No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

161 miospore species and 122 microplankton species are described from 106 samples in six sections of the Lower Colorado Group and its equivalents in central and west-central Alberta. Two miospore species, and two genera and twenty-five species of microplankton, are newly described. The miospore and microplankton assemblages are used as a basis for division of the Lower Colorado Group into several time-stratigraphic units. The age of the Group is determined as Upper Albian (latest Lower Cretaceous). A method for defining recurrent microplankton species groups is developed and applied to assemblages from two of the sections. The distribution of the recurrent groups formulated is shown to be correlated in part with palynological, lithological and other data. Application and extension of the results and conclusions of this investigation should prove useful in understanding many aspects of western Canadian Cretaceous stratigraphy and in the investigation of microplankton occurrence patterns from other deposits. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p> An outcrop of the transition from the Wapiabi Formation to the Belly River Formation was studied in detail at Lundbreck Falls, Alberta. The observed vertical succession of sediments is as follows: 1) interbedded dark shales and Bouma B, BC and C type turbidites; 2) hummocky cross-stratified sandstones and bioturbated silts; 3) swaley cross-stratified sandstones; 4) parallel laminated sandstones; 5) mudstones interbedded with trough cross-stratified sandstone. The turbidites and hummocky cross-stratified sandstones are storm-generated density current deposits. The swaley cross-stratified sandstones have formed below parallel laminated beach deposits and above storm deposits. The section is capped by fluvial deposits containing evidence of subaerial exposure. </p> <p> Paleoflow directions in the lower portion of the section indicate that the regional paleoslope dipped northward. Density currents may have flowed down a topographically significant north-south trending trough. Net sediment transport in the shallow marine portion of the section was towards the east north-east. </p> <p> Petrographic studies indicate that the sandstones are similar to the "barren" basal Belly River sandstones of the Burmis area, studied by Mellon (1961). </p> <p> Another section consisting of continental elastics of the Blairmore Group was studied at Daisy Creek, Alberta. The lower part of the section contains interbedded grey mudstone and cross-stratified sandstone. These are erosively overlain by a 25 m thick, cross-stratified sandstone which caps the section. The sediments have been interpreted in terms of a meandering fluvial system. </p> / Thesis / Bachelor of Science (BSc)

<p> Prairie mounds from the general area of Foremost-Cypress Hills, Alberta, have been described. Various morphometric parameters, including relative and absolute altitude of the mounds, depth of their central depressions, orientation of breaches in their rims, angle of the bounding slopes, and distribution of surficial stones were measured. Several characteristics of the mounds were found to be widespread. Firstly, the mounds occur in elongate fields that correspond roughly to the 3,000 ft. contour interval. Secondly, surficial stones invariably have their greatest concentration on the rims of the mounds. Also the mounds are frequently separated by interrupted drainage channels. The bounding slopes of the mounds are asymmetrical, with west and north-west slopes being least steep. Interpretation of these morphological observations and a consideration of the various hypotheses of formation proposed in the literature leads to the conclusion that prairie mounds most likely originated by the differential melting of a stagnant ice mass in a manner proposed by Gravenor in 1955, and have subsequently been modified by mass-wasting processes. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

No description available.

