Spray River Group

The Spray River Group is a stratigraphic unit of Triassic age. It is present on the western edge of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin in the foothills and Rocky Mountains of western Alberta. It was originally described as the Spray River Formation by E.M. Kindle in 1924[2] and was later raised to group status.[3] Its type section is located in the Spray River gorge at the southern end of Sulphur Mountain.[3]

Spray River Group Stratigraphic range: Triassic PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Spray River strata exposed at Bow Falls
Type	Group
Sub-units	Whitehorse Formation Sulphur Mountain Formation
Underlies	Fernie Formation
Overlies	Ishbel Group
Thickness	Up to about 850 m (2,790 ft)[1]
Lithology
Primary	Siltstone, dolomite
Other	Limestone, sandstone
Location
Coordinates	51°5′24″N 115°31′35″W
Region	Alberta
Country	Canada
Type section
Named for	Spray River
Named by	E.M. Kindle[2]

The Spray River Group includes marine fossils[4] from the Triassic period.[5]

Stratigraphy and lithology

The Spray River Group was deposited on the continental shelf along the western margin of the North American craton. It is subdivided into two formations: the Sulphur Mountain Formation at the base and the Whitehorse Formation at the top.[3]

The Sulphur Mountain Formation consists of dolomitic and calcitic siltstones, silty dolomites, dolomitic limestones, and very fine-grained dolomitic quartz sandstones. The Whitehorse Formation consists of dolomites, dolomitic siltstones and limestones, and dolomitic and calcitic quartzites.[1][5]

See also

• List of fossiliferous stratigraphic units in Alberta

References

1. 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.
2. Kindle, E.M. 1924. Standard Palaeozoic section of the Rocky Mountains near Banff, Alberta. Pan American Geologist, vol. 42, no. 2.
3. Gibson, D.W. 1974. Triassic rocks of the southern Canadian Rocky Mountains. Geological Survey of Canada, Bulletin 230, 65 p.
4. Various Contributors to the Paleobiology Database. "Fossilworks: Gateway to the Paleobiology Database". Archived from the original on 31 July 2014. Retrieved 8 July 2014.
5. AAPG Datapages: M. Shafiuddin. "Spray River Formation Near Banff and Cadomin". Retrieved July 12, 2015.