The Alberta Plateau is a flat and gently rolling upland in

Northern Alberta Northern Alberta is a geographic region located in the Canadian province of Alberta. An informally defined cultural region, the boundaries of Northern Alberta are not fixed. Under some schemes, the region encompasses everything north of the ce ...

and in the northeastern corner of

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

, Canada. It ranges in elevation from about and lies in the middle of the

Interior Plains The Interior Plains is a vast physiographic region that spreads across the Laurentian craton of central North America, extending along the east flank of the Rocky Mountains from the Gulf Coast region to the Arctic Beaufort Sea. In Canada, it ...

, one of seven

physiographic region Physiographic regions are a means of defining Earth's landforms into independently distinct, mutually exclusive areas, independent of political boundaries. It is based upon the classic three-tiered approach by Nevin M. Fenneman in 1916, that separ ...

s in Canada. The Alberta Plateau is east of the Rocky Mountain Foothills and is subdivided into multiple smaller plateaus by wide intervening valleys; the two main valleys are the Fort Nelson River and Peace River

lowland Upland and lowland are conditional descriptions of a plain based on elevation above sea level. In studies of the ecology of freshwater rivers, habitats are classified as upland or lowland. Definitions Upland and lowland are portions of a ...

s. Underlying the Alberta Plateau are flat-lying beds of

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of Clay mineral, clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g., Kaolinite, kaolin, aluminium, Al2Silicon, Si2Oxygen, O5(hydroxide, OH)4) and tiny f ...

and conglomerate which were deposited during the

Mesozoic The Mesozoic Era is the Era (geology), era of Earth's Geologic time scale, geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous Period (geology), Periods. It is characterized by the dominance of archosaurian r ...

. The Alberta Plain, which extends southeastward to the Canada–United States border, is a flatter extension of the Alberta Plateau. A steep

escarpment An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations. Due to the similarity, the term '' scarp'' may mistakenly be incorrectly used inte ...

forms the western plateau boundary; the Alaska Highway extends along the western edge of the Alberta Plateau between Dawson Creek and Fort Nelson. The northern boundary is a discontinuous escarpment overlooking the Great Slave Plain but elsewhere the Alberta Plateau boundary is less defined. To the northeast, the boundary extends around the Birch Hills and then continues south along the

Athabasca River The Athabasca River (French: ''Rivière Athabasca'') in Alberta, Canada, originates at the Columbia Icefield in Jasper National Park and flows more than before emptying into Lake Athabasca. Much of the land along its banks is protected in nationa ...

valley. The Alberta Plateau then crosses the Athabasca River valley to include the Cheecham Hills. To the southeast, the boundary extends past Pelican Mountain and

Swan Hills Swan Hills is a town in northern Alberta, Canada. It is in the eponymous Swan Hills (Alberta), Swan Hills, approximately north of Whitecourt and northwest of Fort Assiniboine. The town is at the junction of Alberta Highway 32, Highway 32 and Alb ...

where it generally extends southward along the Athabasca River to merge with the Canadian Cordillera. The name of the plateau was proposed by Stuart Holland who was Chief Geologist of the Government of British Columbia until his retirement in 1974. It was officially adopted 2 November 1964 but was rescinded 21 March 1978 after British Columbia recommended its cancelation and removal from standard

topographic map In modern mapping, a topographic map or topographic sheet is a type of map characterized by large- scale detail and quantitative representation of relief features, usually using contour lines (connecting points of equal elevation), but histori ...

s in 1974. The reason for this was that the name was not used or recognized by the general public; the Alberta Plateau was named and delineated for use by

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the structure, composition, and History of Earth, history of Earth. Geologists incorporate techniques from physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and geography to perform research in the Field research, ...

s. As of 2024, the name of the plateau remains unofficial.

References

External links

* {{Plateaus and highlands of British Columbia Northern Alberta Landforms of Alberta Plateaus of British Columbia Peace River Land District

See also

References

External links