Type Locality:

Roche Miette, northeast shoulder, 34 km (21 mi) north-northeast of Jasper, Alberta. 53° 10'N, 117° 55'W.

Distribution:

The Flume Formation is a widespread carbonate platform presently recognized beneath basin and carbonate buildup sections of the Fairholme Group in the Rocky Mountains from the Cecilia and Kakwa lakes area of northeastern British Columbia to south of the Bow Valley, although beneath the carbonate buildups it is generally considered a member of the Cairn Formation. The Flume Formation is thickest is western and northern areas. Paleontologic evidence (Maurin and Raasch, 1972) indicates the basal Flume at Kakwa Lake to be older than in more southerly areas. Representative thicknesses are: Wallbridge Mountain 125 m (410 ft), Ancient Wall 80 to 104 m (260 to 340 ft), Roche Miette 31 m (101 ft), Miette 30 to 76 m (100 to 250 ft), Cline and Ram River area 30 to 46 m (100 to 150 ft), Bow Valley 25 m (81 ft).

Lithology:

The Flume Formation consists of successive light grey cherty, biostromal carbonate units, each underlain by thin, dark brown dolomites which may be slightly argillaceous and silty towards the bottom of the formation. The biostromal units are medium-bedded and on the order of 3 to 9 m (10 to 30 ft) thick. The biostromes may be either limestone or dolomite and contain bulbus stromatoporoids and abundant Amphipora. Fossils are most abundant adjacent to and beneath carbonate buildups. Silica is present in the Flume either as bands of dark chest nodules or as silicified fossils. Detailed studies show that the Flume Formation can be subdivided into two (Cook, 1972) or three (Coppold, 1976) informal members representing shallow subtidal to supratidal depositional cycles.

Relationship:

The Flume is recognized as a formation in basinal sections and as the lower member of the Cairn Formation in carbonate buildup sections of the Fairholme Group. Beneath carbonate buildups the top of the Flume Member is placed at the upper limit of cherty biostromal carbonates. Although chert does occur higher in the section, the top of the strongly cherty carbonates in most cases can be recognized as it is associated with a color change to the darker organic dolomites of the upper member of the Cairn Formation. In the basin the Flame Formation is overlain sharply by the dark argillaceous limestones of the Maligne Formation, or the dark shales of the Perdrix Formation where the Maligne is absent. The base of the Flume generally rests unconformably upon Cambrian or Ordovician silty and sandy carbonates; in some sections in west-central Alberta it overlies the Middle Devonian Yahatinda Formation of Aitken (1966). The Flume may be partly equivalent to the Beaverhill Lake Group (Maurin and Raasch, 1972). It is lithostratigraphically similar to, but probably older than the subsurface Cooking Lake Formation. The Hollebeke Formation of the Crowsnest Pass area is stratigraphically and faunally similar to the Flume Formations but the Hollebeke lithology is more variable and relationships between the two formations have not been satisfactorily established (Price, 1964b).

History:

In his description of the original type section Raymond (1930) divided the Flume Formation into two members. Taylor (1957) elevated the upper member to formation status (the Maligne Formation) and restricted the Flume Formation to the lower member. The type section at Roche Miette is located where the Fairholme Group is in the basinal shale facies. In studying the Fairholme Group carbonate facies McLaren (1955) erected the Cairn Formation to describe the lower part of the section. The Cairn Formation was divided into two members and the lower cherty dolomite member was subsequently shown to be equivalent to the Flume Formation in the basin. Although the Flume Formation has priority and should refer to what is essentially a widespread carbonate platform upon which the Fairholme buildups later developed (i.e., Flume present beneath both buildup and basinal sections), the practice has developed of designating these beds as the Flume Member of the Cairn Formation where they are overlain by a buildup (e.g., Mountjoy, 1965; Mountjoy and Mackenzie, 1973). Although most geologists recognize the continuity of the Flume Formation beneath the buildups the Cairn Formation has not been revised to date.

References:

Aitken, J.D., 1966. Middle Cambrian to Middle Ordovician cyclic sedimentation, southern Rocky Mountains of Alberta; Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists, Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology, vol. 14, no. 4 (December), pp. 405-441.

Cook, H.E., 1972. Miette platform evolution and relation to overlying bank ('reef') localization, upper Devonian, Alberta; in, Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology, Vol. 20, Issue 3, pp. 375A.

Coppold, M.P., 1976. Buildup to basin transition at the Ancient Wall Complex (Upper Devonian), Alberta; in, Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology, June 1976, Vol. 24, Issue 2, pp. 154-192.

Mackenzie, W.S. and Mountjoy, E.W., 1973. Stratigraphy of the southern part of the Devonian ancient wall carbonate complex, Jasper National Park, Alberta; Geological Survey of Canada, Paper 72-20, 121 p.

Maurin, A.F. and Raasch, G.O., 1972. Notes et Memoires - Compagnie Francaise des Petroles Early-Frasnian stratigraphy, Kakwa-Cecilia Lakes, British Columbia, Canada; Notes et Memoires - Compagnie Francaise des Petroles, 1972, Vol. 10, 80 p.

McLaren, D.J., 1955. Devonian formations in the Alberta Rocky Mountains between Bow and Athabasca rivers; Geological Survey of Canada, Bulletin 35.

Mountjoy, E.W., 1965. Stratigraphy of the Devonian Miette reef complex and associated strata, eastern Jasper National Park, Alberta; Geological Survey of Canada, Bulletin 110, 132 p.

Price, R.A., 1964b. The Devonian Fairholme-Sassenach succession and evolution of reef-front geometry in the Flathead-Crowsnest Pass area, Alberta and British Columbia, in, Flathead Valley, Special Guide Book Issue, Fourteenth Annual Field Conference, Goodman, A.J. (Jack) (Ed.); The Alberta Society of Petroleum Geologists, Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology, vol. 12 (August), pp. 427-451.

Raymond, P.E, 1930. The Paleozoic formations in Jasper Park, Alberta. Amer. J. Sci., 5th Ser., v. 20, p. 289-300.

Taylor, Peter W., 1957. Revision of Devonian nomenclature in the Rocky Mountains; Journal of the Alberta Society of Petroleum Geologists, vol. 5, no. 8, pp. 183-193.