earth science

Stony Mountain Formation

Stony Mountain Formation is a earth science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Stony Mountain Formation rather than just read about it. In short: The Stony Mountain Formation is a stratigraphic unit of Ashgill age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. It takes the name from the community Stony Mountain, Manitoba, and was first described in the town quarry by D.B.

Key takeaways

Stony Mountain Formation belongs to earth science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Stony Mountain Formation to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Stony Mountain Formation from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Stony Mountain Formation is a stratigraphic unit of Ashgill age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. It takes the name from the community Stony Mountain, Manitoba, and was first described in the town quarry by D.B. Dowling in 1900.

Lithology

Subdivisions The Stony Mountain Formation is divided into the following sub-units:

South (Williston Basin) Penitentiary Member: argillaceous dolomite Gunn Member: interbedded calcareous shale and fossiliferous limestone North Gunton Member: crystalline dolomite Lower Stony Mountain: argillaceous dolomite

Distribution The Stony Mountain Formation occurs throughout the Williston Basin. It reaches a maximum thickness of 45 metres (150 ft) in the sub-surface at the Canada/United States border, and thins out towards the east, north and west. In Manitoba, where it is exposed at the surface in the erosion belt, it has a thickness of 30 metres (100 ft).

Relationship to other units The Stony Mountain Formation is slightly unconformably overlain by the Stonewall Formation and sharply overlays the Red River Formation or the Herald Formation.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Stony Mountain Formation

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Stony Mountain Formation claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Stony Mountain Formation before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Stony Mountain Formation ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Stony Mountain Formation

In research: Stony Mountain Formation appears in earth science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Stony Mountain Formation in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Stony Mountain Formation is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Dolomite formations of Canada, Dolomite formations of the United States, Geologic formations of Manitoba, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Stony Mountain Formation outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Stony Mountain Formation in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Stony Mountain Formation means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Stony Mountain Formation out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Stony Mountain Formation in simple terms?

Why does Stony Mountain Formation matter?

Because it connects several earth science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Stony Mountain Formation?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Stony Mountain Formation.