Whitemud Formation

Whitemud Formation
Stratigraphic range: Maastrichtian
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Whitemud Formation; Stratigraphic range: Maastrichtian PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N
Type	Geological formation
Unit of	Edmonton Group
Underlies	Frenchman Formation and Battle Formation
Overlies	Eastend Formation, Horseshoe Canyon Formation and St. Mary River Formation
Thickness	Up to 23 metres (75 ft)
Lithology
Primary	Sandstone, siltstone, clay
Other	shale, lignite
Location
Region	Saskatchewan Alberta
Country	Canada
Type section
Named by	N.B. Davis, 1918 [1]

Last updated April 29, 2019

The Whitemud Formation is a geologic formation of Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) age in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin.^[2] it is present through the plains of southern Saskatchewan, southeastern Alberta and south-central Alberta.^[3] Named by N.B. Davis in 1918,^[1] the formation is characterized by white kaolinitic clay and is a source of high-quality refractory clay.^[1]^[4] The type locality has been designated as Dempster's clay pit northwest of Eastend, Saskatchewan.^[5]

The Late Cretaceous is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous period is divided in the geologic timescale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous series. The Cretaceous is named after the white limestone known as chalk which occurs widely in northern France and is seen in the white cliffs of south-eastern England, and which dates from this time.

The Maastrichtian is, in the ICS geologic timescale, the latest age of the Late Cretaceous epoch or Upper Cretaceous series, the Cretaceous period or system, and of the Mesozoic era or erathem. It spanned the interval from 72.1 to 66 million years ago. The Maastrichtian was preceded by the Campanian and succeeded by the Danian.

The Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin (WCSB) is a vast sedimentary basin underlying 1,400,000 square kilometres (540,000 sq mi) of Western Canada including southwestern Manitoba, southern Saskatchewan, Alberta, northeastern British Columbia and the southwest corner of the Northwest Territories. It consists of a massive wedge of sedimentary rock extending from the Rocky Mountains in the west to the Canadian Shield in the east. This wedge is about 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) thick under the Rocky Mountains, but thins to zero at its eastern margins. The WCSB contains one of the world's largest reserves of petroleum and natural gas and supplies much of the North American market, producing more than 16,000,000,000 cubic feet (450,000,000 m³) per day of gas in 2000. It also has huge reserves of coal. Of the provinces and territories within the WCSB, Alberta has most of the oil and gas reserves and almost all of the oil sands.

A fossil is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in amber, hair, petrified wood, oil, coal, and DNA remnants. The totality of fossils is known as the fossil record.

Feces, colloquially known as poop, are the solid or semisolid remains of the food that could not be digested in the small intestine. Bacteria in the large intestine further break down the material. Feces contain a relatively small amount of metabolic waste products such as bacterially altered bilirubin, and the dead epithelial cells from the lining of the gut.

Fish are gill-bearing aquatic craniate animals that lack limbs with digits. They form a sister group to the tunicates, together forming the olfactores. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Tetrapods emerged within lobe-finned fishes, so cladistically they are fish as well. However, traditionally fish are rendered paraphyletic by excluding the tetrapods. Because in this manner the term "fish" is defined negatively as a paraphyletic group, it is not considered a formal taxonomic grouping in systematic biology, unless it is used in the cladistic sense, including tetrapods. The traditional term pisces is considered a typological, but not a phylogenetic classification.

Lithology

In most areas the formation can be subdivided into three units:

Lower: Medium-grained arkosic and kaolinitic sandstones with trough cross-bedding.
Middle: Brown fissile carbonaceous shales and siltstones, with thin lignite beds.
Upper: Clays and siltstones, with some thinner, tabular units of simple and planar cross-bedded kaolinitic sandstones.^[4]^[7]

Grain size is the diameter of individual grains of sediment, or the lithified particles in clastic rocks. The term may also be applied to other granular materials. This is different from the crystallite size, which refers to the size of a single crystal inside a particle or grain. A single grain can be composed of several crystals. Granular material can range from very small colloidal particles, through clay, silt, sand, gravel, and cobbles, to boulders.

Arkose is a detrital sedimentary rock, specifically a type of sandstone containing at least 25% feldspar. Arkosic sand is sand that is similarly rich in feldspar, and thus the potential precursor of arkose.

Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized mineral particles or rock fragments.

In southwestern Alberta around the Red Deer and Oldman Rivers, the middle carbonaceous shale unit is absent and the formation consists of white-weathering, cross-bedded kaolinitic sandstones interbedded with white- to cream-weathering silty and sandy clay.^[7]

The Red Deer River is a river in Alberta and a small portion of Saskatchewan, Canada. It is a major tributary of the South Saskatchewan River and is part of the larger Saskatchewan-Nelson system that empties into Hudson Bay.

