Skoki Formation
The Skoki Formation is a stratigraphic unit of Early to Middle Ordovician age that is present on the western edge of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin in the Canadian Rockies of Alberta and British Columbia.[3] It was named for Skoki Mountain near Lake Louise in Banff National Park by Charles Doolittle Walcott in 1928.[2] The Skoki Formation is fossiliferous and includes remains of brachiopods and other marine invertebrates, as well as conodonts and oncolites.[1]
| Skoki Formation Stratigraphic range: Middle Ordovician ~485–470 Ma | |
|---|---|
| Type | Formation |
| Underlies | Owen Creek Formation |
| Overlies | Outram Formation or Tipperary Quartzite |
| Thickness | Up to 186 metres (610 ft)[1] |
| Lithology | |
| Primary | Dolostone |
| Other | Limestone |
| Location | |
| Coordinates | 51°32′00″N 116°03′39″W |
| Region | Canadian Rockies |
| Country | .svg.png){kind=small} |
| Type section | |
| Named for | Skoki Mountain |
| Named by | Charles Doolittle Walcott[2] |
Lithology and deposition
The Skoki Formation formed as a shallow marine shelf along the western shoreline of the North American Craton during Early to Middle Ordovician time.[3][4] Most of the original limestone was subsequently altered to dolostone. Many beds include quartz sand and silt, and some include layers of brown argillite.[1]
Distribution and stratigraphic relationships
The Skoki is present in the Canadian Rockies of Alberta and British Columbia. It reaches a thickness of up to 186 metres (610 ft) in the southern Rockies and about 500 metres (1800 ft) in the northern Rockies.[1] It conformably overlies the Outram Formation or the Tipperary Quartzite, depending on the location, and underlies the Owen Creek Formation.[5][1]
Paleontology
The Skoki Formation contains several genera of brachiopods, as well as gastropods, conodonts, cephalopods, trilobites, echinoderms, stromatolites, corals, and oncolites.[1]
References
- 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. ISBN 0-920230-23-7.
- Walcott, C.D. 1928. Pre-Devonian Paleozoic formations of the Cordilleran Provinces of Canada; Part 5. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, vol. 75, no. 5, p. 175-368.
- Slind, O.L., Andrews, G.D., Murray, D.L., Norford, B.S., Paterson, D.F., Salas, C.J., and Tawadros, E.E., Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists and Alberta Geological Survey (1994). "The Geological Atlas of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin (Mossop, G.D. and Shetsen, I., compilers), Chapter 8: Middle Cambrian and Early Ordovician Strata of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin". Retrieved 2018-07-13.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
- Aitken, J.D. 1966. Middle Cambrian to Middle Ordovician cyclic sedimentation, southern Rocky Mountains of Alberta. Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology, vol. 14, no. 6, p. 405-441.
- Alberta Geological Survey, 2013. "Alberta Table of Formations; Alberta Energy Regulator". Retrieved 1 May 2018.
- Various Contributors to the Paleobiology Database. "Fossilworks: Gateway to the Paleobiology Database". Archived from the original on 31 July 2014. Retrieved 8 July 2014.