THE STRATIGRAPI{Y, SEDIMENTOLOGY AND PETROGRAPI{Y OF TTIE JURASSIC-EARLY CRETACEOUS CLASTIC hÐGE IN WESTERN ALBERTA BY ;\ \!/Lo.n" RÍchard Philip Rosenthal Bsc.(Honors), MSc, Subrüitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Manitoba in partial fufillment of the requirenenls for a doctoral degree in Science Thesis supervisor: Dr, W.M,Last Final draft subnitted: February 22, 1989 (i) Bibliothèque nat¡onale Ë*Ë |i8,iXo'"0*" du Canada Canadian Theses Service Service des thèses canadiennes ottawa, Canada K'I A ON4 The author has granted an ¡rrevocable non- L'auteur a accordé une licence irrévocable et exclusive licence allowing the National Library non exclusive permettant à la Bibliothèque of Canada to reproduce, loan, distribute or sell nationale du Canada de reproduire, prêter, copies of his/her thesis by any means and in distribuer ou vendre des copies de sa thèse any form or format, making this thesis available de quelque manière et sous quelque forme to interested persons. que ce soit pour mettre des exemplaires de cette thèse à la disposition des personnes intéressées. The author retains ownership of the copyright L'auteur conserve la propriété du droit d'auteur in his/her thesis. Neither the thesis nor qui protège sa thèse. Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantial extracts from it may be pr¡nted or substantiels de celle-ci ne doivent être otherwise reproduced without his/her per- imprimés ou auirement reproduits sans son mission. autorisation. rsBN 0-3L5-5L627-5 Canadä TgE STRATIGR.APEY, SEDIHENTOLOGY AND PETROGRAPEY OF TEE J1]RASSIC-E,ARLY CRNTACEOUS CLASTIC WEDGE IN I{ESTERN AIBERTA BY LORNE RICEARD PUILIP ROSBNTtrÂL A tlìesis submirted to the Faculty of Craduate Studies of the University ol Manjtoba in partial fulfillment of the reqLrirenrents of the degree of DOCTOR OF PEILOSOPEY I 1989 Pe¡n:ission has beerr graltted to tlìe LIBRARy OF THE UNIVER. SITY OF MANITOBA ro ¡erìd o¡ sell copies of rhis thesis. to IhC NATIONAL LIBRARY OF CA}{ADA tO MiCrOfiINì th¡S thesis and ro lelld o¡ sell copies of rhe ülm, and UNIVERSITy iUICROFILÞtS to publish an absrract of rhis rhesis. The author reserves other publicatiorr riglìts, 3lìd neirher the thesis nor exteDsive extracts fronì it may be prirrted or other. wise reproduced without the author's written pernrission. ABSTRACT During the Late Mesozoic, the \',lestern Canacìian Sedinentary Basin evolved frorn a simple passive rnargin to a complex foreland basin. Thís thesis i,s an integrated cutcrop and subsurface study of the stratigraphy, sediBentologJ¡, petrography and reservoir and source rock potentÍal of the strata which record this transition in trestern Alberta. The Early to La,te Ju¡assic Fernle Fornation is a thin, condensed sequence of narine 6hales, cherts. carbonates and highly quartzose ( craton-derived ) Eendstones. f?r€ overlylng Late Jurassi.r Cretaceous Kootenay and Nikanassin strata corBprlse a '¡restward-thickening wedge of quartz and chert-rich ( Co¡dilleran-de¡ived ) sandstones v¡hich are truncated by the pre-Cadomin uncor¡forElty. This unconfornity records a EaJor isosiatic uplift of the orogen, end associated foreland basin. ThÍs uplift was probably lnitiated by collision-related crustal thickening and accentuated as the tll¡ust sheet load was bevelÌed by erosion. the overlying Early Cretaceous Blairnore, Mannville and luscar streta record another episode of basin 6ub6idence resultlng from additional thrustlng in the foreland fold/thrust be1t. The basal Cadomin, ,31adstone, and equivalent Lower Ellerslie strata are Neoconian to Aptían in age. This interval oontains quartz end chert-rich sandstones which were deposited by north$rest-flowing riv€r systens which traversed an aggraôing alluvia1 plain. The Upper Ellerslie, Glauconite and equivalent lloosebar FormationË are Aptian to Late Albian 1n age and comprise a northwe stward-thickening wedge of brackish-marlne mudstones and sandstones lrhich were deposited durlng (ii) the episodic advance, and ¡et¡eat, of the boreal Clearwater Sea into western Alberta. The overlying Beaver Mines and Gates Formatlons are Middle Albian in age. These strata record a maior ínflux of coarse detritus into the basin from a volcanic sorjrce terrane Ín the southern Cordillera. The chert and quartz-rich sandstones at the base and rniddle of the Blairrnore-Mannvi Lle inter'ral conprise good hydrocarbon reservoi.rs in western Alberta which typicaLl.y retain f,airgood prinary poroslty. The hlghly-quartzose Jurassic sandstones are typicauy tightly cemented with quertz overgroerths whereas the feldspathic sandstones ln the upper part of, the Êection are plugged wíth clay-carbonâte cement. The Jurasslc to Early Ctetaceous shales are nature in th€ western Plains, overmature 1n the Foothl]lE and are moderately