The Rocky Mountain Trench near Fernie, British Colombia is a stretch of land that is about 995 miles long and runs from British Columbia to Flathead Lake in Montana. Nearly all of the location has been caused by faulting, but some of it is also caused by glacial valleys. The trench is up to 25 km wide from one peak to the next and it varies in depth throughout. Those that are flying over it can clearly see it carved out of the mountains. A variety of rivers use the trench including the Kootenay River, The Columbia River, the Canoe River and the Fraser River, to name a few.
Visitors to the area will be able to see how the topography of the mountain range changes at the trench area because it is so dramatic. There are four major river basins that use the trench. This includes the Columbia, the Fraser, the Peace and the Liard's.
Further, it can be divided into two pieces at the break in the valley system near Prince George, British Columbia. This division allows for two labels for the trench, the Northern Rocky Mountain Trench and the Southern Rocky Mountain Trench. The northern area features strike slip faulting. The southern area of the trench was created through normal faults. Even though the developed at different times and in different ways, they line up with each other because of what lies beneath them: a pre existing, west facing deep basement ramp. This ramp was about 10 km of vertical offset.
