Kananaskis Formation Explained

Kananaskis Formation
Type:	Formation
Period:	Pennsylvanian
Prilithology:	Limestone, dolomite
Otherlithology:	Chert, quartzite
Namedfor:	Kananaskis Range
Namedby:	A. McGugan and J.E. Rapson, 1961
Country:	Canada
Coordinates:	50.8067°N -115.2633°W
Unitof:	Spray Lakes Group
Underlies:	Ishbel Group
Overlies:	Tunnel Mountain Formation
Thickness:	up to about 55 metres (180 ft)

The Kananaskis Formation is a geologic formation that is present on the western edge of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin in the southern Canadian Rockies of western Alberta.^[1] Named after the Kananaskis Range near Banff,^[2] it was deposited during the Late Pennsylvanian sub-period of the Carboniferous period.^[3] Some of its strata host fossils of marine invertebrates.

Lithology

The Kananaskis Formation consists primarily of pale grey weathering, thick- and thin-bedded silty limestone and dolomite, with beds and nodules of chert, chert breccias and conglomerates, and quartzites.

Paleontology

Fusulinids, spiriferid brachiopods, gastropods, and sponge spicules have been described from some of the beds in the Kananaskis Formation.^[4]

Thickness, distribution, and relationship to other units

The Kananaskis Formation has a maximum thickness of about 55 metres (180 feet) at its type section on the west flank of Mount Chester in the Kananaskis Range. It is present in the southern Canadian Rockies of western Alberta from the Kananaskis area south to the Canada–United States border. It conformably to unconformably overlies the Tunnel Mountain Formation and is unconformably overlain by the Ishbel Group.

See also

• List of fossiliferous stratigraphic units in Alberta

Notes and References

1. Web site: The Geological Atlas of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin (Mossop, G.D. and Shetsen, I., compilers), Chapter 14: Carboniferous Strata of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. Richards, B.C., Barclay, J.E., Bryan, D., Hartling, A., Henderson, C.M., and Hinds, R.C., Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists and Alberta Geological Survey. 1994. 2018-07-13.
2. Glass, D.J. (editor) 1997. Lexicon of Canadian Stratigraphy, vol. 4, Western Canada including eastern British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and southern Manitoba. Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists, Calgary, 1423 p. on CD-ROM. .
3. McGugan A. and Rapson, J.E. 1961. Stratigraphy of the Rocky Mountain Group (Permo-Carboniferous), Banff area, Alberta. Journal of the Alberta Society of Petroleum Geologists, vol. 9, no. 3, p. 73-106.
4. McGugan, A. and Rapson, J.E. 1979. Pennsylvanian and Permian biostratigraphy, micropaleontology, petrography and diagenesis, Kananaskis valley, Alberta. Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology, vol. 27, no. 4, p. 405-417.