The Central Foreland NATMAP Project area (shown in orange on the location map below) is situated in the foothills of the Canadian Cordillera, between 57 and 61 degrees north, or approximately from the Peace River of northeastern British Columbia to the Liard River area of the Northwest Territories and Yukon. The project area straddles the eastern limit of Cordilleran deformation, marking the transition from undeformed sedimentary rocks of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin into deformed strata of the Foothills and Main Ranges of the Rocky and Franklin Mountains.

The Canadian Cordillera comprises part of a series of mountain chains and plateaus nearly a thousand kilometres wide, extending the length of western North America. In Canada, this mountainous region is divisible into five distinct belts, broadly characteristic of deformation zones produced by the collision of continents. Whereas the western and central belts of the Canadian Cordillera largely consist of rocks uplifted from deep within the crust or intruded as plutons, the easternmost foreland belt comprises ancient sedimentary rocks that have been scraped off the underlying basement rocks and stacked into thrust sheets and foldbelts.