PETROLOGY AND SEDIMENTOLOGY OF THE MORRISSEY FORMATION (KOOTENAY GROUP), SOUTHEAST BRITISH COLUMBIA - SOUTHWEST ALBERTA Petrology and Sedimentology of the Morrissey Formation (Kootenay Group), Southeast British Columbia - Southwest Alberta by John Richard Hogg Submitted to the Department of Geology in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Bachelor of Science McMaster University April, 1981 BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (1981) McMASTER UNIVERSITY (Geology) Hamilton, Ontario. TITLE: Petrology and Sedimentology of the Morrissey Formation (Kootenay Group), southeast British Columbia- southwest Alberta AUTHOR: John Richard Hogg SUPERVISOR: Dr. G.V. Middleton NUMBER OF PAGES: x, 91 i i Abstrac.1 The Morrissf:y Formation of the l~ootenay Group v1as mapped and sampled in three outcrops in southHestern Alberta and southeastern British Colur.1bia; 8urnt Ridge and Sparwood Ridge in British Columbia and Adanac Mine sight in Alterta. The lowest unit mapped was within the upper Fernie Formation (Passage beds) and consists of interbeds of sandstone and siltstone that were deposited as shallow water marine sediments. The Morrissey Formation conforrnably overlies the Fernie Fonnation and contains tv10 members; the l'leary Ridge Member and the Moose Mountain Member. Tht: \Jeary Ridge Member consists of fine to medium grain, parallel and trough crossbedded sandstone, that was deposited as a delta-front-sand facics produced by coalescing of delta-sands from three to four delta complexes. The overlying Moose Mountain Member consists of high an91 e trough crossbedded, coarse grain, 11 salt and pepper" sandstone represr~r:ting a distributary mouth bar environment. The Moose Mountain Member is unconventional in that the upper portion contains tvm units not seen in other s~ctions. A marine trace fossil unit and a beach unit are both found within the upper portion of the member. These two units represent a transgression caused by channel switching and a regression and r~rorking of sediments into a beach respectively. ii i ri.Lovr. the Morrissey Formation are the continental coals and fluvial systems of t!Je Mist t·iountain Formatior.. Petrographic studies on t\'1enty-five thin sections shovJ t1·Jo sedimentary sources for the Formation. The first source being chert rich Upper Paleozoic carbonates and the second source is Lower Paleozoic elastics that have previously been derived from a metamorphic complex of the Canadian Shield. The sandstones are cemented by quartz syntaxial overgrm1ths implying that there 'vJas a moderate degree of pressure solution, indicating a fairly high overburden pressure during diagenesis. iv Acknowledgements I would like to thank Dr. G.V. Middleton for his supervision, both in the summer field season and throughout the year. Thanks also to Mr. L.B. Samuelson of Kaiser Resources for allowing the use of a four wheel drive truck on weekends to locate and map outcrops. I would also like to thank Dan Potocki and Andrew Bullock for putting up with me for eight months in the same office, Mr. Len Zwicker for the thin sections, Mr. Jack Whorwood for preparation of photographs, Mrs. Maureen Czerneda for typing the manuscript, and Dale Leckie for much discussion and advice throughout the year. I also appreciated the help of Dr. Currie, at the University of Toronto, for the explanation and use of the Cathodo-luminescence miscroscope. Finally, thanks to Amy, her encouragement and love has made.this the happiest year of my life. v TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1 LOCATION 4 OBJECTIVES 7 PREVIOUS vJORK 1 0 GEOLOGICAL SETTING 1 3 CHAPTER TWO: FACIES DESCRIPTIONS 1 4 FACIES A 1 4 FACIES B 20 FACIES C 23 FACIES DB 26 FACIES EB 28 FACIES F 28 CHAPTER THREE: PETROLOGY 34 METHOD 34 RESULTS 36 COMPONENTS 36 QUARTZ TYPES AND EXTINCTION 47 HEAVY MINERAL ZTR STUDY 51 INTERSTICES STUDY 51 GRAIN FRAMEWORK 55 CATHODO-LUMINESCENCE STUDY 57 GRAPHICAL ANALYSIS 60 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCUSSION AND INTERPRETATION 66 FACIES INTERPRETATIONS 66 COMPARISON WITH OTHER SOURCES 74 PETROGRAPHIC INTERPRETATION 76 COMPARISON WITH OTHER SOURCES 78 DIAGENSIS 81 CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSIONS 84 REFERENCES 87 vi. LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE PAGE 1 - l Stratrgraphic correlation of the 2 Morrissey Formation 1-2 Location map of Alberta-British 5 Columbia 2-1 Vertical sections of sections 1 5 measured 2-2 Schematic block diagram of 1 9 Hummocky 3-1 Quartz extinction diagram 50 3-2 Classification of sandstones 63 3-3 C-M diagram of Morrissey 65 Formation 4-1 Environment