rich in type II and type III organic matter. (iii) Acknowledg ernents I r¡ould like Eo thank BÍ11 Last for ably supervising this thesis and Jim Teller, Nancy Chow and Dale Leckíe for reading Ehe finat draft. This project received financial an¡l teehnicai- support froin Murphy Oil Company LÈd. (Calgary) and Ernie Spurgeonrs efforts in naking these arrangemenËs ís greatly apprecíated. Dale Leckie is thanked for providing sound advice, encouragement and construcÈive critícism aE alL stages of the study. Terry Poulton, Dave Jarnes, Dave Smith and lïarvey Young contrÍbuted many good ideas and argrments and John Wall, in particular, is Ehanked for identifying and inLerpreEing Ëhe uricrofossil suites. Elspeth Denbow's help in constructing many of the tâbles and figures was greatly appreciated, Most lmportåntly, I lrânt to Ehank my wífe Gisele, ny three gfeat kids Mattherv, Louis & Danielle, ênd my parents for four years of unquaLified support and encouragement. I could.nrt have done it \riÈhout you . ( iv; TABLE OF CONÎENTS PAGE CHAPTER 1 Tntroduction .,., 1 (A) Objectives .,.i,.., 1 (B) Study area and data base .. 2 (C) Methodology 3 (D) Thesis format 6 CHAPTER 2 overviêw of the l,¡estern Canadian Sedinentary Basin ... , . I (A) Tectonic history 8 (B) Structural setting 12 (C) He s ozo ic-Tert iary clastic wedges in Alberta 74 CHAPTER 3 Stratigraphic nornenclature .,. 18 (A) Jurassic nomenclature 18 ( i) Outcrop 18 ( ii) Subsuríace 2I (B) Early Cretaceous nomenclature 22 ( i) outcrop 22 ( ii) Subsurface z5 CHAPTER 4 Previous sedinentological studies 29 (A) Fernie Fornation ... 29 (B) Bl airnore-Lus car-Mannvil l e Groups . 31 CHAPTER 5 Depositional Fac i es 38 /À\ r'r.ëêi^ f.^iðê 38 - ( i)'J-1 Clean shale (< 102 interbedded si.ltstone/ sandstone) 38 ( ii) J-2 Interbedded sandstone and shale 42 (iii) J-3 Clean sandstone (< 102 interbedded shale) 45 ( iv) J-4 Bioturbated argillaceous sandstone 47 ( v) J-5 Chert and argillaceous carbonates . .. 47 ( vi) J-6 Paleosol horizons 48 (B) Early Cretaceous facies ,,,,,,,, 49 ( i) overvier+ of facies associ.ations 50 ( ii) 0pen narine facies , 54 Facies 1 Clean shale (< 202 sandstone/siltstone Laninae) 54 Facies 2 Interbedded sandstone, siltstone and shale . 59 Facies 3 Bioturbated argillaceous sandstone 62 Facies 4 Clean sandstone (< 10% interbedded shale) , . 64 Facies 5 Conglomerate 68 (iii) Brackish to non-narine facíes . .,...... 70 Facies 6 Mudstone (< 102 interbedded sandstones) ..,. 7T Facies 7 Interbedded sandstones and nudstones 72 Facies 8 Clean (non-argi1ì.aceous) incised channel sandstones and conglonerates .. 76 Facies 9 Coal and carbonaceous shale , ,,,,,,,, 79 PAGE CHAPTER 6 Depositional Sequences and Regional Correlations . ,. ... 83 (A) FooÈhiLls correlations .. .. ,. g3 ( i) Southern Foothills 84 ( ii) Central Foothills 86 Cadomin Formation g7 Gladstone Fornation .. ,.. .. g7 Moosebar fornation ,. gg Gates Fornìation ". 93 (B) Subsurface facies sequences and stratigraphic correlations . 94 ( i) Fernie Forrnation . 95 Nordegg Member . 95 Poker Chip Member . 99 Rock Creek Member . 99 Upper Fernie Me¡nber . .. ,. .. 1OO Sunmary Fernie Fornation ,.. 101 ( ii) El1erslie Fonnation 7Oz ( iÍi) Glauconite Formation 105 (a) Marine sandstones .. 106 Medicine River Member 109 Hoadley lfenber . 109 Drayton Va1tey }fenber 111 Modeste Creek Mernber 113 (b) Incised channel trends . 113 Caroline channel . Medicine River channels , , .,. 116 Thorsby-Penbina channels 116 Edson channel ( iv) Upper i{ännville ( und ifferenr iated ) ,. ...;.. ,... .:.. I2o (C) Stratigraphic correlations between outcrop and subsurface .. I2O (D) Early Cretaceous depositional history and paleogeography ,.. I24 (E) A depositional ¡nodel I32 CHAPTER 7 Frarnework Petrography and Major Elenent Chenical Composition 135 (A) Previous work ., 135 (B) Methodology emplo].ed in this study . l.37 ( i) Problems of petrographic analysis 139 (C) Stratigraphic variations in framel¡ork cornposition 140 ( i) Fernie sandstones . 140 ( ii) Cladstone-Ellerslie sandstones . , 142 (iii) Koot enay-Nikanas s in sandstones ,, :-43 ( iv¡ clauconite-¡foos eb ar sandstones .. 145 (a) lfarine sandstones ,, I45 Medicine River-Lower Moosebar ]-47 Hoadley-Drayton Va11ey Middle Moosebar . .... ... I47 ToÌrens -Ifodes te Creek 149 (b) .Channel sandstones . .; , ,. .. ... ., . 150 Caroline channel I52 Medicine River channels .. .. I52 Thorsby-pembina channels IS2 vt PAC: Edson channel 153 (D) Sunmary of stratigraphic variations in sandstone composition (E) 153 Provenance of Jurassic- Early Cretaceous sandstones ... , ,. 155 ( i) Mesozoic paleoteography of the l^¡estern Canadian Sedìnentary Basin . ( 155 ii) Methodology 1S8 (a) Bulk franewolk composition 159 cladstone Forrnation 162 Beaver Mines Formarion .,..::::::::::::::::::::: 163 Glauconite