Geology Photo of the Week

13 May 2013

The photo of the week this week is of a very special place in Canada. Yes, predictably, it is the Yukon. However, this part of the Yukon is unique. It is a special region known as Beringia, which extends into Alaska and Siberia and it is the only part of Canada that was not covered by kilometers of ice during the last glaciation. Beringia is a special place because it is believed that that first human inhabitants of North America made their way across the exposed land bridge form Siberia into the Yukon and spread west and south. Geologically, Berinia is interesting as it is full of Pleistocene mammal fossils like mammoths, short faced bears, giant beavers and other giant mammals. It is also strange because of the degree of weathering and erosion that the rocks have undergone is like nowhere else in Canada. Piles of talus may not seem like a big deal to people from other parts of the world, but for a Canadian geologist this is a somewhat unusual sight as most of our mountains had a good scraping 20,000 years ago and we just don't see this level of weathering anywhere else in the country.