Stratigraphy 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 …

Allostratigraphy And Sedimentology Of The Muskiki And Marshybank Members Of The Wapiabi Formation (Upper Cretaceous, Coniacian) In Southwestern Alberta, Canada, Elizabeth Hooper

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The marine mudstone-dominated, Muskiki and Marshybank members of the Wapiabi Formation occupy the central foredeep of the Western Canada Foreland Basin. These Coniacian (86.3-89.8 Ma) rocks form a ~100 m thick, overall shallowing-upward depositional succession that records a basin-scale transgressive-regressive event following an early Coniacian lowstand. The strata, deposited on a low-gradient storm- dominated marine ramp, contain numerous well-preserved molluscan fossils and comprise many upward-coarsening successions (5-15 m thick). Detailed correlation integrates biostratigraphic and lithologic data from 14 cores and 13 outcrops into a regional (~45,000 km2) allostratigraphic framework constructed from 1020 wireline logs. This integrated stratigraphy provides a basis …

The Periglacial Landscape Of Mars: Insight Into The 'Decameter-Scale Rimmed Depressions' In Utopia Planitia, Arya Bina

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Currently, Mars appears to be in a ‘frozen’ and ‘dry’ state, with the clear majority of the planet’s surface maintaining year-round sub-zero temperatures. However, the discovery of features consistent with landforms found in periglacial environments on Earth, suggests a climate history for Mars that may have involved freeze and thaw cycles. Such landforms include hummocky, polygonised, scalloped, and pitted terrains, as well as ice-rich deposits and gullies, along the mid- to high-latitude bands, typically with no lower than 20o N/S. The detection of near-surface and surface ice via the Phoenix lander, excavation of ice via recent impact cratering activity as …

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

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

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

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

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 …

Stratigraphy Of The Upper Silurian To Middle Devonian, Southwestern Ontario, Shuo Sun

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The upper Silurian–Middle Devonian succession was dominated by carbonate and evaporite deposits, with minor siliciclastic sedimentation, and a significant hiatus across the Siluro-Devonian (S-D) boundary in southwestern Ontario. The stratigraphic units include, in ascending order: Late Silurian Bass Islands/Bertie formations and Salina G Unit, the Devonian Oriskany Formation, Bois Blanc Formation (including Springvale Member), Detroit River Group (including the Lucas, Amherstburg and Sylvania formations), Onondaga Formation, and Dundee Formation.

Below the S-D unconformity, the upper Silurian Bass Islands/Bertie formations are predominantly dolostone of peritidal-sabkha origin and episodic subaerial exposure. Revised stratigraphic correlation shows that the Bertie Formation is older than …

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

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

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 …

Channel Form And Processes In A Formerly Glaciated Terrain, Nathaniel Bergman

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Despite that many places around the world in general, and North America in particular, were glaciated during the last ice age, relatively little is known about rivers that evolved over these landscapes once they deglaciated. These rivers are commonly categorized as alluvial with a glacial legacy, and often described as plain gravel-bed or sand-bed rivers. Alternatively, they are considered to be bedrock rivers when the glacial deposits were eroded and underlying rock was exposed. However, ignoring the glacial history of these rivers is scientifically wrong and they should be termed "semi-alluvial". This work shows that classification is important, not only …

Allostratigraphy Of The Upper Ordovician Blue Mountain Formation, Southwestern Ontario, Canada, Sarah N. Sweeney

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The Upper Ordovician units in Southwestern Ontario record the distal response to the development of the Taconic Appalachian foreland basin. The proximal representation in Ohio and Pennsylvania, contain the Utica/Point Pleasant Play (!). The relationship between the proximal and distal portions of the Taconic Appalachian foreland basin is not clearly defined due to limited chronostratigraphic data and only lithostratigraphic correlations in southwestern Ontario. The first step in evaluating the relationship between the Upper Ordovician succession in Ontario and that in the United States is to develop a high frequency allostratigraphic framework that can be integrated and compared to the frameworks …

Peat As An Archive Of Remote Mercury Deposition In The Hudson Bay Lowlands, Ontario, Canada, William James Goacher

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Peat from the Hudson Bay Lowlands (HBL) in Northern Ontario, Canada was used to reconstruct historical accumulation of mercury (Hg) over more than 7000 years before present. Nine cores, many with previously published paleoclimate studies, were analyzed for Hg and accumulation rates were calculated. Anthropogenic Hg enrichment factors were calculated based on accumulation rates. A more exclusive calculation of the anthropogenic enrichment factor corroborates modelling efforts that have suggested re-cycling legacy Hg is a much greater contributor to present day deposition than previously thought, but not prior to ~500 cal yrs BP. An older pre-industrial record provides a better background …

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

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

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, …