scholarly journals Evolution of a Mixed Carbonate/Terrigenous Platform: Lower Cambrian Continental Terrace Wedge of Mackenzie Mountains, Northwest Territories, Canada: ABSTRACT

AAPG Bulletin ◽  
1982 ◽  
Vol 66 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. F. Krause
1979 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 189-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. F. Krause ◽  
A. E. Oldershaw

In the Sekwi Formation, carbonate breccia beds interbedded with slope sediments are interpreted as submarine sediment gravity flows that formed a two-layer deposit during a single transport event. They are intermediate between true slumps and turbidites and may initiate by slumping anywhere on the continental slope and rise. Textural characteristics of the deposits are a function of downslope transport distance.


2015 ◽  
Vol 89 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julien Kimmig ◽  
Brian R. Pratt

AbstractA new Burgess Shale-type Lagerstätte is described from the middle Cambrian (Series 3, Drumian) Rockslide Formation of the Mackenzie Mountains, Northwest Territories, Canada. The Rockslide Formation is a unit of deeper water ramp to slope, mixed carbonate, and siliciclastic facies deposited on the northwestern margin of Laurentia. At the fossil-bearing locality, the unit onlaps a fault scarp cutting lower Cambrian sandstones. There it consists of a succession of shale and thick-laminated to thin-bedded lime mudstone, calcareous sandstone, and greenish-colored calcareous mudstone, overlain by shallower water dolostones of the Avalanche Formation, which is indicative of an overall progradational sequence. The Rockslide Formation is of similar age to the Wheeler and Marjum formations of Utah, belonging to theBolaspidellaBiozone. Only two 1 m thick units of greenish mudstone exhibit soft-bodied preservation, with most specimens coming from the lower interval. However, the biota is common but not as diverse as that of other Lagerstätten such as the Burgess Shale in its type area. The shelly fauna is dominated by the hyolithHaplophrentis carinatusMatthew, 1899 along with sparse linguliformean brachiopods, agnostoid arthropods, and ptychoparioid trilobites. The nonmineralized biota includes the macrophytic algaMargaretia dorusWalcott, 1911, priapulid worms, and the carapaces of a number of arthropods. The arthropods belong toIsoxys mackenziensisn. sp.,Tuzoiacf.T. guntheriRobison and Richards, 1981;Branchiocaris? sp.,Perspicaris?dilatusRobison and Richards, 1981; and bradoriids, along with fragments of arthropods of indeterminate affinities. The style of preservation indicates that most soft parts underwent complete biodegradation, leaving just the more resistant materials such as chitinous arthropod cuticles. The range of preservation and similarity to the coeval biotas preserved in Utah suggests that the composition of this Lagerstätte is probably representative of the community living on the relatively deep-water ramp or slope during middle Cambrian time in Laurentia. This would argue that the extraordinary diversity of the Burgess Shale at Mount Field is anomalous.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
R B MacNaughton ◽  
K M Fallas

