CSPG19FT Horseshoe Canyon Student Field Trip
This is a one day field seminar designed to introduce students to fluvial deltaic sedimentation and the roles of allogenic and autogenic processes in sequence stratigraphy. It is a FULL day of examining outcrops and technical discussions.
The badland terrain along the 200 km stretch of the Red Deer River Valley between the city of Red Deer and town of Dorthy provides world class exposures of flat lying Cretaceous and Paleogene clastic rocks. Quaternary incision by the Red Deer River has exposed these strata in almost continuous dip and strike sections. During the past 32 years, the regressive Bearpaw to Horseshoe Canyon transition in the East Coulee-Willow Creek area of Southern Alberta has become one of Alberta's more studied outcrops. This area provides an ideal setting in which to examine many of the sequence stratigraphic paradigms we work within. Southeast of the town of East Coulee, Alberta, several horizons of intertonguing non-rnarine, marginal marine and marine rocks comprise the Cretaceous Horseshoe Canyon and Bearspaw formation transition. Because of the nearly continuous outcrop exposure along the river, a 50-60 m thick section of strata can be walked out for over 15 km in the dig direction and 3.5 km in the strike direction. These rocks represent marine to marginal marine deposits of a late Cretaceous delta complex fed by a river system that followed a course similar to the present day Red Deer River valley. Participants will have the opportunity to visit four or more exposures of the Horseshoe Canyon Fm in a dip orientated section to develop a sense for the geometry of a delta front. The focus of this field trip will be to examine the depositional facies and stratal architecture of a low accomodation prograding delta complex In addition; participants will see a world class analog for the variety of reservoir flow units and seals within a complex deltaic depositional system.
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Dennis Meloche received an Honours B.Sc. in Geology from the University of Western Ontario in 1975 and a Ph.D. in Biogeochemistry from the University of Western Ontario in 1981. He has 28 years of domestic and international experience, with more than half of it spent in the role of technical service and support.
Dennis is a clastic sedimentologist and Senior Geological Advisor within the Geotechnical Services Group of the Devon Canada Corporation. In this role, one of his functions is to promote professional development for geoscientists and engineers within the organization.
