| Athabasca River | |
| Map: | Athabasca Watershed-WCanada.png |
| Map Size: | 300 |
| Pushpin Map Size: | 300 |
| Subdivision Type1: | Country |
| Subdivision Name1: | Canada |
| Subdivision Type2: | Province |
| Subdivision Name2: | Alberta |
| Length: | 1231km (765miles)[1] |
| Discharge1 Location: | Athabasca Delta[2] |
| Discharge1 Min: | 75m3/s |
| Discharge1 Avg: | 783m3/s[3] |
| Discharge1 Max: | 4790m3/s |
| Source1: | Columbia Icefield |
| Source1 Location: | Jasper National Park |
| Source1 Coordinates: | 52.1678°N -117.4306°W |
| Source1 Elevation: | 1520m (4,990feet)(foot of glacier) |
| Mouth: | Lake Athabasca |
| Mouth Coordinates: | 58.6264°N -110.8347°W |
| Mouth Elevation: | 205m (673feet) |
| Basin Size: | 95300km2 |
| Extra: | [4] [5] |
The Athabasca River (French: Rivière Athabasca) is a river in Alberta, Canada, which originates at the Columbia Icefield in Jasper National Park and flows more than 1231km (765miles) before emptying into Lake Athabasca.[6] Much of the land along its banks is protected in national and provincial parks, and the river is designated a Canadian Heritage River for its historical and cultural importance. The scenic Athabasca Falls is located about 30km (20miles) upstream from Jasper.
The name Athabasca comes from the Woods Cree word ᐊᖬᐸᐢᑳᐤ aðapaskāw, which means "[where] there are plants one after another",[7] likely a reference to the spotty vegetation along the river.
The Athabasca River originates in Jasper National Park, in Lake Providence[8] at the toe of the Columbia Glacier[9] within the Columbia Icefield, between Mount Columbia, Snow Dome, and the Winston Churchill Range, at an elevation of approximately 1600m (5,200feet). It travels 1231km (765miles) before draining into the Peace-Athabasca Delta near Lake Athabasca south of Fort Chipewyan. From there, its waters flow north as Rivière des Rochers, then join the Peace River to form the Slave River, which empties into the Great Slave Lake and discharges through the Mackenzie River system into the Arctic Ocean. The cumulative drainage area is 95300km2.[10]
The river flows along icefields and through gorges, offering wildlife habitat on its shores and in adjacent marshes. Throughout its course, it flows through or adjacent to numerous national and provincial parks, including Jasper National Park, Fort Assiniboine Sandhills Wildland Provincial Park, Hubert Lake Wildland Provincial Park, La Biche River Wildland Provincial Park, Grand Rapids Wildland Provincial Park, Richardson Wildland Provincial Park, and Wood Buffalo National Park. Its course is marked by rapids, impeding navigation southwest of Fort McMurray.[11]
Numerous communities are on the banks of the Athabasca River, including Jasper, Brule, Entrance, Hinton, Whitecourt, Fort Assiniboine, Smith, Athabasca, Fort McMurray, and Fort McKay.
Sekani, Shuswap, Kootenay, Salish, Stoney, and Cree tribes hunted and fished along the river prior to European colonization in the 18th century. From about 1778, the Athabasca River, the Clearwater River, which enters the Athabasca River from the east at Fort McMurray, and the Methye Portage were part of a primary fur trade route from the Mackenzie River to the Great Lakes (see Canadian Canoe Routes (early)).David Thompson and Thomas the Iroquois traveled through Athabasca Pass in 1811. In 1862, the Athabasca Springs area was crossed during the Cariboo Gold Rush by the Overlander Party.
The northern segment of the Athabasca River became part of a major shipping network in 1921 when the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway reached Waterways near Fort McMurray, making it the northernmost point on the North American railroad grid at that time. Cargo for destinations farther north was shipped to Waterways and transferred to barges, after which fleets of tugboats took them up the river to destinations in the Athabasca and Mackenzie River watersheds. Barge traffic declined after 1964 when Hay River, on the Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories, became the northern terminus of the rail grid.[12] [13] [14]
Owing to its proximity to the Athabasca oil sands, the river has seen significant amounts of energy infrastructure constructed along its course. On June 6, 1970, a pipeline operated by Great Canadian Oil Sands, the precursor to Suncor and the earliest commercial extraction operation, ruptured near the banks of the river. The total spill volume was estimated by Great Canadian Oil Sands at approximately .[15] [16]
In 2012, an independent study concluded that the Athabasca River contained elevated levels of pollution downstream of the Athabasca oil sands. Testing showed this portion of the river contained mercury, lead, and 11 other toxic elements.[17]
In 2021, another independent research was conducted on the streamflow and climate data sets for the Athabasca River Basin showing the seasonality of the streamflow and precipitation time series via wavelet analysis.[18] The seasonal components of these time series were shown to be coherent with phase discrepancy. The mean temperature had been gradually increasing since 1960, and it was projected to increase by approximately 2 °C during the mid-century, possibly reducing the snowpack volume during the spring.[18]
On October31, 2013, a pit at the Obed Mountain coal mine spilled, and between 600 million and a billion litres of slurry poured into Plante and Apetowun Creeks.[19] The plume of waste products then joined the Athabasca River, travelling downstream for a month before settling in Lake Athabasca near Fort Chipewyan, over 500km (300miles) away.
The river was designated a Canadian heritage river for its importance to the fur trade and the construction of railways and roads opening up the Canadian West, as well as for its natural heritage.[20]
The Canadian Heraldic Authority named the position of Athabaska Herald after the river.