Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Allostratigraphy Of The Lower Colorado Group (Cretaceous) In South-West Alberta, Slavena Galic

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Clastic, upper Albian-lower Cenomanian strata were deposited in a low-accommodation backbulge depozone of the Western Canada Foreland Basin in SW Alberta. These strata are lithologically very heterogeneous and encompass a spectrum of depositional environments along an alluvial to offshore transect. These rocks are assigned, in subsurface, to the Lower Colorado Group, and in outcrop to the upper Blairmore Group. Lithological heterogeneity, as a result of rapid lateral facies changes, resulted in diverse nomenclature that obscured genetic relationships between time-equivalent strata. The present study integrates wireline log, core, and outcrop data to establish a high-resolution allostratigraphic framework which allowed recognition of …

Stratigraphic Studies Of Late Albian Strata, North-Eastern Alberta., Arwa Zourob

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Late Albian rocks of the Upper Viking, Westgate and lower Fish Scales alloformations were deposited about 101-100 Ma in the Western Canada Foreland Basin. Sediments in the study area span the forebulge, and are dominated by mudstone which forms 5-15 m thick, siltier-or sandier-upward sucessions bounded by marine flooding surfaces. Stratification is on a mm scale and represents storm deposits and fluid muds. Viking allomember VD and Westgate allomembers WA, WB and WC all thin towards the E and S and progressively onlap the forebulge. They record relative sea-level rise and gradual drowning and subsidence of the forebulge. In contrast, …

Allostratigraphy Of The Viking And Joli Fou Formations, The Lower Colorado Group (Upper Albian), Central Alberta And Saskatchewan, Western Canada Foreland Basin, Matea Drljepan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Strata of the Late Albian Lower Colorado Group are widely distributed in subsurface and outcrop in the Western Canada Foreland Basin. The rocks represent depositional environments ranging from alluvial to offshore marine. The Lower Colorado Group comprises, in ascending stratigraphic order, the Joli Fou, Viking, Westgate, and Fish Scales formations. Mudrocks of the Joli Fou Formation record a time when the interior of North America was flooded by a shallow sea that led to the connection of the Polar Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. Ensuing sea-level fall and regression led to deposition of Viking Formation sandstone across much of …

Sedimentology And Stratigraphy Of The Upper Cretaceous Puskwaskau Formation In North-Central Alberta, Western Canada Foreland Basin, Omar Al-Mufti

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The Santonian to early Campanian mudstone-dominated Puskwaskau Formation was correlated throughout a study area of 50,000 km² in north-central Alberta using 988 well logs. Fourteen informal allomembers, established by previous studies, are bounded by regionally-mappable marine flooding and/or transgressive surfaces that are traceable for hundreds of kilometres within the study area. These laterally continuous bounding surfaces are parallel to very gently converging, and mostly terminate by onlap onto underlying surfaces. Observations in thin section and in SEM revealed ten mudstone microfacies, grouped into five microfacies associations. The facies preserve evidence for repeated storm-generated reworking of the seafloor. The Puskwaskau …

Integrating Petrophysics And Allostratigraphy To Find Sweet Spots In The Upper Cretaceous Belle Fourche And Second White Specks Alloformations, West-Central Alberta, Canada, Kienan P. Marion

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The Upper Cretaceous Second White Specks Formation – an organic-rich, calcareous mudrock succession within the lower Colorado Group – is a prolific self-sourcing tight oil reservoir in Alberta. Due to the low porosity and permeability of this interval, localized natural fracture networks have previously provided the only means for oil to flow at economic rates. This study, focused in west-central Alberta, used allostratigraphic methods to subdivide the Second White Specks Formation into allomembers that define hydraulic flow units. The petrophysical properties (porosity, organic content, clay volume, and brittleness) of each allomember were modelled using a basic suite of geophysical wireline …

High-Resolution Allostratigraphy And Sedimentology Of Santonian - Early Campanian Wapiabi Formation In Southern Alberta, Western Canada Foreland Basin, El Mahadia I. Mohammed