<p>The objective of this thesis is to examine the changes to peatland ecohydrological processes as a result of wildfire disturbance in forested ombrotrophic peatlands of the Boreal Plains. The hydrology and atmospheric exchanges of energy and water were examined at two peatlands in northern Alberta: one recently burned and the other approximately 75 years since fire.</p> <p>Wildfire resulted in little change in net radiation flux to the peatland during the snow-free period. A decrease in the net radiation flux during the late winter was caused by the loss of the tree canopy and the increase in albedo during winter. While summer albedo largely returned to pre-fire values within two years after fire, the amount of solar radiation reaching the burned peat surface increased by nearly 50%. As a result, surface evaporation increased by an amount only marginally greater than the loss of transpiration. The net result on the water balance was a modest increase in water losses during the course of the summer, resulting in a lower water table. Water table decline per unit of evaporation was higher due to a decrease in specific yield, likely from a combination of post-fire peat compression and the combustion of high specific yield surface peat during wildfire. The combination of lower water table and enhanced evaporation cause greater pore-water pressures after fire, particularly in hummocks. The hydrological regime of hollows was not significantly altered by wildfire, despite the larger depth of burn in the hollows.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Common knowledge regarding the rise of the Social Credit movement in Alberta and the nature of its leadership in the ensuing years has led to the frequent identification of Alberta Social Credit with fundamentalist Protestantism. It was then supposed that there must have been an intricate relation between religion and politics in Alberta during the Social Credit administration. The veracity of this assumption was tested by the construction of hypotheses that would test the conservative 3nd radical contributions of religion to socio-political change, determine why the movement with its religious overtones failed to spread to other provinces, and explain the new role of religion with the advent of increasing secularization in the movements later existence. Attention was also devoted to a descriptive analysis of Social Credit in England, the land of its origin, to determine whether this perceived relationship in Alberta was indigenous to the province or an integral part of the British movement. In spite of some religious interests within English Social Credit, it was concluded that Aberhart's adaptation was his own and the movement he moulded assumed its own characteristics as a result of Alberta's own needs. It was determined that religion was an important variable within the early movement because it helped solve the multidimensional crises that the largely unorganized residents were facing. Aberhart's emphasis on the Bible particularly provided not only a source of legitimation but became a rallying point and a source of cohesion for a recently-migrated population by transcending traditional institutions and customs. The Social Credit movement fused social, political, economic, and religious goals into a special social phenomenon -- a crusade, whose compelling demands made life-long converts. The fact that the crusade failed to take root elsewhere in Canada was explained as a result of the movement being a specific and unique response to Alberta's own efforts to create meaning and order out of her environmental problems. Furthermore, as the pressures towards secularization increased, religion per se was compartmentalized from the political sphere but was indirectly linked through moral commitments. It was concluded that in Alberta Social Credit, religion functioned as an anchor amidst change, served as a vehicle for change, provided a framework of meaning to interpret change, and finally,furnished a basis for morality to ensure orderly change. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

La région de Moose Mountain, située dans la cordillère canadienne au sud de l’Alberta à 50 km à l’ouest de Calgary, est étudiée depuis plusieurs années par les compagnies pétrolières et gazières. Deux champs d’hydrocarbures contenus dans la formation carbonifère de Turner Valley sont exploités dans la région. Les réservoirs se retrouvent dans des écailles de chevauchement, des plis de propagation et des plis de décollement. Le cœur de la structure étudiée, l'anticlinal de Moose Mountain est interprété comme étant un pli de décollement (Newson et Sanderson, 2000). Ce travail de recherche est l'un des seuls à faire l’étude d'un type de piège affleurant en surface. Les travaux de terrain ont permis de réaliser une carte géologique en trois dimensions ainsi que huit nouvelles coupes structurales. Ces coupes ont ensuite servi pour l’élaboration d'un modèle structural 3D de la zone (Massé, 2003), qui a permis de mieux comprendre la géologie, la géométrie et l’évolution cinématique de la région en plus de permettre de valider les travaux de cartographie. La cartographie et l'analyse structurale de la région ont révélé que les rétrochevauchements ont joué un rôle majeur dans l'édification de la structure anticlinale de Moose Mountain. Les relations entre les plis, les chevauchements et les rétrochevauchements démontrent qu'ils sont contemporains. La zone de plis et de failles, située au centre de la région, est un bel exemple de réservoir subtil. Les plis secondaires sont des plis de propagation associés au flanc ouest de la zone triangulaire résiduelle de Moose Mountain. Ces anticlinaux sont très fracturés et grandement affectés par les rétrochevauchements associés à une zone triangulaire. La présence de ces nombreux rétrochevauchements affecte également la migration des fluides et la géométrie des réservoirs subtils, principaux pièges de la région. / Québec Université Laval, Bibliothèque 2019