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About Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park
Geology of the Cypress Hills
The Cypress Hills stand more than 600 meters above the surrounding plains. At 1,466 meters the Head of the Mountain in Cypress Hills- Alberta is the highest point between Labrador and the Rocky Mountains.
Contrary to popular belief, the Cypress Hills formation did not come from the dramatic faulting and folding of a geological uplift as in the Rocky Mountains to the west. Nor did they result from local uplift of deep underground upwellings of magma as in the Sweetgrass Hills of Montana to the south.
Instead, the Cypress Hills were formed through deposition of sedimentary layers, starting with marine sediments laid down by the ancient Bearpaw Sea during the Upper Cretaceous period (aprox. 68 million years ago).
The hills remain as high as they are today by escaping glaciations and having a hard layer of caprock that protects the underlying layers of rock from erosion.
