Banff National Park Essay

Canada’s oldest national park, Banff National Park, located 110-180 km west of Calgary in the province of Alberta. The coordinates of the park are 51.5 degrees north and 116.0 degrees west. Banff National Park encompasses 6641 square kilometers of valleys, mountains, glaciers, forests, meadows, rivers, and it is also surrounded by other national parks such as Jasper National Park and Glacier National Park. Banff National Park was established in 1885; the purpose of establishment is to settle a conflict of local hot springs’ usage, and this area became to a small protected reserve. Under the Rock Mountain Park Act, enacted on 23 June 1887, the park was expanded to 674 square kilometers. In 1902, the park was expanded to 11400 square kilometers,
Banff National Park has numerous large glaciers and icefields. Small cirque glaciers are common in the Main Ranges which located in depressions on the side of many mountains. Large glaciers and icefields are easily accessed from the Icefields Parkway. Moreover, the Columbia Icefield at the northern end of Banff, straddles the Banff and Jasper National Park border and extends into British Columbia. There are many types of mountains in Banff National Park, including complex, irregular, anticlinal, synclinal, castellate, dogtooth, and sawback mountains. These mountains have been influenced by the composition of rock deposits, layers, and their structure. Many mountains in Banff National Park are carved out of sedimentary layers with steep slopes and cliffs. The dominant rocks and minerals in the Banff National Park are sedimentary rocks, including shale, sandstone, limestone, and quartzite, which were formed by sediment deposited on the shallow continental shelf. Banff National Park’s formation was formed by the collision of the earth’s plates. The North American Plate had been moving in a westerly direction and the neighboring Pacific Plate was moving northward. The Pacific plate pushed islands together towards the North American Plate. As the Pacific Plate continued to move north, the crust was forced down by the North American Plate. However, there were two such land masses in the Pacific known as Terranes. As the
As the source of the water, glaciers and icefields also created lots of rivers and lakes in the park suck as Lake Louise, Vermilion Lake, and Consolation Lake. Moreover, the main river, bow river, runs through the Banff National Park and also provides water. There is the demand of water for human in the Banff National Park. People, who lived in the Banff town, use water from the bow river in both industrial and agricultural purposes. To conserve water and use it as productively and efficiently as possible, people also created hydroelectric dam on the bow river, and it is used for power generation. Meanwhile, water can be pulled from the bow river and collected in the reservoir behind the dam which can supply people with water when they need it. Water in the Banff National Park plays an important role in order to maintain a healthy aquatic ecosystem, and it provides habitat for wildlife and plants in the park. Water, especially the glacier, has had a profound impact on the formation of the Banff National Park. Glaciers not only transport material as they move but also crave away the land under them, and it can reshape the landscape. Mountains in the Banff National Park often with steep near vertical cliffs where entire mountains were eroded by glacial movement. The