For more information on geoscience of the Cordilleran region of British Columbia, please visit GSC Vancouver.

The Canadian Cordillera, the name for the mountains of western Canada, includes not only the mountainous and plateau regions, but also the submerged regions on the continental shelf and slope. The Cordillera is a region where earthquakes, recently active volcanoes,deformation of the sediments on the continental slope west of Vancouver Island and regional uplift over the last 10 million years, show that mountain-building is continuing. The Canadian Cordillera is divided into five morphogeological belts (or linear geological provinces) that run parallel with the north northwest trend of the Cordillera. Each belt features a distinctive combination of bedrock geology and land forms. From east to west the belts are called: Foreland, Omineca, Intermontane, Coast and Insular belts. Cordilleran rocks formed in a variety of different tectonic settings still observed in today's Earth, such as continental margins, volcanic arcs and deep ocean basins. Different rock types of about the same age are grouped into associations called tectonic assemblages that reflect the tectonic setting in which each association formed. In addition, it appears that many older rocks in the four western belts probably did not form in their present positions relative to the ancient continental margin, which today is below the Omineca Belt. These western rocks are disposed in really extensive terranes, each of which is relatively homogenous internally, but each of which may differ markedly in its stratigraphy, fossil and paleomagnetic records from those of adjoining terranes and from rocks deposited on the ancient continental margin. Finally, the Cordillera contains a variety of economic deposits, ranging from coal, oil and gas, mainly in the Foreland Belt, through lead, zinc, silver and tungsten mainly in the Omineca Belt, to copper, molybdenum and gold in the western Cordillera.