[2] Named after the Kananaskis Range near Banff,[3] it was deposited during the Late Pennsylvanian sub-period of the Carboniferous period.

[1] The Kananaskis Formation consists primarily of pale grey weathering, thick- and thin-bedded silty limestone and dolomite, with beds and nodules of chert, chert breccias and conglomerates, and quartzites.

[1][3] Fusulinids, spiriferid brachiopods, gastropods, and sponge spicules have been described from some of the beds in the Kananaskis Formation.

[1][4] The Kananaskis Formation has a maximum thickness of about 55 metres (180 feet) at its type section on the west flank of Mount Chester in the Kananaskis Range.

It is present in the southern Canadian Rockies of western Alberta from the Kananaskis area south to the Canada–United States border.