Redknife Formation | |
---|---|
Stratigraphic range: | |
Type | Geological formation |
Sub-units | Jean Marie Member |
Underlies | Kakisa Formation |
Overlies | Fort Simpson Formation |
Thickness | up to 83 feet (30 m) [1] |
Lithology | |
Primary | Shale, limestone |
Other | siltstone, dolomite |
Location | |
Coordinates | 61°17′N119°52′W / 61.28°N 119.87°W |
Region | Northwest Territories British Columbia Alberta |
Country | Canada |
Type section | |
Named for | Redknife River |
Named by | Belyea and McLaren, 1962 |
The Redknife Formation is a stratigraphical unit of Devonian age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin.
It takes the name from Redknife River, a tributary of the Mackenzie River, and was first described in the banks of the Trout River, north of Trout Lake, Northwest Territories, at Table Rock Rapids by Belyea and McLaren in 1962.
The Redknife Formation is divided into the Jean Marie Member (base) and an upper unnamed shale unit. The Jean Marie Member is composed of argillaceous, silty and dolomitic fossiliferous limestone. The carbonates are massive east of Fort Nelson and west of the Alberta border. The upper Redknife consists of calcareous shales with silty limestone and siltstone interbeds. To the south and east, the shales grade into limestone and siltstone, and it becomes dolomitic in the Peace River arch.
The Redknife formation contains common coral and brachiopod fossils.
Gas is produced from the Jean Marie Member in the Greater Sierra filed east of Fort Nelson, British Columbia.
The Redknife Formation occurs in outcrops in the southern Northwest Territories and in the sub-surface in north-eastern British Columbia, also reaching into north-western Alberta. The maximum thickness of the upper shales is 79 feet (20 m), and the lower carbonates are up to 15 feet (0 m). The Jean Marie Member is found in outcrops south of the Mackenzie River between Kakisa and Blackstone River. It grades westwards into the shale facies of the Fort Simpson Formation. East of the Peace River Arch it turns into the carbonates of the Kakisa Formation.
The Redknife Formation is conformly overlain by the Kakisa Formation and overlies the Tathlina Formation in northern Alberta and the Fort Simpson Formation in British Columbia and Northwest Territories. The Fort Simpson Formation replaces the Redknife Formation to the west. The Redknife Formation can be correlated with the Nisku Formation and upper part of the Ireton Formation in central Alberta.
The Jean Marie Member is designated as the lower part of the Redknife Formation where it is represented by massive limestone or silty carbonates. [2] The Jean Marie Member was deposited during the Frasnian age. It is named for the Jean Marie River.
Greater Sierra is a large oil and gas field in northeastern British Columbia, Canada. It is east and north from the town of Fort Nelson, extending to the Alberta and Northwest Territories borders.
The Montney Formation is a stratigraphical unit of Lower Triassic age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin in British Columbia and Alberta.
The Smoky Group is a stratigraphical unit of Late Cretaceous age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin.
The Schooler Creek Group is a stratigraphic unit of Middle to Late Triassic age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. It is present in northeastern British Columbia. It was named for Schooler Creek, a left tributary of Williston Lake, and was first described in two oil wells northwest of Fort St. John, by F.H. McLearn in 1921. Exposures along Williston Lake serve as a type locality in outcrop.
The Baldonnel Formation is a stratigraphical unit of Carnian age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin.
The Banff Formation is a stratigraphical unit of Devonian age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin.
Colorado is a geologic name applied to certain rocks of Cretaceous age in the North America, particularly in the western Great Plains. This name was originally applied to classify a group of specific marine formations of shale and chalk known for their importance in Eastern Colorado. The surface outcrop of this group produces distinctive landforms bordering the Great Plains and it is a significant feature of the subsurface of the Denver Basin and the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. These formations record important sequences of the Western Interior Seaway, and as the geology of this seaway was studied, this name came to be used in states beyond Colorado, but was later replaced in several of these states with more localized names.
The Exshaw Formation is a stratigraphic unit in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. It takes the name from the hamlet of Exshaw, Alberta in the Canadian Rockies, and was first described from outcrops on the banks of Jura Creek north of Exshaw by P.S. Warren in 1937. The formation is of Late Devonian to Early Mississippian age as determined by conodont biostratigraphy, and it straddles the Devonian-Carboniferous boundary.
The Horn River Formation is a stratigraphic unit of Devonian age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin.
The Fort Simpson Formation is a stratigraphical unit of Devonian age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin.
The Beaverhill Lake Group is a geologic unit of Middle Devonian to Late Devonian age in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin that is present in the southwestern Northwest Territories, northeastern British Columbia and Alberta. It was named by the geological staff of Imperial Oil in 1950 for Beaverhill Lake, Alberta, based on the core from a well that they had drilled southeast of the lake, near Ryley, Alberta.
The Elk Point Group is a stratigraphic unit of Early to Middle Devonian age in the Western Canada and Williston sedimentary basins. It underlies a large area that extends from the southern boundary of the Northwest Territories in Canada to North Dakota in the United States. It has been subdivided into numerous formations, number of which host major petroleum and natural gas reservoirs.
The Trout River Formation is a stratigraphical unit of Late Devonian age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin.
The Tetcho Formation is a stratigraphical unit of Famennian age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin.
The Kakisa Formation is a stratigraphical unit of Frasnian age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin.
The Winterburn Group is a stratigraphical unit of Frasnian age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin.
The Manitoba Group is a stratigraphical unit of middle to late Devonian age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin.
The Nahanni Formation is a stratigraphical unit of Givetian age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin.
The Liard Formation is a stratigraphic unit of Middle Triassic to Late Triassic age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin that is present in northeastern British Columbia. It takes its name from the Liard River, and was first described from outcrops on the southern bank of that river, near Hell Gate Rapids in the Grand Canyon of the Liard, by E.D. Kindle in 1946.
Toad Formation, Grayling Formation, and Toad-Grayling Formation are obsolete names for the strata of the Early to Middle Triassic Doig and Montney Formations. They were applied in the foothills and Rocky Mountains of northeastern British Columbia, on the western edge of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. Although the names are considered obsolete, their usage persists.