Reference articles on history, science, culture and more
Encyclopedia

Raspberry Formation

Geological formation in British Columbia

Image credit is listed at the end of this article.

The Raspberry Formation is a stratigraphic unit of Miocene age in northwestern British Columbia, Canada.

01Name

The Raspberry Formation takes its name from Raspberry Pass, a mountain pass cutting through the central portion of the Mount Edziza volcanic complex.

02Geology

The Raspberry Formation has a volume of 119 km3 (29 mi3), making it the third most voluminous geological formation comprising the Mount Edziza volcanic complex. It varies in elevation from less than 1,310 m (4,300 ft) along the Mess Creek Escarpment to 1,740 m (5,710 ft) near Armadillo Peak.

The Raspberry Formation is overlain conformably by the Little Iskut Formation. An erosion surface separates the Raspberry Formation from the overlying Armadillo Formation and younger geological formations. Rocks of the Stikinia terrane underlie the Raspberry Formation.

The Raspberry Formation consists of flat-lying alkali basalt and hawaiite flows. These flows are rusty brown and are interbedded with reddish-brown to yellow or orange scoria. The Raspberry Formation represents three overlapping Miocene shield volcanoes.

K-Ar dating has yielded ages of 11.4 ± 1.5 million years, 8.4 ± 0.4 million years and 6.4 ± 0.3 million years for Raspberry hawaiite and 6.1 ± 0.4 million years and 5.5 ± 0.1 million years for Raspberry alkali basalt.

Watch videos about Raspberry FormationExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Raspberry Formation, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

Images, from Wikimedia Commons:

Fathomly is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Wikimedia Foundation. Spotted a problem? Tell us.