2. Dr. Tark Hamilton Camosun College
Sedimentary Geology Geos 240 – Chapter 4 The Stratigraphic-Sedimentological Database
Dr. Tark Hamilton
Camosun College

3. Hoodoos: Late Cretaceous Clastics Edmonton Group: Drumheller, Alberta
The Hoodoos south of Drumheller. Upper Cretaceous Edmonton Group. The KT boundary is near the top of the cliff here. Underlying dark beds are marine shales from the end of the Cannonball epicontinental sea this is the equvalent of the Bearpaw shale in Saskatchewan and the Pierre Shale south of the International border. This marine tongue belongs to the Horseshoe Canyon Formation. It contains orthocone ammonites and belemnites. Light coloured overlying beds belong to the continental fluvio-lacustrine system which succeeded the regression that ended the Cannon ball sea. The former name was the Whitemud Formation/Battelle Member. They contain dinosaur bones to near the top of the cliff.
Hoodoos: Late Cretaceous Clastics Edmonton Group: Drumheller, Alberta

4. uK Edmonton Group “Pierre” Skip to 13
Eberth, D A, 2004, Revised Stratigraphy of the Edmonton Group (Upper Cretaceous) in the Bearpaw-Horseshoe Canyon transition, (for: PetroCanada Field Trip, October 2004).
(This document is copyrighted and all of the figures reproduced above are the property of D. Eberth and Royall Tyrell Museum)
“Pierre”
Skip to 13

5. uK Edmonton Group (Drumheller)
Eberth, D A, 2004, Revised Stratigraphy of the Edmonton Group (Upper Cretaceous) in the Bearpaw-Horseshoe Canyon transition, (for: PetroCanada Field Trip, October 2004).
(This document is copyrighted and all of the figures reproduced above are the property of D. Eberth and Royall Tyrell Museum)

6. uK Edmonton Group (Drumheller)
Eberth, D A, 2004, Revised Stratigraphy of the Edmonton Group (Upper Cretaceous) in the Bearpaw-Horseshoe Canyon transition, (for: PetroCanada Field Trip, October 2004).
(This document is copyrighted and all of the figures reproduced above are the property of D. Eberth and Royall Tyrell Museum)

7. uK Edmonton Group (Drumheller)
Eberth, D A, 2004, Revised Stratigraphy of the Edmonton Group (Upper Cretaceous) in the Bearpaw-Horseshoe Canyon transition, (for: PetroCanada Field Trip, October 2004).
(This document is copyrighted and all of the figures reproduced above are the property of D. Eberth and Royall Tyrell Museum)

8. uK Edmonton Group (Drumheller)
Eberth, D A, 2004, Revised Stratigraphy of the Edmonton Group (Upper Cretaceous) in the Bearpaw-Horseshoe Canyon transition, (for: PetroCanada Field Trip, October 2004).
(This document is copyrighted and all of the figures reproduced above are the property of D. Eberth and Royall Tyrell Museum)

9. uK Edmonton Group (Drumheller)
Eberth, D A, 2004, Revised Stratigraphy of the Edmonton Group (Upper Cretaceous) in the Bearpaw-Horseshoe Canyon transition, (for: PetroCanada Field Trip, October 2004).
(This document is copyrighted and all of the figures reproduced above are the property of D. Eberth and Royall Tyrell Museum)

10. uK Edmonton Group (Drumheller)
Eberth, D A, 2004, Revised Stratigraphy of the Edmonton Group (Upper Cretaceous) in the Bearpaw-Horseshoe Canyon transition, (for: PetroCanada Field Trip, October 2004).
(This document is copyrighted and all of the figures reproduced above are the property of D. Eberth and Royall Tyrell Museum)
Stratigraphy is interpreted from, lithology, sedimentary structures, fossils to obtain facies and the reasons behind stratigraphic breaks and changes.

