The Nature and significance of the Barrier Peak Thrust Stack, Rocky Mountain Front Ranges, Alberta, Canada

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dc.contributor.advisorSpratt, Deborah A.
dc.contributor.authorMaurel, Laure Elisabeth
dc.coverage.spatial2000003049en
dc.date.accessioned2005-07-21T21:40:09Z
dc.date.available2005-07-21T21:40:09Z
dc.date.issued1987
dc.descriptionBibliography: p. 240-251.en
dc.description.abstractBarrier Peak thrust stack is located west of Calgary at the very front of the Rocky Mountains, which are carried at this latitude by the McConnell Thrust fault (MCT) onto the Cretaceous molasse of the Alberta Foothills. The stack is part of the leading edge of the MCT. It represents a westerly dipping imbricate fan repeating formations which are Cambrian to Mississippian in age. In map view, the MCT decollement on the east side of the stack has a nearly linear trace and consists of an assemblage of fault surfaces. The map traces of the roof thrust (Barrier Thrust) and of the Bryant Thrust are warped around the west side of the stack. The map area is subdivided into three zones, from east to west: -the duplex zone, carried by the main sole thrust (McConnell Thrust); -the Barrier Thrust sheet, which overlies the duplex zone; and -the Bryant Thrust sheet that, at the present level of erosion, wraps the Barrier Thrust sheet and its lower duplex. The Bryant thrust sheet is the transition zone between the complicated structure of the study area and the regionally parallel thrust sheets of the Front Ranges further west. The stack is complicated by hinterland dipping duplexes and horses. Horses of Upper Paleozoic and Mesozoic rocks are accreted to the hanging wall of Barrier Thrust in the roof of the duplex. This thrust is a late splay of the MCT that itself picked up horses of various rock ages during its early motion. The horses were either lost from the hanging wall of the MCT or dragged up after detachment from the footwall during the motion of the MCT. The development of horses was followed by the splaying of the Barrier Thrust from the MCT. Duplexing and thrusting of preexisting folds and thrusts also characterize a thrusting process that is out-of-sequence. Along strike, Barrier Thrust displays a succession of hangingwall diverging splays, producing a stacking of the transfer zones. Therefore, tip lines and branch lines in the hangingwall of the Barrier Thrust represent overlapping and overlapped lateral ramps, respectively. Analysis of the microscopic and mesoscopic structures in specific lithostructural units permitted a differentiation between a lower structural level where pressure solution generates the cleavage and the thrust rocks, and an upper structural level where spaced fracture cleavage and brecciated thrust rocks are developed. The interpretation of seismic reflection profiles indicates that the MCT is a gently southwest-dipping plane beneath the study area. Consequently, the footwall structures are not responsible for the structural complications of the study area. Instead, the origin of the thrust stack is interpreted to be related to the initial geometry of the MCT. For more than 150km of its trace north of the study area, the MCT carries Cambrian limestones. South of the study area, the MCT carries the Devonian Palliser Formation in its immediate hanging wall for 40km along its trace. A lateral ramp must have originally linked the two flats, and a complex thrust stack developed as the thrust propagated and the thrust sheet moved. Horses in the duplex xone represent remnants of the frontal ramp of the MCT. The frontal and lateral propagation of the MCT through different structural levels is interpreted to have had a significant role in originating the complicated thrust stack of the study area.
dc.format.extentxviii, 278 leaves : ill. ; 30 cm.en
dc.identifier.citationMaurel, L. E. (1987). The Nature and significance of the Barrier Peak Thrust Stack, Rocky Mountain Front Ranges, Alberta, Canada (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/15393en_US
dc.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/15393
dc.identifier.isbn0315380365en
dc.identifier.lccQE 606.5 C2 M38 1988en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1880/23756
dc.language.isoeng
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Calgaryen
dc.publisher.placeCalgaryen
dc.relationAdditional Copy: QE 606.5 C2 M38 1987en
dc.rightsUniversity of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.
dc.subject.lccQE 606.5 C2 M38 1988en
dc.subject.lcshThrust faults (Geology) - Alberta
dc.subject.lcshGeology, Structural
dc.titleThe Nature and significance of the Barrier Peak Thrust Stack, Rocky Mountain Front Ranges, Alberta, Canada
dc.typedoctoral thesis
thesis.degree.disciplineGeology and Geophysics
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of Calgary
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophy (PhD)
ucalgary.item.requestcopytrue
ucalgary.thesis.accessionTheses Collection 58.002:Box 626 520535142
ucalgary.thesis.additionalcopyQE 606.5 C2 M38 1987en
ucalgary.thesis.notesoffsiteen
ucalgary.thesis.uarcreleaseyen
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