The Oldman River is a river in southern Alberta, Canada. It flows roughly west to east from the Rocky Mountains, through the communities of Fort Macleod, Lethbridge, and on to Grassy Lake, where it joins with the Bow River to form the South Saskatchewan River, which eventually drains into the Hudson Bay.

Environment of Deposition

Sedimentology and fossils indicate that the Whitemud sediments accumulated in river channels, low-gradient streams, and shallow lakes and ponds on a low-lying coastal plain. Its kaolinite was produced by intense chemical weathering that altered the original feldspar content to kaolinite during and after deposition.^[4]

Sedimentology encompasses the study of modern sediments such as sand, silt, and clay, and the processes that result in their formation, transport, deposition and diagenesis. Sedimentologists apply their understanding of modern processes to interpret geologic history through observations of sedimentary rocks and sedimentary structures.

Stream gradient is the grade measured by the ratio of drop in elevation of a stream per unit horizontal distance, usually expressed as meters per kilometer or feet per mile.

A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, that is surrounded by land, apart from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, and therefore are distinct from lagoons, and are also larger and deeper than ponds, though there are no official or scientific definitions. Lakes can be contrasted with rivers or streams, which are usually flowing. Most lakes are fed and drained by rivers and streams.

Paleontology

Plant fossils and palynomorphs found in the carbonaceous shales indicate the presence of aquatic plants such as water lilies, as well as trees and shrubs related to figs, hickories and redwoods.^[4]

Aquatic plants are plants that have adapted to living in aquatic environments. They are also referred to as hydrophytes or macrophytes. A macrophyte is an aquatic plant that grows in or near water and is either emergent, submergent, or floating, and includes helophytes. In lakes and rivers macrophytes provide cover for fish and substrate for aquatic invertebrates, produce oxygen, and act as food for some fish and wildlife.

Nymphaeaceae is a family of flowering plants, commonly called water lilies. They live as rhizomatous aquatic herbs in temperate and tropical climates around the world. The family contains five genera with about 70 known species. Water lilies are rooted in soil in bodies of water, with leaves and flowers floating on or emergent from the surface. The leaves are round, with a radial notch in Nymphaea and Nuphar, but fully circular in Victoria and Euryale.

In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, supporting branches and leaves in most species. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are usable as lumber or plants above a specified height. Trees are not a taxonomic group but include a variety of plant species that have independently evolved a woody trunk and branches as a way to tower above other plants to compete for sunlight. Trees tend to be long-lived, some reaching several thousand years old. In wider definitions, the taller palms, tree ferns, bananas, and bamboos are also trees. Trees have been in existence for 370 million years. It is estimated that there are just over 3 trillion mature trees in the world.

Coprolites provide the only evidence of vertebrates. In southern Saskatchewan the formation contains scattered coprolites that represent feces of fish, most probably sturgeons. The feces have been preserved due to the replacement of the original fecal material by goethite, siderite and other iron minerals. They typically range in length from about 2 to 10 cm (1 to 4 in), although specimens as long as 23 cm (9 in) have been reported. A variety of coiled and uncoiled morphologies have been described, and some spiral forms with intricate systems of internal folds are thought to represent fossilized intestines containing feces that were unexpelled when the fishes died.^[6]^[8]

Relationship to Other Units

The Whitemud Formation is part of the Edmonton Group. It rests conformably on the Eastend Formation in Saskatchewan and in the Cypress Hills area; on the Horseshoe Canyon Formation in the Drumheller area; and on the St. Mary River Formation in the Oldman River area. In southeastern Saskatchewan it is unconformably overlain by the Frenchman Formation; and in all other areas it is conformably overlain by the Battle Formation.^[7]

Related Research Articles

The Frenchman Formation is stratigraphic unit of Late Cretaceous age in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. It is present in southern Saskatchewan and the Cypress Hills of southeastern Alberta. The formation was defined by G.M. Furnival in 1942 from observations of outcrops along the Frenchman River, between Ravenscrag and Highway 37. It contains the youngest of dinosaur genera, much like the Hell Creek Formation in the United States.

The Bearpaw Formation, also called the Bearpaw Shale, is a geologic formation of Late Cretaceous (Campanian) age. It outcrops in the U.S. state of Montana, as well as the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, and was named for the Bear Paw Mountains in Montana. It includes a wide range of marine fossils, as well as the remains of a few dinosaurs. It is known for its fossil ammonites, some of which are mined in Alberta to produce the organic gemstone ammolite.

