A sedimentological & stratigraphic dissection of Jurassic (Toarcian to Kimmeridgian) tidal & shoreface environments of the Fernie Formation in the subsurface of west-central Alberta
Date
2013-03-08
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Abstract
Sedimentary rocks within the Fernie Formation of the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin (WCSB) accumulated upon the western epicratonic margin of North America. Along this margin the depositional environments ranged from open marine to continental in origin. In west-central Alberta the deposits of this formation were initially mixed siliciclastic-carbonate sediments that upwardly were replaced by siliciclastic deposits during the Jurassic. Dissection of these deposits through high resolution analyses of lithofacies, lithofacies associations, and lithosomes reveals three main coastal depositional systems for Toarcian through Kimmeridgian strata of the formation: a storm- and wave-reworked lower Rock Creek Member (Aalenian), a tidally-reworked upper Rock Creek Member (Bajocian) unit dissected by tidal channels, and an enigmatic Oxfordian interval herein named the Niton Member that represents a progradational shallow-marine strand plain subsequently decapitated by a marine incursion. These three depositional systems are separated by widespread unconformable surfaces.
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Geology
Citation
Williams, S. (2013). A sedimentological & stratigraphic dissection of Jurassic (Toarcian to Kimmeridgian) tidal & shoreface environments of the Fernie Formation in the subsurface of west-central Alberta (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/25004