A composite reference section for the upper Ediacaran and lower Cambrian is documented for a location near Moose Horn River in Wrigley Lake map area (NTS 95-M), Mackenzie Mountains, Northwest Territories. Four measured stratigraphic sections cover, in ascending order: the uppermost Sheepbed Formation; the informal Sheepbed carbonate; the lower, middle, and upper members of the Backbone Ranges Formation; the Sekwi Formation; and the lowermost beds of the Rockslide Formation. The uppermost Sheepbed Formation is dominated by dark-weathering shale and siltstone. The Sheepbed carbonate (440 m) lies conformably on the Sheepbed Formation and consists of limestone, dolostone, and dolomitic siltstone, including several horizons of rudstone with clasts up to boulder size. The upper surface of the Sheepbed carbonate has been eroded and the unit thins to a zero edge to the east. The lower member of the Backbone Ranges Formation (253 m) is heterolithic, including interbedded quartzose siltstone and quartzose sandstone, quartz arenite (locally with horizons of quartz pebbles), and dolostone to dolomitic sandstone. The middle member of the Backbone Ranges Formation (93 m) consists mainly of pink to grey-weathering limestone with red mudstone partings. The upper member (501.5 m) is dominated by quartz arenite, but also contains intervals of siltstone. Partway through the upper member there is a marker unit of dolostone to dolomitic sandstone that previous work suggests is a tongue of the Ediacaran Risky Formation. Based on regional correlations, the top of this marker may approximate the Ediacaran-Cambrian boundary in this section. The Sekwi Formation lies abruptly upon the Backbone Ranges Formation. The contact is unconformable at this locality and mapping in the area indicates eastward erosional removal of the upper member of the Backbone Ranges Formation beneath the Sekwi Formation. The Sekwi Formation here consists of variegated siltstone with lesser dolostone, limestone, and quartz sandstone. An abrupt contact with nodular limestone and grey shale of the overlying Rockslide Formation approximates the base of Cambrian Series 3.


1978 ◽  
Vol 15 (7) ◽  
pp. 1205-1207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas A. Archibald ◽  
Alan H. Clark ◽  
Edward Farrar ◽  
U Khin Zaw

K–Ar dating of magmatic biotite, and of hydrothermal biotite and muscovite, demonstrates that quartz monzonite intrusion and exoskarn scheelite mineralization at Cantung, N.W.T., took place over a brief interval in the Upper Cretaceous (ca. 91 Ma). The regional age relationships of magmatic and ore-forming activity in the Logan–Mackenzie Mountains are poorly defined, but it is tentatively inferred that tungsten mineralization may have been related to a late stage in the plutonic development of the area.


1984 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 156 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. M. Simmons ◽  
M. B. Bayer ◽  
L. O. Sinkey

1990 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. K. Kaiser ◽  
J. V. Simmons

The transport mechanism of some rock avalanches of the Mackenzie Mountains in the Yukon and Northwest Territories of Canada is reassessed on the basis of evidence collected during fieldwork and by comparison with results from numerical simulations of the debris flow mechanism. A new hypothesis of glaciation-related transport is advanced as an alternate explanation of apparently very mobile rock avalanches with anomalous travel distances. By the example of the Avalanche Lake slide, it is demonstrated that the debris was most likely not deposited on the current topography but on valley glacier ice at an elevation of about 400–500 m above the valley bottom. This conclusion is supported by field evidence, an empirical runup relationship, and the results from numerical flow simulations. A qualitative interpretation of other debris deposits suggests that several events in the Mackenzie Mountains can be interpreted in the same manner. Key words: rock avalanches, rock slides, debris transport, debris flow modelling, Mackenzie Mountains, Northwest Territories.


2006 ◽  
Vol 43 (12) ◽  
pp. 1791-1820 ◽  
Author(s):  
D E Jackson ◽  
A C Lenz

Four graptolite biozones are recorded from the Arenig portion of the Road River Group in the Richardson and Mackenzie mountains in the Yukon and Northwest Territories. In ascending order, these zones are Tetragraptus approximatus, Pendeograptus fruticosus, Didymograptus bifidus, and Parisograptus caduceus australis (new). The Castlemainian stage may be represented by nongraptolitic massive bedded chert. The Arenig–Llanvirn boundary is drawn below the first occurrence of Undulograptus austrodentatus. Fifty-four graptolite taxa are present, and 16 of these species and subspecies are recorded for the first time in this deep-water biotope, namely, Didymograptus? cf. adamantinus, D. asperus, D. dilatans, D. cf. kurcki, D. validus communis, Holmograptus aff. leptograptoides, H. sp. A, Isograptus? sp. nov. A, I. ? dilemma, Keblograptus geminus, Pseudisograptus manubriatus harrisi, Ps. m. koi, Ps. m. janus, Ps. cf. tau, Xiphograptus lofuensis, and Zygograptus cf. abnormis.


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