The Belly River Formation is a stratigraphical unit of Late Cretaceous age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin.

The Foremost Formation is a stratigraphic unit of Late Cretaceous (Campanian) age that underlies much of southern Alberta, Canada. It was named for outcrops in Chin Coulee near the town of Foremost and is known primarily for its dinosaur remains and other fossils.

The Wapiti Formation is a geological formation of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin in northwestern Alberta, and Northeastern British Columbia, Canada. Its deposition spanned the time interval from Late Cretaceous to early Paleocene, and it includes sediments that were deposited before, during, and after the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) extinction event. It was named by G.M. Dawson in 1881, presumably for exposures along the lower part of the Wapiti River and downstream along the Smoky River in Alberta.

The St. Mary River Formation is a geologic formation of Late Cretaceous age of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin in southwestern Alberta and northwesternmost Montana. It was first described from outcrops along the St. Mary River by George Mercer Dawson in 1883, and it takes its name from the river.

The Willow Creek Formation is a stratigraphic unit of Late Cretaceous to Early Paleocene age in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin of southwestern Alberta. It was first described by George Mercer Dawson in 1883 along the Willow Creek, a tributary of the Oldman River. Williams and Dyer defined the type section in 1930 at the mouth of Willow Creek, east of Fort Macleod.

The Nikanassin Formation is a stratigraphic unit of Late Jurassic (Portlandian) to Early Cretaceous (Barremian) age. It is present along the western edge of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin in western Alberta and northeastern British Columbia. Its name was first proposed by D.B. Dowling in 1909 (Coal Fields South of Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, in the foothills of the Rocky Mountain, Alberta Page 140 paragraph 4 " to this it is proposed to give the name Nikanassin, from the Cree word meaning outer range" Also it is noted on the map by D.B. Dowling.(Geological Survey of Canada. Incorrect info follows: It was named by B.R. MacKay in 1929 for the Nikanassin Range of the front-central ranges of the Canadian Rockies. Mackay did not designate a type locality for the formation, although he described outcrops near the hamlet of Brûlé, north of the Yellowhead Highway outside of Jasper National Park.

The Cardium Formation is a stratigraphic unit of Late Cretaceous age in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. It takes the name from the fossilized Cockle (Cardiidae) shells that it contains, and it was first described along the Bow River banks by James Hector in 1895. It is present throughout western Alberta and in northeastern British Columbia, and it is a major source of petroleum and natural gas.

Bullhead Group is a stratigraphic unit of Lower Cretaceous age in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin of northeastern British Columbia and western Alberta. It was first defined by F.H. McLearn in 1918 as the Bullhead Mountain Formation, but later was upgraded to group status. It consists of the Cadomin and Gething Formations, although some early workers included the Bluesky Formation and others in the group.

The Mist Mountain Formation is a latest Jurassic to earliest Cretaceous geologic formation in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin of southeastern British Columbia and southwestern Alberta. It was named for outcrops along a western spur of Mist Mountain in the Canadian Rockies of Alberta. It contains economically important coal reserves that are mined in southeastern British Columbia.

The Edmonton Group is a Late Cretaceous to early Paleocene stratigraphic unit of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin in the central Alberta plains. It was first described as the Edmonton Formation by Joseph Burr Tyrrell in 1887 based on outcrops along the North Saskatchewan River in and near the city of Edmonton. E.J.W. Irish later elevated the formation to group status and it was subdivided into four separate formations. In ascending order, they are the Horseshoe Canyon, Whitemud, Battle and Scollard Formations. The Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary occurs within the Scollard Formation, based on dinosaurian and microfloral evidence, as well as the presence of the terminal Cretaceous iridium anomaly.

The Gravelbourg Formation is a stratigraphical unit of Bajocian age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin.

The Eastend Formation is a stratigraphical unit of Maastrichtian age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin.

The Morrissey Formation is a stratigraphic unit of Late Jurassic (Portlandian) age in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. It is named for outcrops on Morrissey Ridge, 16 kilometres (10 mi) southeast of Fernie, British Columbia, and is present in southeastern British Columbia and southwestern Alberta.

The Monach Formation is a geologic formation of Early Cretaceous (Valanginian) age in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin that consists primarily of sandstone. It is present in the northern foothills of the Canadian Rockies and the adjacent plains in northeastern British Columbia.

The Monteith Formation is a geologic formation of Early Cretaceous (Valanginian) age in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin that consists primarily of sandstone. It is present in the northern foothills of the Canadian Rockies and the adjacent plains in northeastern British Columbia and west-central Alberta.

