ABSTRACT

Three partial sections of upper Horseshoe Canyon, Whitemud, Battle and Scollard formations at Horseshoe Canyon, Scollard Canyon and east of Wood Lake, in the southern, central and northern areas, respectively, of the Red Deer Valley were compared magnetostratigraphically.

With polarity zone boundaries 30r-30 and 31-30r used as time horizons, it is concluded that the Whitemud-Battle contact is the best lithologic time horizon in these sections (better than the Kneehills Tuff), and the No. 12 coal seam at Scollard Canyon is approximately coeval with the Carbon (No. 11) seam at Horseshoe Canyon. Chemical analysis of interbedded bentonites confirms the inter-sectional correlation of the Ardley (No. 14) coal seam. Palynological evidence coupled with the absence of polarity zone 29r at Wood Lake indicates that the reduction in thickness of the lower Scollard Formation by more than fifty per cent in the Wood Lake section is due to a single disconformity at the base of a sandstone 8.5 m below the Ardley seam.

CORRELATION MAGNETOSTRATIGRAPHIQUE ET LITHOSTRATIGRAPHIQUE DES COUCHES DE CHARBON ET DES COUCHES ADJACENTES, FORMATION HORSESHOE CANYON SUPERIEUR ET SCOLLARD (MAASRICHTIEN A PALEOCENE), VALLEE RED DEER, ALBERTA

RESUME

Trois profils partiels des formations Horseshoe Canyon superieur, Whitemud, Battle et Scollard aux canyons Horseshoe, Scollard et a l'Est du lac Wood, respectivement des regions Sud, central et Nord de la vallee Red Deer ont ete compares du point de vue de leur magnetostratigraphie.

L'utilisation des limites des zones de polarite 30r-30 et 31-30r comme repere chronologique a permis de conclure que le contact entre les formations Whitemud et Battle est le meilleur niveau litho-et chronostratigraphique repere (mieux que le tuf Kneehills), et que la couche de charbon No. 12 au canyon Scollard est a peu pres contemporain a la couche de charbon Carbon (No. 11) du canyon Horseshoe. L'analyse chimique des bentonites interstratifiees renforce la correlation, entre les profils, des couches de charbon Ardley (No. 14). La combinaison des donnees palynologiques et l'absence de la zone de polarite 29r au lac Wood indiquent, que la diminution en epaisseur de plus de 50% de la formation Scollard inferieur dans le profil Wood Lake est cause par une seule disconformite a la base du gres 8.5 m plus bas que la couche de charbon Ardley.

Traduit par A. Zolnai