Opal photos on Flickr

"The Opal Range is roughly 70 km (44 mi) from Calgary, Alberta along Highway 40 (Kananaskis Trail). Running roughly north to south the Opal Range covers approximately 185 sq. km (70 sq. mi). There 33 named peaks within the range.

The Opal Range is characterized by its sawtooth profiles created by near vertically tilted layers of limestone, deep gullies, and steep limestone slab faces.

Composed mainly of limestone, the Opal Range has fossilized corals, oyster beds, shark teeth, and other evidence of ancient marine life. The range also has localized outcrops of conglomerate dolomite and metamorphic quartzite, adding some color and variation to the otherwise dull grey limestone.

The Laramide orogeny, the process which created the Rocky Mountains, started 70 to 80 million years ago and lasted for 15 to 50 million years. This period saw the tectonic plates from the west slide under the North American plates, deforming and rippling the landscape to form the Rocky Mountains.

Glaciers covered the mountains for millions of years and likely finally melted from the valleys only 10,000 years ago. There is strong evidence of glaciation throughout the valleys and upon the mountains, such as cirques, moraines, kames, and eskers throughout the valleys and slopes.

George Dawson named the range after he discovered small cavities lined with quartz and what he thought was a thin film of opal. It was not opal, but a chert with a similar appearance because of the quartz impurities embedded into the silica.

Despite the mistake, the name has stuck and the range has long been known in English as the Opal Range. Plus, Opal Range sounds better than Chert Range, in our opinion, anyway." peakvisor.com

Thanks for taking a look!

Opal Hills by joeri-c

363 14

Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada

Orange Opal Earring by Brigitte E

180 46

# MacroMondays # Vowel

Edelstein * Gem

Varietät des Opals * Variety of Opal

Opal Rumped Tanager by Ric Seet

47 43

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