![Geoscape Canada Geoscape Canada](/web/20061103022357im_/http://geoscape.nrcan.gc.ca/esst_images/geoscape_e.jpeg) Natural Resources Canada > Earth Sciences Sector > Priorities > Geoscape Canada > Calgary
Geoscape Calgary Virtual tours - Geology Stop 2 - Nose Hill Park erratic
![Nose Hill Park erratic Nose Hill Park erratic](/web/20061103022357im_/http://geoscape.nrcan.gc.ca/calgary/geotour/images/s2_nhpertc.jpg) Nose Hill Park erratic |
This boulder, like the famous "Big Rock"
near the town of Okotoks, is one of many quartzite boulders that
originated back in the Main Ranges of the Canadian Rockies and were
transported to the prairies by Cordilleran valley glaciers 17 000 to
20 000 years ago.
From the rock's composition, geologists have
determined that this erratic at Nose Hill came from Mount Edith Cavell
near Jasper, Alberta, probably as a result of a landslide that fell onto a
valley glacier that followed the Athabasca River valley out onto the
Plains, where it was deflected southward by contact with the Laurentide
Ice Sheet advancing from the northeast.
Click on a dot to continue the tour:
Legend ![Holocene Holocene](/web/20061103022357im_/http://geoscape.nrcan.gc.ca/calgary/geotour/images/dot_holocene.jpg) | Holocene | Present - 10,000 years ago | ![Quaternary Quaternary](/web/20061103022357im_/http://geoscape.nrcan.gc.ca/calgary/geotour/images/dot_quaternary.jpg) | Quaternary | 10,000 - 25,000 years ago | ![Tertiary Tertiary](/web/20061103022357im_/http://geoscape.nrcan.gc.ca/calgary/geotour/images/dot_tertiary.jpg) | Tertiary | 25,000 - 65 million years ago | ![Mesozoic Mesozoic](/web/20061103022357im_/http://geoscape.nrcan.gc.ca/calgary/geotour/images/dot_mesozoic.jpg) | Mesozoic | 65 - 245 million years ago | ![Paleozoic Paleozoic](/web/20061103022357im_/http://geoscape.nrcan.gc.ca/calgary/geotour/images/dot_paleozoic.jpg) | Paleozoic | 245 - 670 million years ago |
|