For over 300 million years the Miette Hot Springs area was a shallow seabed that collected layers upon layers of sand and silt. The shorelines of this sea changed many times as sea levels changed and so did the nature of the sediments deposited. As well as the sand and silt settling from rivers that flowed down from the surrounding land or moved by shifting ocean currents, corals and algae grew in these warm, shallow, nutrient-rich seas. These creatures removed calcium carbonate from the water and concentrated it in their shells and bodies. The remains of these animals and plants accumulated on the sea floor as a calcium-rich sediment which eventually became limestone.
The sediments that lay thousands of metres thick were eventually compressed under their own weight and turned into rock. The earth’s crust gets about one degree warmer for every 33 metres of depth and this heating from below aided the conversion of sediments into hard rock. Chemical processes within the layers also effected changes, for example water seeped through some of the limestone sediment, adding magnesium to the calcium and turning the rock into dolomite.
Some 85 million years ago, when drifting volcanic islands collided with the west coast of Canada, these layers that were on the seabed were thrust upwards towards the sky. The region’s twisting and folded rock layers and near vertical angle of some of the mountains like Ashlar Ridge are testament to the raw power of the Earth’s interior. Paradoxically, as at this site, the youngest rocks do not always form the top peaks of the mountains.
The Ashlar Ridge which faces you is a large grey-coloured limestone ridge, 6km in length, that runs northwest to southeast to the east of Jasper, rising to a height of 2620m (8596ft), although the face opposite you tops out at around 5650 ft. It’s slopes have been cut into and eroded by a river, originally called the Riviere Violon by a Belgian missionary in 1846 but now known as Fiddle River and its slopes have been subjected to weathering and glacial erosion.
The range was named by Morrison P. Bridgland in 1916.
To log this earth cache you must send me a message or email with the following information. You can then post your log and I will get back to you as soon as possible to let you know if you have made any errors.
1) How old is the rock you’re standing on and what altitude does your gps say you are at?
2) How much older is the top of Ashlar Ridge and how much higher is the face than where you are standing?
3) What is the name of the limestone formation that forms the Ashlar Ridge and how many degrees was it tilted?
4) The layer that is slightly younger than the oldest rock that forms the top of the ridge has weathered into talus / scree, which can be picked out as conifer-colonised triangular fans below the ridge. How many fans of talus can you see below the vertical face from this viewpoint? Vegetated not bare scree
5) I went to Quarry Bank Grammar School in Liverpool (the same school that John Lennon attended the year before I arrived). “Old Boys” of the school are called “Ashlars” which has a connection with why Morrison P. Bridgland named the range the Ashlar Ridge in 1916.
Tell me what kind of rock is an ashlar?
You might get some clues from my school’s name & its song "The Song of the Quarry" (see below) which was written by the headmaster R.F. Bailey in 1924 - an interesting product of those times!
Or you could go online.
"The Song of The Quarry" by R.F. Bailey
Quarry men old before our birth
Straining each muscle and sinew
Toiling together, Mother Earth
Conquered the Rock that was in you.
Say men the Quarrying all is done?
Readily we’ll refute ‘em.
We are the quarriers, school our stone
“Hoc ex metallo virtutem”
Stand we together, rank on rank; Sing we thy praise in chorus!
Quarry of Manhood! Quarry Bank! Rock of the lives before us!
Science, the Arts and foreign tongues
Nobody here refuses
All use their brains and all their lungs
Courting the learned Muses
Joined in a friendly rivalry
Boldly we tempt Fortuna,
Juniors, Mersey, Wavertree,
Sefton and Esmeduna!
Stand we together, rank on rank; Sing we thy praise in chorus!
Quarry of wisdom! Quarry Bank! Rock of the lives before us!
Sing of the bat and the ball well bowled,
Kings of the summer weather!
Sing of the teams in black and gold,
Muddy but all together,
Sing too the thrill of the race just won,
Zest of the swimmer’s pleasure,
Scouting and Field Club, camp and run!
Many the joys of leisure!
Stand we together, rank on rank; Sing we thy praise in chorus!
Quarry of Vigour! Quarry Bank! Rock of the lives before us!
School days are fleeting, beads soon strung.
Happy the games we’ve played here.
Tasks we have conquered, songs we’ve sung;
Dear are the friends we’ve made here!
Sons of the Quarry at home, abroad,
Think how you’ve learnt this tune there
Laugh at the Luck the Fates afford,
Build with the stones you’ve hewn here.
Stand we together, rank on rank; Sing we thy praise in chorus!
Quarry of Manhood, Quarry Bank; Rock of the lives before us.