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Within a 90,000 km2 study area in SW Alberta, Santonian – basal Campanian strata of the upper Wapiabi Formation are dominated by marine rocks that thin westward from ~300 ~180 m over ~300 km, reflecting apparently spatially uniform flexural subsidence driven by the static load of the orogen. A high-resolution allostratigraphic framework established ten allomembers grouped in four informal tectono-stratigraphic ‘units’, three of which were previously recognized in NW Alberta. In the north and east, the formation is dominated by mudstone organized in numerous metre-scale siltier- and sandier-upward parasequences. A lack of clinoforms and abundant wave-formed sedimentary structures suggest that …

Allostratigraphy, Paleogeographic Evolution And Accommodation Controls Of The Lower Colorado Allogroup In West-Central Alberta, Canada (Western Canada Foreland Basin), Steve Morrow

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The Lower Colorado allogroup of the Western Canada Foreland Basin is a mud-dominated rock succession of marine, estuarine, and coastal plain depositional origin. Relative sea-level oscillations produced bounding discontinuities that allow the allogroup to be divided into four alloformations: the Joli Fou, Viking, Westgate, and Fish Scales.

Rocks of the Lower Colorado allogroup within the study area record marine depositional environments represented by 9 facies. The facies represent depositional environments ranging from offshore marine to lower shoreface through to upper shoreface and river mouth environments.

Geometric analysis of the isopach maps of the regional allomembers of the Lower Colorado allogroup …

Stratigraphy, Sedimentology And Paleogeography Of The Lower Cretaceous (Upper Albian) Peace River, Joli Fou And Pelican Formations, Northern Alberta, Canada, Kathleen Vannelli

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Late Albian (~ 104-101 Ma) strata in northern Alberta are assigned to the marginal-marine Paddy Member, and the marine Joli Fou, Pelican and Viking formations. Temporal relationships between these units have never been established in detail. This study shows that the marine Joli Fou mudstone forms a sheet that onlaps westward against a subaerial ridge (?forebulge); coeval fluvio-lagoonal lower Paddy strata onlap against the opposite side. The ridge crest was buried by upper Paddy strata, of Cordilleran provenance, that grade eastward into deltaic lower Pelican quartz arenites derived from the Canadian Shield. The presence of quartz arenites in the Peace …

Allostratigraphy, Sedimentology And Paleogeography Of The Cretaceous Upper Fort St. John Group (Upper Albian-Lower Cenomanian) In Northeastern British Columbia, Piotr Jan Angiel

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The upper Albian to lower Cenomanian succession in northeastern British Columbia was deposited in the proximal foredeep and is greatly vertically expanded relative to the more eastern part of the basin. The study interval has a wedge-shaped geometry, and is ~780 m thick in the west and thins dramatically to ~280 metres over a distance of ~170 km. Rapid facies changes result in lithostratigraphic units being strongly diachronous. In order to determine depositional history, the present study subdivided the Upper Fort St. John Group into 16 genetically-related allomembers. The new allostratigraphic correlations established in this thesis combined with previous studies, …

Sedimentology And Allostratigraphy Of The Cardium Formation (Turonian-Coniacian) In Southern Alberta, And Equivalent Strata In Northern Montana, Joel Shank

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The Turonian-Coniacian Cardium Formation of southern Alberta consists of marine sandstone and mudstone, deposited in a foreland basin over ~2.3 m.y. The formation thins from 150 m in the western foredeep to 50 m 350 km to the east. Correlation of 10 regional flooding surfaces in >1200 well logs and 25 outcrops provides an allostratigraphic framework. Mapping of two previously-unrecognized erosion surfaces (E5.2 and E5.5) reveals additional complexity within sandstone of the Raven River Member.

Facies successions coarsen upwards from thinly-bedded and bioturbated mudstone, to heterolithic facies (either bioturbated or bedded), to clean sandstone. Where conglomerate unconformably overlies this succession, …