of deposition of 67 Hummocky cross stratification 4-2 Idealized model of structure of 70 Jurassic-Cretaceous coastline vii LIST OF TABLES TABLE PAGE 3-1 Point counts of thin sections 37,38 3-2 Quartz point counts 49 3-3 Point counts of quartz inclusions 52 3-4 Heavy mineral study 53 3-5 Grain framework 56 3-6 Percentage of rock fragments- 62 total 100% 3-7 Grain size of thin sections 64 vi ii LIST OF PLATES PLATE PAGE 1 -1 Burnt Ridge section 6 1-2 Sparwood Ridge section 8 1-3 Adanac Mine section 9 2-1 Facies A Adanac Mine 16 2-2 Facies A Burnt Ridge 1 6 2-3 Facies A H.C.S. 18 2-4 Facies A H.C.S. 1 8 2-5 Facies A soft sedimentary 21 deformation 2-6 Facies B Adanac Mine 22 2-7 Facies B Sparwood 22 2-8 Facies B large trough at Burnt 24 Ridge section 2-9 Facies B conglomeratic bed 25 2-10 Facies B conglomeratic bed 25 2-11 Facies C Burnt Ridge 27 2-12 Facies DB Zoophycos 29 2-13 Facies DB Rizochrallium 30 2-14 Facies DB Rizochrallium 30 2-15 Facies EB parallel bedded sandstone 31 2-16 Facies EB parallel bedded sandstone 31 2-17 Facies EB unidentified worm burrow 32 ix PLATE PAGE 3-1 Mudstone rock fragments 39 3-2 Siltstone rock fragments 39 3-3 Carbonate rock fragments 40 3-4 Chert 41 3-5 Chalcedony 41 3-6 Authigenic kaolinite 43 3-7 I 11 i te 43 3-8 Authigenic Chlorite 44 3-9 Syntax overgrowths on quartz 45 3-10 Quartz with undulose extinction 46 3-11 Polycrystalline quartz 46 3-12 Muscovite flake 48 3-13 Drusty quartz cement 54 3-14 Boehm lamellae 58 3-15 Fractured mudstone 59 3-16 Before Cathodo-luminescence of 61 quartz 3-17 During Cathodo-luminescence of 61 quartz x , Chanter l Introduction The Jurassic-Cretaceous Kootenay Group consists of three formations: the Morrissey Formation, the Mist Mountain Formation, and the Elk Formation (Gibson, 1979). Figure 1-1 shows the correlation of the Kootenay Group with the equivalent in northeast British Columbia. The studies reported in this thesis were mainly concerned with the Morrissey Formation. The Morrissey Formation consists of two members: the Moose Mountain Member and the Weary Ridge Member. These members correlated with Unit A and Unit B respectively of Gibson (1977). The Morrissey Formation marks the beginning of the Cretaceous marine regression that closed up a large portion of the seaway in western Alberta (Nelson, 1970). The Morrissey Formation consists of a thick sandstone formation with no major breaks. The sandstone ranges from 20 metres to 80 metres thick and thins eastward. It contains a distinct coarsening upward sequence at all localities. The contact with the Fernie Formation is sharp but conformable. The upper Fernie Formation consists of very fine grained sandstones interbedded with shales and mudstones. The upper contact with the Mist Mountain Formation is found to be sharp but conformable. The contact between the Weary Ridge Member and the Moose Mountain Member is a sharp transition. The sandstone of Moose Mountain is better .. .. -·· TI ME SOUTHERN 8 C.- ALlA. SOUTHERN 8.C:-ALTA. _NORT1-l~ AST ·Rr ~ Gw 1--i ~'~ ~ ~ L) ~ ELI< ::E ELK t::> LL ~ NEOCOMIAN FORtviA.TiON MEMBER f.J..J ~ a:: z MIST tv101JNTION ~ COAL BEARING <.) Lt.! w 1~ ._.. FOR~.,.~ATION MEMBER PURBECKIAN 0 0 t.l'JKrt!SSEY l_fa.'."rS::.HHJ.MP~ ~SAL SANDSTONE 1UNIT A Nll<ANASSIN ~ FC'm.1.~ r: 'JI! _1•;>- ·"<Y r,·:y,c:\J, ' '­ , ·~n ME~BER UN! T B PORTLAND IAN 2 ' '.J~. ''L-" • j (.J N ,._, PASSAGE BE OS PASSAGE BE OS P/i,SSAGE BEDS lf) ~<IMivlERIDGIA N lf) a: ct OX FOR DIA I\! GREEIJ BED5 GRl=EN BEQS C·P.::F~,.; ~=-:·S <( w CALLOVIAN __, j--rTGREY8EDS w GREY BEDS (,~Y_IT"'S_ n::: .. -r·..--r-r-r -r , T l ·1 I I T r I I I I I I BATHONIAN - .IJ.:J.: I .I ::J -·----------1 z z R" ,-~ --, a: _L-1.__J_L._j_..J_LJ .1. .1. .J. 1 I I I I I I I _l _L _L ..l. cREEK Vi:,V.3E~ BAJOCIAN r:1i.v CF<t. ~:1< r.1 >= t..i Ee: r. er: ROCV CREE1< MEMBER· w . w ;:J::: :r--r·~---.,....-.--,--- FA~JER ::H\LE S ~PER SHALES PAPER SH~~ES :-IDARCJA_N_ l.L I ·1 T ·1.-0--r· , , LL.. TTTT T TTT I TT •TT ELIE NSB.AC HIAN ,! I _!_ ...L .J. ..l_ ...L ...L .1. ..!_ _L ...L ..l. __L _L ..l. _l_ -'-' _l_ -1..l. ...L...L...l. ~I NfJ.0llEJA(i_ ~lOf"lDEGG l·'Ei'.IBER MORDEGG t-.£MBER NORDEGG MEt-P.:_t( HE TTANGlAN ' . r--r--T" T ·I 1 ~ I t I I t 1-,---r-rillj GIBSON 1979 GIBSON 1977 Figure 1-1: Stratigraphic correlation of the F!rnie Formation-Kootenay Formation southeast British Columbia northeastern British Columbia. Adapted from Gibson (1979, 1977}. 3 indurated, coarser grained, darker grey (on a weathered surface) and less argillaceous. The Weary Ridge Member sandstones are finer grained, more argillaceous, not as well indurated, orange-brown-grey weathered sandstone.