Abstract

An integrated magnetostratigraphic and palynostratigraphic study of the continental, mostly lower Paleocene upper Coalspur and middle to upper Paleocene Paskapoo Formation was carried out in the Coal Valley to Hinton area of west-central Alberta. Magnetostratigraphic samples were taken from 2 cores and one outcrop in the Coal Valley Mine, a roadcut at Coalspur, the Bryan Creek Mine pit near Robb, 13 outcrop locations, and 4 cores in the Hinton-Obed Mountain area (totaling 313 samples). About 300 palynostratigraphic samples were taken from cores and outcrops within Coal Valley Mine, Coalspur roadcut, Bryan Creek Mine, the Hinton area and Obed Mountain and vicinity. Sample localities were structurally fitted into a composite Paleocene section from the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary to the top of the No. 1 coal in the Obed Mountain Mine, totaling about 300 m of upper Coalspur and about 770 m of Paskapoo Formation. The section encompasses parts of magnetozones 29r to 24r and palynozones Wodehouseia spinata Zone, Aquilapollenites reticulatus Subzone through the Pistillipollenites mcgregorii Zone. Preserved sediment accumulation rates were up to about 250 m per m.y., but averaged much less due to hiatuses. These hiatuses involve the omission of parts of magnetochrons 28r, 28n and 27r in the Arbour-Val d’Or coal zone, 27n at the base of the Paskapoo, and 26n in the upper Paskapoo, totaling at least 2.2 m.y.