This massive rock face is exactly that. It is reef rock which is the remnants of a reef that was formed in the Devonian period some 375 million years ago when this area, including most of Alberta was a giant sea bed. This is on the down dropped side of the Trench Fault whereas this rock is normally found much higher up on the uplifted mountain summits. The Devonian period was well before the Rocky Mountains were uplifted approximately 80 to 55 million years ago.
The reef rock is from the Borsato Formation (dark colour) and Southesk Formation (pale colour) both of which are units of the Fairholme Group that are middle carbonates, late Devonian.
The Devonian period has been referred to as the Age of Fish. Much larger reefs in Alberta became resevoirs for vast quantities of oil and gas.
Devonian reefs unlike modern reefs, which are built up from corals, are algae and now extinct lime secreting organisms called stromatoporoids, that built the bulk of the reef on top of carbonate banks.
The following is an artists rendering of the populated waters of the shallow sea and reef bed courtesy of Jenny Pope http://www.jpopstudios.com/
Stromatoporoids are related to sponges whose development was assisted by the nutrient rich and oxygen poor shallow waters in which they lived. Their shells underwent chemical changes and holes in the reef were created that eventually with heat and pressure changed the organic material to gas and oil which was then trapped in the reef.
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(a)measure the diameter of the largest holes. (b) after looking at the reef from the Trout farm Road end, examine the fault lines on this west side to determine in what direction they travel and do you see more than one direction? (c)where is the Borsato more prominent and where is the Southesk formation more prominent
PARKING IS AT THE COORDINATES
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