The Geologic Story of Glacier National ParkDyson, James L. (James Lindsay)
Science
The Geologic Story of Glacier National Park
Dyson, James L. (James Lindsay)
Geology -- Montana -- Glacier National Park; Glacier National Park (Mont.)
Later, after the Shepard and part of the Kintla formation were laid down
on top of the Purcell, another similar flow spread over the sea floor.
DIORITE SILL.
Few persons visit the park without noticing the pronounced black layer,
within the Siyeh formation, present on many of the high peaks. It is
most in evidence on the face of the Garden Wall viewed from the vicinity
of Many Glacier Hotel, although it is plainly visible also in Mount
Wilbur and the wall above Iceberg Lake. Passengers on the Waterton Lake
launch can see it cutting across the stupendous north face of Mount
Cleveland. From Going-to-the-Sun Highway it can be seen on Mahtotopa,
Little Chief, Citadel, Piegan, and Going-to-the-Sun Mountains, and on
the west side of the Garden Wall, where it also forms the cap of
Haystack Butte. It is everywhere about 100 feet thick, and thus can be
used as a very accurate scale for determining the height of mountains on
which it is discernible.
This imposing layer of rock, unlike the lava, never reached the surface
in a molten state, but was intruded between beds of sedimentary rock and
thus became a sill instead of a flow. We need only a glance to determine
its intrusive nature. Wherever it occurs it is bordered at top and
bottom by thinner gray layers. These are Siyeh limestone which was
changed to marble by the tremendous heat of the diorite during its
intrusion. This effect is termed contact metamorphism by geologists.
Because this contact-metamorphosed zone is at both top and bottom of the
sill we know the latter was intruded into the adjacent rocks. Lava
flows, even though covered later by sediments, of course alter only the
underlying rocks.
[Illustration: THE GARDEN WALL AND GRINNELL GLACIER. THE WALL IS
COMPOSED OF SIYEH LIMESTONE ABOVE THE LEVEL OF THE GLACIER AND THE
GRINNELL FORMATION BELOW IT.
(DYSON PHOTO)]
The sill can readily be examined in a number of places where trails
cross it, notably at Swiftcurrent and Piegan Passes, and north of
Granite Park near Ahern Pass. But nowhere is it as accessible as on
Logan Pass. It lies beneath the parking lot at a depth of only a few
feet, and is exposed on both sides of the pass. To inspect it, one need
walk only about 200 yards along the trail leading to Granite Park. In a
distance of less than 100 feet the trail traverses from fresh Siyeh
limestone across the entire altered (contact-metamorphosed) zone, here
12 to 20 feet wide, into the center of the sill. All parts of the sill
and adjacent rocks can readily be examined and studied in detail at this
site.
[Illustration: TOP OF THE DIORITE SILL OF BLACKFOOT GLACIER. THE MAN IS
STANDING ON THE SILL. LIGHT ROCK OVERLYING SILL IS CONTACT-METAMORPHOSED
SIYEH LIMESTONE.
(DYSON PHOTO)]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
The Geologic Story of Glacier National Park — John Shaqi
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