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| Paskapoo groundwater study part IV: detailed outcrop measured sections of the Paskapoo formation in the Red Deer region, Alberta |
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| Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 5535, 2007, 20 pages; 1 CD-ROM, Open Access |
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| The Paskapoo Formation, of Paleocene age, is an important, but poorly understood groundwater aquifer in western Alberta, and is now emerging as a shallow gas reservoir. Because the Paskapoo represents the bedrock at surface over its area of occurrence, and has not previously been a major hydrocarbon target, there has been little study of outcrop or subsurface data. This report summarizes outcrop fieldwork along the Red Deer River, in an east-west transect, both eastward and westward of the city of Red Deer, where Paskapoo rocks are intermittently exposed. In this report, the information is presented as 12 standard measured sections, with text descriptions of units and paleocurrent data, which (from east to west) approximate a continuous succession of the lower and middle portions of the formation. The lower Paskapoo is characterized by thick, multi-storied fluvial channel sandstones (Haynes Member) with dispersal toward the east-northeast. The middle Paskapoo comprises primarily thinly interbedded siltstones and sandstones (Lacombe Member) also with dispersal toward the east-northeast. This report is meant to be complementary to two other Open File reports: one on the Paskapoo (and related stratigraphic units) of the Calgary region (GSC OF 5536), and a second describing relevant cores in the central Alberta region (GSC OF 5537). |
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