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44 Chapter Two

Relationship between geology, geomorphology and groundwater BO X
in the Qu’Appelle Valley, Saskatchewan 2.6

The Qu’Appelle Valley in southern Saskatchewan in Canada is a The Qu’Appelle Valley was carved by meltwater issuing from the
major landscape feature that owes its origin to the continental last retreating ice sheet, draining eastwards to glacial Lake Agassiz
glaciations of the Quaternary Period. During the advance of the first through the ice marginal Qu’Appelle Spillway. As the water contin-
glacier, the Hatfield Valley was cut into bedrock by glacial meltwa- ued eastwards through the spillway it cut a wide valley to a depth of
ter to a width of 20 km from near the Manitoba border to Alberta. 180 m into the underlying glacial deposits and bedrock. Where it
When the glacier advanced to the vicinity of the Hatfield Valley, crossed the buried Hatfield Valley it cut into the sand deposits.
sands of the Empress Group were deposited and these now form a Since the retreat of the glacier, the present Qu’Appelle Valley has
major aquifer. A similar sequence of events occurred during the continued to fill with alluvial material derived from down-valley
advance of the third glacier which deposited the Floral Formation transport of sediment and from the erosion of valley sides and adja-
till. Meltwaters from this glacier cut the Muscow Valley, which was cent uplands.
then filled with silt, sand and gravel of the Echo Lake Gravel. The Presently, a number of freshwater lakes and the existence of trib-
fourth and final ice advance finally retreated from the Qu’Appelle utary valleys owe their existence to groundwater discharge and
area about 14,000 years ago, leaving its own distinctive till, the demonstrate the relationship between geology, geomorphology
Battleford Formation, and other major landscape features. and groundwater. To illustrate this relationship, the cross-section

Fig. 1 Schematic hydrogeological cross-section of the Qu’Appelle Valley at Katepwa Provincial Park, Saskatchewan. After Christiansen
et al. (1981).