| Mannville Group | |
| Type: | Geological group |
| Period: | Early Cretaceous |
| Prilithology: | Sandstone |
| Otherlithology: | Shale |
| Namedfor: | Mannville, Alberta |
| Namedby: | Nauss, 1945 |
| Region: | Alberta, Saskatchewan |
| Country: | Canada |
| Coordinates: | 53.3087°N -111.1541°W |
| Subunits: | Glauconitic Sandstone, Ostracod Beds, Ellerslie Member, Grand Rapids Formation, Clearwater Formation, McMurray Formation, Waseca Sand, Sparky Sand, General Petroleum Sand, Rex Sand, Lloydminster Sand, Cummings Member, Dina Member, Pense Formation, Cantuar Formation, Success Formation |
| Underlies: | Colorado Group |
| Overlies: | Rundle Group, Banff Formation, Wabamun Formation |
| Thickness: | up to 145m (476feet)[1] |
The Mannville Group is a stratigraphical unit of Cretaceous age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin.
It takes the name from the town of Mannville, Alberta, and was first described in the Northwest Mannville 1 well by A.W. Nauss in 1945.[2]
The Mannville Group consists of interbedded continental sand and shale in the base, followed by a calcareous sandstone member, marine shale, glauconitic sandstone and salt and pepper sandstone. An additional non-marine sequence is present in north-eastern Alberta.
Bitumen is produced from the McMurray Formation at the Athabasca Oil Sands. Heavy Oil is produced from the Wabiskaw Member of the Clearwater Formation in the Wabasca oil field, and from multiple formations in the Lloydminster and Provost areas in eastern Alberta and western Saskatchewan. Natural gas is extracted from the Ostracod and Glauconite beds in southern Alberta, and light oil is extracted from the Ellerslie Member in central and southern Alberta. Multiple oil fields[3] and gas fields[4] tap into the Manville Group.
Total gas reserves amount to in the Lower Mannville and in the Upper Mannville.[5] Recoverable oil reserves amount to in the Lower Mannville and in the Upper Mannville.[6]
The Mannville Group reaches a thickness of 145feet in its type locality. It occurs in the sub-surface in central Alberta, extending east-west from Edmonton to Lloydminster and north-south from the Deep Basin to the United States border. It is present in the sub-surface in west-central and southern Saskatchewan.
The Mannville Group is discomformably overlain by the Joli Fou Formation shale of the Colorado Group. It rests unconformably on the older Paleozoic carbonates.
It is correlated with the lower Blairmore Group in the Canadian Rockies foothills and to the Bullhead Group and the Spirit River Formation of the Fort St. John Group in north-western Alberta. It is also equivalent to the Cantuar Formation in Saskatchewan and the Swan River Formation in Manitoba.
The Mannville Group includes the following sub-units:
| Subdivision | Lithology | Max Thickness | Reference | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Upper | Upper Mannville | ||||
| Glauconitic Sandstone | 35-1NaN-1 | [7] | |||
| Lower Mannville | |||||
| Ostracod Beds | Early Cretaceous | 40-1NaN-1 | [8] | ||
| Ellerslie Member | Early Cretaceous | 40-1NaN-1 30-1NaN-1 | [9] | ||
| Detrital Beds | Early Cretaceous | Chert pebbles, lithic sandstone, shale, siltstone | 70-1NaN-1 | [10] | |
| Lithology | Max Thickness | Reference | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| bitumenous fine to medium sand (A, B and C sands, separated by silt and shale) | 125-1NaN-1 | [11] | ||
| Albian | black and green shales and sand | 85-1NaN-1 | [12] | |
| Wabiskaw Member | Albian | glauconitic sands with black fissile shale | 35-1NaN-1 | [13] |
| late Barremian to Aptian | fine grained bituminous sands | 60-1NaN-1 | [14] | |
| Lithology | Max Thickness | Reference | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colony Sand | 15-1NaN-1 | [15] | ||
| McLaren Member | Early Cretaceous | very fine grained sandstone and shale | 18-1NaN-1 | [16] |
| Waseca Sand | Early Cretaceous | sand with silt and shale | 25-1NaN-1 | [17] |
| Sparky Sand | Early Cretaceous | sand and shale | 12-1NaN-1 | [18] |
| General Petroleum Sand | Early Cretaceous | very fine to fine grained quartzose sand | 15-1NaN-1 | [19] |
| Rex Sand | Early Cretaceous | very fine to fine grained quartzose sand with silt and shale | 14-1NaN-1 | [20] |
| Lloydminster Sand | Early Cretaceous | unconsolidated quartz sand with silt | 30-1NaN-1 | [21] |
| Cummings Member | Early Cretaceous | shale with beds of salt-and-pepper sandstone | 27-1NaN-1 | [22] |
| Dina Member | Early Cretaceous | quartz sandstone with siltstone and shale | 60-1NaN-1 | [23] |
| Lithology | Max Thickness | Reference | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pense Formation | Albian | fine grained sandstone, clay, shaly silt | 36-1NaN-1 | [24] |
| Cantuar Formation | Aptian to Albian | mudstone and sandstone | 120-1NaN-1 | [25] |
| Success Formation | quartzose sandstone and siltstone | 75-1NaN-1 | [26] | |