11. uK Edmonton Group (Drumheller)
Eberth, D A, 2004, Revised Stratigraphy of the Edmonton Group (Upper Cretaceous) in the Bearpaw-Horseshoe Canyon transition, (for: PetroCanada Field Trip, October 2004).
(This document is copyrighted and all of the figures reproduced above are the property of D. Eberth and Royall Tyrell Museum)

12. uK Edmonton Group (Drumheller)
Eberth, D A, 2004, Revised Stratigraphy of the Edmonton Group (Upper Cretaceous) in the Bearpaw-Horseshoe Canyon transition, (for: PetroCanada Field Trip, October 2004).
(This document is copyrighted and all of the figures reproduced above are the property of D. Eberth and Royall Tyrell Museum)

13. Field Descripton Chart: Lamination, Grain Size, Shape, Sorting
vcU: very coarse Unlaminated, vcL: very coarse Laminated
cU: coarse unlaminated, cU: coarse Laminated
mU: medium Unlaminated, mL: medium Laminated
fU: fine Unlaminated, fL: fine Laminated
vfU: very fine Unlaminated, vfL: very fine Laminated

14. Grain size is usually described with Wentworth’s Phi Scale
Grain size is usually described with Wentworth’s Phi Scale. Phi is the log of the grain size in mm (Bastard engineering units with mathematical functions of numbers having dimensionality!). Negative phi values are pebbles and coarser, neg -1<sand<+4 or 2 mm to 63 microns, +4<silt<+9 or 63 microns to 2 microns. Note distinct nomenclature for siliciclastics versus carbonates. Thus rudite-arenite-lutite in carbonates is equivalent to pebbles-sand-silt in clastics. A particle of -11 phi is a boulder such as might be moved by a debris flow, a glacier or a volcanic eruption. It takes a honking great windstorm to move coarse sand, but only a small wave or a drifting ice pan!

15. Sorting & Grading in Sandstones & Conglomerates
A. Crossbedded continental Jurassic Navajo sandstone for other photos see subsequent blow ups and captions.

16. A. Crossbedded continental Jurassic Navajo sansdtone
A. Crossbedded continental Jurassic Navajo sansdtone. Red weathering colours and coarse crossbeds indicate a subaerial desert deposit. Reversing crossbed directions indicate changing wind patterns. Since the tops of all of these beds are erosionally truncated, the dunes that formed them were several meters tall.

17. B. Feldspathic wacke, matrix supported pebbly arkose
B. Feldspathic wacke, matrix supported pebbly arkose. Lenticular bedding on a small scale indicate many small grain flows down a channel or a chute. These beds are somewhat graded and the feldspathic layers may be lags or intermittent higher energy sediment flows.

18. C. Matrix (coarse sand to pebbles) supported, lithic sedimentary breccia. Talus, rock avalanche deposit, debris flow.
Probably not a tillite as there are no rounded clasts, all angular and most of the larger clasts seem to be of a single lithology.

19. D. Red honeycomb weathering indicates oxidized poorly cemented continental sediments as does the coarse grain size and dipping channel fill section. These grain supported gravels and sands are probably L-bar T-bar deposits in an arid, proximal setting.

20. E. Matrix supported, graded conglomerate
E. Matrix supported, graded conglomerate. Because of the laminated beds below and the channels carved into the top of this bed by subsequent sands above, this is probably a basal, proximal turbidite. Note the rounding of some of the clasts indicates some degree of abrasion and transport. This conglomerate is heterolithic, containing more than one type of clast. Probably deep water but near to a steep submarine slope.

21. F. Massive, matrix supported conglomeratic lithic wacke
F. Massive, matrix supported conglomeratic lithic wacke. Reverse grading suggests a debris flow or lahar in a longitudinal section of a continental proximal channel.

