[3] It was deposited during Middle Cambrian time and consists of shale interbedded with other siliciclastic rock types and limestones.

[1] The Mount Whyte Formation was deposited during Middle Cambrian time in shallow water at the western margin of the North American Craton.

In the Mount Whyte area it can be subdivided into three units:[1] The Mount Whyte Formation outcrops in the southern Rocky Mountains of southwestern Alberta and southeastern British Columbia, and is present in the subsurface beneath the southwestern Alberta plains where it grades onto the Earlie Formation.

It disconformably overlies the Lower Cambrian Gog Group and is conformably overlain by the Cathedral Formation.

[3][6] The Mount Whyte Formation includes Olenellus and other fossil trilobites that establish its Middle Cambrian age by biostratigraphy.