ABSTRACT

Outcrop exposures of the Peace River Formation in northwestern Alberta contain evidence of significant relative sea-level fluctuations that occurred during the middle to late Albian. These include Paddy Member channels that incised into the Cadotte Member shoreline deposits and the subsequent estuarine-frill. The upper Cadotte Member contact is irregular and siderite-cemented; it has been scoured into and infilled by sandstone of the Paddy Member. The lower sandstone of the Paddy Member is crossbedded, with abundant comminuted, carbonaceous debris. Channels cut into the Cadotte Member are up to 5 m deep and are locally overlain by in situ coal and roots. The channels are infilled with alternating couplets of moderately to intensely bioturbated sand and mud which form inclined h terolithic stratification: mud plugs are also present. Internally these sands are ripple and parallel cross-laminated. This part of the Paddy Member is interpreted as estuarine fill that resulted from a relative sea-level rise. The channel fill is overlain by intensely bioturbated, locally rooted, finely interbedded sandstone, siltstone and shale, with minor reworked bentonites, interpreted as tidal flat deposits. Tidal flat sediments are overlain by 2 to 3 m of scoured, parallel-laminated sandstone and capped by 1.5 m of planar-tabular crossbedded sandstone interpreted as shoreface and transgressive, estuary-mouth deposits, respectively. Evidence for tides throughout the Paddy Member includes inclined heterolithic stratification, mud couplets, reactivation surfaces, reversing paleoflows and compound crossbeds. The incised channels and related fill are correlative with a sequence of paleosols 300 km southwest in the Boulder Creek Formation. A brackish influence is indicated by the presence of a few species of peridinioid dinoflagellates occurring in abundance at certain levels and the trace fossil assemblage. The Paddy Member is overlain by marine mudstone of the Shaftesbury Formation. A 20 to 30 cm thick, wave-rippled layer of fish teeth, fish bones and pebbles, near the base of the Shaftesbury Formation, can be traced along the Peace River for at least 75 km. The layer of fish remains is interpreted as transgressive lag.