Ever wondered what Vancouver is made of? Not the people or the city, but the land itself?
If you're an amateur rock hound or just interested in earth sciences, the Canadian Geoscience Education Network (CGEN) has some diagrams you might want to check out.
The website has a huge amount of information about what lies beneath Vancouver and the region and explains how it all works.
Like how the City of Vancouver is mostly on till, while Richmond is made up of silt and clay dropped off recently and West Vancouver is a granite heavy community. It even shows what land was added by humans.
There are also cutaway diagrams that show how the earth moves below Vancouver, Vancouver Island and the Pacific Ocean and creates Mt. Baker.
By Canadian Geoscience Education CentreThe site is built so educators can use it to teach in schools, so you don't need a university degree in geology to understand what's being explained.
"Geologists distinguish five major rock types in the Vancouver area. The most extensive are: granitic and metamorphic rocks of the Coast and Cascade Mountains. Overlying these within the Fraser Valley is a thick sequence of sedimentary rock (sandstone and shale)," explains the website. "Volcanic intrusions fill fractures within granitic, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks. Younger volcanic rocks make up volcanoes built on older granitic and metamorphic rocks."
