the rock just
right and it broke into two pieces.”
The Okotoks Erratic measures 41m long, 18m wide and 9m high and
weighs in at 16,500 tons. Looking closely at the rock, you can see that the rock
originates from the Gog formation because of the hardened layers of small
pebbles, sand and silt. The Gog formation was found to be in a shallow sea and
consisted of the layering of sediment that was deposited roughly 570 to 540
million years ago before the uplift of the Rocky Mountains. It is due to this
that the composite of the rock is predominantly quartzite. With time passing on,
layer upon layer of sediment was built up thousands of feet thick. The weight of
the overlying sediments created heat and pressure and compacted the sand grains.
They were then cemented into the durable and extremely hard rock aka quartzite.
As the Rocky Mountains were being formed 150 to 50 million years ago, beds of
sediment were thrust up and eastwards. In the main ranges of the Rocky
Mountains, quartzite is commonly found.
Quartzite is a slippery rock, probably one of the reasons why it
is enclosed so that people do not go touch it.
I go back to work tomorrow, new supervisor, new work station and a lot of nervousness. Most people that know me understand the situation....""wish me luck""!
Sunny here today but cool! Winter is fast approaching! OMG...I told hubby that I have already seen enough snow this year....they are still cleaning up from the 20 + cm we had a couple of weeks ago. So many beautiful trees lost.
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| The beginning of 20+ cm |
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| Damages |
Our friends from Indiana are getting ready to leave for 6-8 months in their motor home....they are fortunate they won't see snow! Our other friends are looking to go to Australia for the winter.
We are leaving on Friday after work to go to Kalispell, MT...need to get some necessities in the US before winter sets in and we can't get there from here. It is a 5 hour drive through the mountains and you MUST have winter tires on your vehicle or get fined! I have not taken the snows off my car so we are good to go! Have to stop in Sparwood, BC to drop off some LED tubes and fixtures to Finning! (Note: always working...LOL)
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| On the way to Kalispell |
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| Scenery |
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| Flowers along the bank of the road |
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| Cute |
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| I think I may know this guy! |
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| Love the scenery! |
No news from our other friends in Ancaster....very concerned about Paul & Jeannie....hope they are well and Paul is doing OK!
Nascar race this afternoon....The Chase is in Kansas this weekend...I see my favourite `24`is in 5th place in the Chase!
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Jeff Gordon
That`s it for another week my friends...be safe and enjoy the week!
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