The thesis represents a field and paleontological study of Devonian strata exposed in the Ram River Area west of Nordegg Alberta, and is intended to present information which will supplement data obtained from exploration drilling of the Great Plains basin. Certain structural phenomena are discussed in relation to the problems of the Rocky Mountain overthrust belt. It is concluded that overfolding in many cases preceeded thrust fault development, that modification of Lawson’s equation may be necessary in the consideration of low-angle thrust faults, and that the Eastern Ranges may have suffered less displacement than those of the western Rockies. The principles of regional and interregional correlation are discussed with a view to evaluation of the criteria and limitations of biostratigraphic correlation. Previous stratigraphic work is reviewed, and detailed descriptions of the Flume, Perdrix, and Cheviot Formations are submitted. The Perdrix Formation is recognized as being divisible into two new members, the Blackface and Whitegoat Members. Faunal description, revision, and illustration of five species of corals and thirty species of brachiopods constitute the main part of the work. Revision shows that Leiorhynchus albertense Warren is referable to Calvinaria, and that Bellerophon neleus Hall and Whitfield is referable to Aglaeoglypta. One variety, Calvinaria albertense var. plicata is recognized as new. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

No description available.

No description available.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1963. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 107-112).

published_or_final_version / Earth Sciences / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

The MacKenzie Basin, located in the District of MacKenzie in the southern part of the Northwest Territories, Canada, includes a thick succession of Middle Devonian strata. This basin, bordered to the east by the Canadian Shield and to the south by the Tathlina Uplift, was directly connected to the open ocean that lay to the northwest. Comprehensive facies analyses of the Chinchaga Formation, Lonely Bay Formation, Horn Plateau Formation, and Horn River Formation, which formed in this basin during the Early and Middle Devonian, shows that sedimentation was largely controlled by eustatic sea level changes. Accordingly, these strata reflect a long period of sea level rise during which shallow water evaporite deposition in the Eifelian was followed by open marine conditions that led to reef growth in the Givetian, and ultimately pelagic shale deposition in the Frasnian. The Horn Plateau Formation is comprised of numerous isolated reefs that are located along northeast-southwest direction over a distance of 350 km along the MacKenzie Basin ramp. Reefs in the southwest are dominated by stromatoporoids whereas those in the northeast are dominated by corals. Although difficult to prove, it appears that the distribution of the stromatoporoids and corals may have been controlled by nutrients coming from coastal upwelling or runoff from the exposed Canadian Shield. Effects of early diagenetic processes were evident on the MacKenzie Basin ramp in an intensely bioturbated facies in the Lonely Bay Formation. Burrows from this facies are dolomite-filled further down the ramp and calcite-filled proximal to the Canadian Shield in the east. Anoxic conditions and the presence of sulphate reducing bacteria may have promoted early dolomite formation in the burrows located in deeper water. Burrows further up the ramp were oxygenated and show evidence of input from the exposed Canadian Shield, both of which may have inhibited low-temperature dolomite formation.

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No description available.

The Devonian rocks considered here, outcrop over a distance of 100 kms., along the northern side of a strip of water, known as the Trondheimsled, near Trondheim, Norway. Since time did not permit complete examination, two areas were selected for detailed study: 1) the western end of the outcrop on the large island of Hitra, where fossils suggesting an Upper Silurian or Downtonian age had been found; and 2) the outcrops on the island complex south of the neighbouring island of Smola. The precise age of these beds was unknown. An attempt was made to establish the stratigraphy of both areas, and to deduce the environment of deposition, the nature of the source area, and the direction of derivation of the sediments. Hitra. The succession (1055 m. thick) has been divided into a number of stratigraphical units on the basis of lithology. Much of it is made up of thick sandstones, often pebbly or conglomeratic, and alternating sandstone/siltstone sequences. Study of the sedimentary structures and size distributions of these sequences suggests that the cycles have been produced in an inshore estuarine environment, as a result of the lateral migration of channels. The petrography of the sandstones and conglomerates shown thot the sediments were derived from a source area composed mainly of plutonic rocks, while current direction analysis shows derivation from the northwest. Smola: The Smola Series, composed of 3745 m. of conglomerate, has been divided petrographically into four units. The oldest conglomerate lies unconformably on the beds below and is made up of large boulders of locally derived material. The younger conglomerates are composed of abundant pebbles of green sandstone (possibly the Ordovician Hovin Sandstone), and various igneous and metamorphic PEBBLES which are difficult to match with rocks now exposed in Norway. The sediments wore derived from the north and were probably deposited in a piedmont environment. Relative age of the Hitra and Smola series Consideration of the stratigraphical, petrographical, and sedimentological evidence shows that the Hitra sediments are older than those Smola. A reconsideration of the paleontological evidence suggests that the Hitra beds could be of Upper Welockian or early Ludlovian age, while the Smola beds are probably Lower or Middle Devonian.

No description available.