The Battle Formation is a geologic formation of Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) age in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. It is present throughout much of the central Alberta plains, where it is an important stratigraphic marker in the nonmarine Upper Cretaceous sequence. It was formally named by G.M. Furnival in 1942 and given formation status by E.J.W. Irish in 1970.

The Bickford Formation is a geologic formation of Early Cretaceous (Valanginian) age in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin that consists primarily of nonmarine sediments. It is present in the northern foothills of the Canadian Rockies in northeastern British Columbia.

The Blood Reserve Formation, also known as the Blood Reserve Sandstone, is a geologic formation of Late Cretaceous (Campanian) age in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. It is present in southwestern Alberta, Canada, and was named for Blood Indian Reserve No. 148 by L.S. Russell in 1932. It is an aquifer and a source of fresh groundwater.

References

1 2 3 Davis, N.B., 1918. Report on the clay resources of southern Saskatchewan. Canada Department of Mines, Report 468, p. 9.
↑ Mossop, G.D. and Shetsen, I. (compilers), Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists (1994). "The Geological Atlas of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin, Chapter 24: Upper Cretaceous and Tertiary strata of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin" . Retrieved 2016-06-20.
↑ Prior, G. J., Hathaway, B., Glombick, P.M., Pana, D.I., Banks, C.J., Hay, D.C., Schneider, C.L., Grobe, M., Elgr, R., and Weiss, J.A. (2013). "Bedrock Geology of Alberta. Alberta Geological Survey, Map 600" . Retrieved 2016-06-20.
1 2 3 4 Lerbekmo, J.F. 1985. Magnetostratigraphic and biostratigraphic correlations of Maastrichtian to early Paleocene strata between south-central Alberta and southwestern Saskatchewan. Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology, vol. 33, no. 2, p. 213-266.
↑ Kupsch, W.O. 1956. The Frenchman Formation of the eastern Cypress Hills, Saskatchewan. Geological Society of America Bulletin, vol. 6a, p. 413-420.
1 2 Broughton, P.L., Simpson, F. and Whittaker, S.H. 1977. Late Cretaceous coprolites from southern Saskatchewan: Comments on excretion plasticity and ichnological nomenclature. Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology, vol. 25, no. 5, p. 1097-1099.
1 2 3 Glass, D.J. (editor) 1997. Lexicon of Canadian Stratigraphy, vol. 4, Western Canada including eastern British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and southern Manitoba. Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists, Calgary, 1423 p. on CD-ROM. ISBN 0-920230-23-7.
↑ Broughton, P.L., Simpson, F. and Whittaker, S.H. 1978. Late Cretaceous coprolites from western Canada. Palaeontology, vol. 21, pt. 2, p. 443-453, plates 43 & 44.

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[Davis-1] 1 2 3 Davis, N.B., 1918. Report on the clay resources of southern Saskatchewan. Canada Department of Mines, Report 468, p. 9.

[Mossop24-2] Mossop, G.D. and Shetsen, I. (compilers), Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists (1994). "The Geological Atlas of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin, Chapter 24: Upper Cretaceous and Tertiary strata of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin" . Retrieved 2016-06-20.

[Map600-3] Prior, G. J., Hathaway, B., Glombick, P.M., Pana, D.I., Banks, C.J., Hay, D.C., Schneider, C.L., Grobe, M., Elgr, R., and Weiss, J.A. (2013). "Bedrock Geology of Alberta. Alberta Geological Survey, Map 600" . Retrieved 2016-06-20.

[Lerbekmo-4] 1 2 3 4 Lerbekmo, J.F. 1985. Magnetostratigraphic and biostratigraphic correlations of Maastrichtian to early Paleocene strata between south-central Alberta and southwestern Saskatchewan. Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology, vol. 33, no. 2, p. 213-266.

[5] Kupsch, W.O. 1956. The Frenchman Formation of the eastern Cypress Hills, Saskatchewan. Geological Society of America Bulletin, vol. 6a, p. 413-420.

[Broughton-6] 1 2 Broughton, P.L., Simpson, F. and Whittaker, S.H. 1977. Late Cretaceous coprolites from southern Saskatchewan: Comments on excretion plasticity and ichnological nomenclature. Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology, vol. 25, no. 5, p. 1097-1099.

[Glass-7] 1 2 3 Glass, D.J. (editor) 1997. Lexicon of Canadian Stratigraphy, vol. 4, Western Canada including eastern British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and southern Manitoba. Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists, Calgary, 1423 p. on CD-ROM. ISBN 0-920230-23-7.

[Broughton2-8] Broughton, P.L., Simpson, F. and Whittaker, S.H. 1978. Late Cretaceous coprolites from western Canada. Palaeontology, vol. 21, pt. 2, p. 443-453, plates 43 & 44.