About This Item

Share This Item

The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database

Rocky Mountain Section (SEPM)

Abstract


Paleozoic Systems of the Rocky Mountain Region, 1996
Pages 193-211

Regional Stratigraphic and Facies Relationships in the Mission Canyon Formation, North Dakota Portion of the Williston Basin

David M. Petty

Abstract

The Mission Canyon Formation in the Williston Basin can be subdivided into a hierarchical arrangement of stratigraphic units (zones, subintervals and intervals) defined by bounding Previous HitdiscontinuitiesTop which are expressed as marker beds on logs. Zones are the thinnest mappable stratigraphic units in the Mission Canyon. Zone-bounding marker beds are generally subtle but in some cases, zones can be correlated over areas as large as 5000+ sq km. Subintervals, defined by widespread marker beds, are generally 10 to 30 m thick and are mappable in peritidal facies throughout the Williston Basin. Intervals are third-order stratigraphic cycles which consist mostly of a thick regressive sequence. A thin transgressive section caps each interval and continues into the basal portion of the overlying interval. Interval tops occur at widespread transgressive surfaces of erosion within these transgressive sections. The Frobisher-Alida and Tilston intervals comprise the Mission Canyon, mappable over much of the northern Rocky Mountains.

The seven facies defined in the Mission Canyon range from facies I and II, deposited in evaporitic and lagoonal environments; to facies IIIa and IIIb, deposited in shoal-island environments; to facies IV and V, deposited in low-energy, restricted-marine and open-marine environments; to facies VI, deposited in an open-marine, high-energy environment. Three aggradation/progradation styles (aggradational, slow progradational and rapid progradational) are defined in subintervals in the Mission Canyon. Aggradation occurred in areas that underwent more rapid subsidence (north-central North Dakota) than areas that underwent slow to rapid progradation (southwest North Dakota). Subfacies development in facies IIIa shoal-islands can be related to depositional styles. On aggradational subintervals, an ooid-pisoid subfacies developed seaward of an intraclast-ooid-pisoid subfacies and landward of a skeletal-intraclast subfacies. On slow progradational subintervals, the ooid-pisoid subfacies is absent and on rapid progradational subintervals, the skeletal-intraclast subfacies is the only subfacies developed.


Pay-Per-View Purchase Options

The article is available through a document delivery service. Explain these Purchase Options.

Watermarked PDF Document: $14
Open PDF Document: $24