Geological Hazards in Alberta
Our Geological Hazards Program focuses on Alberta's geology and identifies geological hazards (geohazards) to assist decision making by the Energy Resources Conservation Board and Albertans. The program also supports ongoing, geotechnical monitoring of Turtle Mountain, site of the 1903 Frank Slide, in Crowsnest Pass, Alberta.
The program focuses exclusively on physical geological hazards. Chemical geological hazards, including natural and human-introduced contaminants, are not presently part of our program.
We subdivide physical hazards into two groups:
- natural geological hazards, where the trigger for a hazardous event or change is provided by a change in the natural environment; and
- human-induced hazards, where the trigger for a hazardous event or change is provided by the interaction of human activity in an area with pre-existing natural conditions.
For both sets of geological hazards, our team of engineers, geologists and technologists describe and map geological hazards by applying the knowledge of the geological materials at the surface and in the subsurface, along with emerging remote-sensing technologies.
Current Projects
Although we initially concentrated on landslide hazards at Turtle Mountain, the focus of the Geological Hazards program has broadened to encompass a variety of naturally occurring and human-induced hazards across Alberta. The following links provide both project overviews and documents associated with the active portfolio of projects being undertaken by staff from the Geological Hazards Section:
- Alberta Microseismicity
- Little Smoky River Landslide Studies
- Oil Sands Caprock Integrity
- Peace River Urban Geology and Hazards
- Turtle Mountain Monitoring System
Past Projects
Last modified: September 11, 2012
