ABSTRACT

A scheme of nomenclature is proposed for the rocks of the Upper Devonian Fairholme group in the Front Ranges and Plains of southern Alberta. Up to the present, the terminologies used for the surface and subsurface in this area have been independent. It is now proposed, by giving the same name to equivalent rock units at the outcrop and in the subsurface, to indicate their believed continuity.

The Southesk formation of the Mountains is extended to the southern Alberta Plains. The informal members of the Southesk formation are named and extended to the equivalent units in the subsurface as follows:

The Cairn formation, already used in both the Mountains and southern Alberta Plains, is subdivided in the subsurface into a 'Lower member which is the lateral extension of the Cooking Lake, and an Upper member, previously indentified as the 'stromatoporoid limestone and dolomite unit'.