22. Table 4.2: Stratification Thicknesses
Bedding Description Range Symbol
Very Thickly B edded > 1 m VTK
Thickly Bedded cm THK
Medium Bedded cm M
Thinly Bedded cm THN
Very Thinly Bedded 1-3 cm VTN
Thickly Laminated cm TKL
Thinly Laminated <0.3 cm TNL

23. Bedding & Lamination
These are all clastics but could equally well apply to carbonates, evaporites, coals or pyroclastics. See Table4.2 for symbols. Bedding variation is characteristic to the interplay of environmental conditions such as seasonal floods versus ongoing low river flow or tidal cycles separated by intermittent storm beds. Varving occurs in glacial lakes between sudden break up and summer melt water flows. Turbidites vary according to energy and sediment delivery.

24. THN ?
A. I think the M should be THN judging from the hammer handle.

25. M ?
X-beds
C. I think the THK should be M judging from the ~5 cm lens cap. Part of this is perception due o the weathering. It really is Medium bedded but with VTN crossbeds see base of bed labelled THK. Under the VTN appears to be a lag in a lens from a deflation surface. I think this is all eolian.

26. E. Medium bedded but VTN to TKL within the sandy beds
E. Medium bedded but VTN to TKL within the sandy beds. The recessive weathering beds are shaly and compacted rather than cemented.

27. G. Thickly Laminated silts or muds. Possibley lacustrine or deltaic.

28. Cross- Stratification in Outcrop & Drill Core
Bedding is horizontal, cross bedding from ripples or dune foresets is inclined. This is caused by migrating bedforms and erosional truncation before the establishment of another bedform on top of that.

29. Downwards concave crossbeds Truncated at their base
Downwards concave crossbeds, truncated at their bases show overturned beds in this folded section beneath a thrust fault.
Downwards concave crossbeds
Truncated at their base
(overturned drag fold beneath thrust)

30. Soft Sediment Deformation of Crossbedding
Tractive shear or overlying failure and downslope transport can shear unconsolidated beds below. This is common on the edge of channels in riverine and deltaic environments and at the offshore edge of sand sheets related to bars. In the former it is more common to have deformed shales and coals than sands.

31. Bounding Surfaces, Channels, Scour & Second Order Cycles in Outcrop
Most of these boundaries were carved by channel incision by flowing water and later infilled by subsequent sediment laden flow or sea level/base level rise.
For the Sequence Boundary: see p 264 F.12.4 This is Tippecanoe over Sauk, e.g. Upper Ordovician-Silurian (Like Niagara escarpment) over Upper Cambrian through Middle Ordovician Carbonates.
The Eolian deflation surface has ventifacts and clasts below where winnowing has removed finer sands. This is further enhanced by iron oxide cementation at a later water table stillstand. Dune cross bedding to the right continues above. This kind of interruption is common in ergs (desert sequences).

33. In deltas, distributary channels find their way down the delta foreslope but directions are influenced both by river flow and by currents and tides if in a marine basin. Thus deltaic channels can cut obliquely down the regional slope

34. Channel sand above channel base, overbank silts or crevasse splays above this and to left.

35. Lenticular bedding with curved bases and flat tops indicates deposition in channels. Usually the flood cuts the channel and as waters subside and slow, deposition occurs in the newly cut channel. Once filled, stream flow determines where the new channel is cut, so these tend to occur in stacks or clumps that are longer than they are wide, just like a stream or river.

36. Tippecanoe
Sauk
Quarry in SW Newfoundland. For the Sequence Boundary: see p 264 F.12.4 This is Tippecanoe over Sauk, e.g. Upper Ordovician-Silurian (Like Niagara escarpment) over Upper Cambrian through Middle Ordovician Carbonates. While not a particularly impressive looking line in this photo, this erosional surface (unconformity) can be correlated across 2/3 of North America past the Grand Canyon to the Marble Mountains of Nevada.

37. Deflation surfaces, even in deserts are controlled by the water table
Deflation surfaces, even in deserts are controlled by the water table. Above this dry grains winnow, below surface tension holds grains in place. This is the lowest erosion and the base for dune migration. Note ventifacts (angular wind polished rocks) as clasts in the top of the eroded underlying beds. They are a lag from removing whole dunes worth of sediment.

