Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks

• Description
• Documents
• Video

NHK World Heritage 100 Series

Narration Text

The Rocky Mountains stretch across North America in a north/south direction. The northernmost 1500kms is known as the Canadian Rockies. The area has experienced several Ice Ages over a period of 2 million years.

Large amounts of snow covered the mountains and when compressed over a long period of time formed glaciers. Blue layers in the ice strata show traces of how hard-packed snow transformed into glacial ice. Glacial ice breaks from the mountain, slides down and eventually falls into the lake. When the temperature rises the glacier surface starts to melt. This water then runs down the mountainside and all the way down to the lake. The running water creates holes in and through the thick glacial ice. Water running down through the 300-meter-thick ice sheet finally emerges as a giant waterfall. Vast volumes of glacial water have nurtured life in the Canadian Rockies.

The Canadian Rocky Mountains were submerged until about 200 million years ago. The ocean bed was then lifted by plate movements and later shaped into its current landform by glacial activity during the Ice Ages. Many fossils from the Cambrian period of 530 million years ago have been discovered within the strata of these mountains. About 100,000 fossils have been collected since the early 20th Century. Fossils of previously unknown creatures have even been found here. This creature became extinct in ancient times and has been named Anomalocaris Canadensis. It is believed to have been a carnivorous creature about 60cm long. Many creatures evolved and died out during the Pre-Ice Age Cambrian period. Inside the glacial covered mountain strata are hidden traces of the evolution process and the remains of their existence.

The Canadian Rocky Mountains and their glaciers provide a window where it is possible to gaze back into prehistoric times.