38. Scour by turbidity currents erodes shelf edges & forms submarine canyons
There are submarine canyons that follow the thalweg of fjords and also that depart from river mouths to wind their way across the deep ocean floor for hundreds of kilometers. Channelization is most evident close to the Continental Slope – Abyssal Plain break in slope.

39. Intra-formational structures in carbonate rocks and evaporite sequences caused by lowstand, regression or exposure and weathering such as hardground karst. Often the coarsest most permeable beds selectively dolomitize, leaving finer grained interbeds of calcite mud. Later solutions may dissolve these and form collapses or microkarst if the section becomes raiesd above sea level or local base level. Usually both dolomitization, intraformational conglomerates and karst are controlled by bedding planes and selective lithologies. Hardground are non-depositional marine or erosional exposed karst surfaces. Red hardgrounds occur subaerially where windblown dust delivers iron oxides. These could even originate by deflation of carbonates with a few percent Fe, but usually thery are from more distant sources by seasonal eolian processes as in Sahara winds delivering red dust to the Bahamas today on the other side of the Atlantic.

40. Intra-formational structures in carbonate rocks and evaporite sequences caused by lowstand, regression or exposure and weathering such as hardground karst. Often the coarsest most permeable beds selectively dolomitize, leaving finer grained interbeds of calcite mud. Later solutions may dissolve these and form collapses or microkarst if the section becomes raiesd above sea level or local base level. Usually both dolomitization, intraformational conglomerates and karst are controlled by bedding planes and selective lithologies. Hardground are non-depositional marine or erosional exposed karst surfaces. Red hardgrounds occur subaerially where windblown dust delivers iron oxides. These could even originate by deflation of carbonates with a few percent Fe, but usually thery are from more distant sources by seasonal eolian processes as in Sahara winds delivering red dust to the Bahamas today on the other side of the Atlantic.

41. Stromatoporoids exposed on a
Intra-formational structures in carbonate rocks and evaporite sequences caused by lowstand, regression or exposure and weathering such as hardground karst. This hardground is developed on a stromatoporoid limestone. Hardground are non-depositional marine or erosional exposed karst surfaces. Red hardgrounds occur subaerially where windblown dust delivers iron oxides. These could even originate by deflation of carbonates with a few percent Fe, but usually thery are from more distant sources by seasonal eolian processes as in Sahara winds delivering red dust to the Bahamas today on the other side of the Atlantic.
Stromatoporoids
exposed on a

42. Intraformational Breccias
Soft Sediment Deformation
Lode Casts & Fluting
Occurs when denser coarser
Sands or turbidites load
Soft superhydrous Muds
Intraformational Breccias
Require post depositional
Dissolution & Collapse
Intra-formational structures in carbonate rocks and evaporite sequences caused by lowstand, regression or exposure and weathering such as hardground karst. Often the coarsest most permeable beds selectively dolomitize, leaving finer grained interbeds of calcite mud. Later solutions may dissolve these and form collapses or microkarst if the section becomes raised above sea level or local base level. Usually both dolomitization, intraformational conglomerates and karst are controlled by bedding planes and selective lithologies.

43. Intra-formational structures in carbonate rocks and evaporite sequences caused by lowstand, regression or exposure and weathering such as hardground karst. Often the coarsest most permeable beds selectively dolomitize, leaving finer grained interbeds of calcite mud. Later solutions may dissolve these and form collapses or microkarst if the section becomes raised above sea level or local base level. Usually both dolomitization, intraformational conglomerates and karst are controlled by bedding planes and selective lithologies.

44. Vortex erosion in a turbidity canyon B) Underside of bed showing flutes & scour around pebble C) Flutes at the base of a fluvial channel sandstone

45. Tool Markings: Groove Casts below a turbidity current
Tool markings and groove casts occur from slightly buoyant but massive objects dragging a furrow as they glide over the seabed. Subsequent fine sediment infills the furrow to make a cast of the trough. These features frequently occur in deeper water via the passage of turbidity currents, although a a fish fin, a dying ammonite keel, a waterlogged log or a dragging anchor can do a dandy job of this!

46. Load Structures: Ball & Pillow
Low density hydrous mud becomes loaded by the sudden deposition of a denser sand. These structures are common in the deep sea near the toe of the continental slope and in deep lakes.

47. Soft Sediment Deformation Structures from Syndepositional Collapse, Gravity Sliding or Earthquakes

48. Clastic Dykes

49. Dessication Cracks in Plan view & Cross Section
Mudcracks often infill with sands or even gravels
as sedimentation resumes.
The Bishop Tuff has compactional gas cracks filled by glacial till!

50. Fossils Body Fossils: molds, permineralization
Macrofossils: petrified wood, cephalopods, coral, clams, archeopterix, leaf impressions…
Microfossils: algal spores, palynomorphs, dinoflagellates, foraminifera, diatoms, coccoliths
Trace Fossils: grazing trails, footprints, burrows, ophiomorpha, beaver dams!

51. Ediacaran fossil, 570 Ma
Mistaken Point Newfoundland
Tuff, bedding plane

52. The species is now recognized as a sea-anemone, Coelenterate.
Burgess Shale “(micrite),
Mackenzia costalis.
The species is now recognized as a sea-anemone, Coelenterate.

53. Graptolite

54. Ardi: 4.4 Ma Hominid
(Australopithicine)
Hadar Ethiopia

55. Fossils in Outcrop

56. Stromatoporoid Reef, Devonian
Exshaw Alberta
Stromatoporoid Reef: Exshaw, Alta. Devonian

57. Hallucinogenia? 7 pairs of legs? Burgess Shale, Middle Cambrian
Hallucinogenia, Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale
Actually the chelae of Sidneya a giant sea scorpion ~2 m long

58. Ichthyosaur Ribs, Pardonet Formation Late Triassic, Pink Mountain NEBC
Icthyosaur rib bones, Late Triassic Marine Reptile, Pink Mountain, NE BC
(mistakenly labelled as Cretaceous in book)
E.L. Nicholls & M. Wanabe (2001) A New Genus of Ichthyosaur from the Late Triassic Pardonet Formation British Columbia, Bridging the Triassic-Jurassic Gap, Can. Jour. Earth Sci. V.38, p

59. Olenoides? Middle Cambrian
Burgess Shale
Olenina type Trilobites in Calcareous siltstones/shales Burgess Shale, Mount Stephen, Field B.C.

60. Modern Coquina, Shell Beach Florida
Modern Coquina Shell Beach, Florida, USA
The living fingernail sized clams make pretty sandy chowder!

61. Cretaceous, Canadian Arctic
The chitin layer (proteinaceous) nacre decomposes above 150°C so this rock is undermature for oil but could have some biogenic gas. This would be called a shelly siltstone or muddy sandstone.

62. Trace Fossils

63. Skolithos: Jurassic arenite, bedding plane

64. Skolithos: Jurassic arenite, cross section

65. Cruziana: bedding plane, grazing trails, Ordovician micrite

66. Diplocraterion: bedding plane, burrows
Cretaceous shallow marine

67. Thallasinoides: bedding plane, burrows
Cretaceous shallow marine

68. Arenicolites? Or Glossofungites: cross section, burrows in sand
Cretaceous shallow marine, semi consolidated sediment at time of burrowing

69. Is there enough O2 to run a brain or even fast metabolism?
~21%
Is there enough O2 to run a brain
or even fast metabolism?
< 10 ppm
< 6 ppm

70. Terrestrial Vertebrate Footprints
Dinosaur (underside) Bird (ripples)

71. Trace Fossils in Drill Core
Skolithos Rosella
(Sandy Shore Face above Lower Mean Water)