Unit Name: Harrogate Formation
Unit Type: Lithostratigraphic
Rank: Formation
Status: Formal
Usage: Currently in use
Age Interval: Eifelian - ? Givetian (397.5 - 385.3 ma)
Age Justification: Corals, stromatoporoids, brachiopods, cephalopods, echinoderm fragments, trilobites, conodonts, gastropods, clams, and sponge spicules. Corals and brachiopods indicate an Eifelian age; the conodonts could constrain this to late Eifelian (Tortodus kockelianus Zone) for the lower part of the formation and the possibility exists for the Harrogate to include Givetian beds.
Province/Territory: British Columbia
Originator: Evans, 1933; emended by Belyea and Norford, 1967.
Type Locality:
Unnamed gully near Hatch Creek, Brisco Range, western ranges of the Rocky Mountains, southeastern British Columbia (51 deg 00'N, 116 deg 23'W), designated by Belyea and Norford (1967).
Distribution:
89 m (292 ft) at the type section, without a stratigraphic top; 118 m (387 ft) at Fairmont Ridge, Stanford Range, similarly without a top; minimum of 90 m (295 ft) at Sugar Loaf Ridge, Hughes Range, base not exposed. Distribution throughout western ranges in cores of tightly folded and faulted synclines that include Devonian rocks.
Locality Data:
Thickness(m): Minimum 90.
Lithology:
Limestones, shaly limestones, nodular limestones and shales in the lower part of the formation at the type section, dolomites in the upper part.
Relationship:
The Harrogate is part of an intricate facies-complex of Middle Devonian formations. Its base is concordant with the Cedared Formation, but covered in all known outcrops. Its upper contact is known only from Sugar Loaf Ridge and apparently is conformable with the lower part of the Fairholme Group (Frasnian), but no Givetian rocks have been documented from the succession, indicating that a stratigraphic gap could exist. To the west, in the Purcell Range part of the Mount Forster Formation may be coeval with the Harrogate, or the Harrogate may have been cut out below the sub-Starbird unconformity. Regionally the Harrogate is equivalent to part of the upper Elk Point Group of Alberta an Saskatchewan, and with parts of the Dunedin Formation of the northern Rocky Mountains.
History:
Shephard (1926) described a 600 foot (183 m) succession in the Hatch Creek valley which he termed the Harrogate Limestone. The Harrogate Formation was formally defined by Evans (1933), who included 500+ feet (150+ m) of underlying quartzites with the thin-bedded limestone and shales of Shephard's Harrogate Limestone. Belyea and Norford (1967) redefined the Harrogate Formation to exclude the quartzites, which they placed in the underlying Cedared Formation.
References:
Belyea, H.R. and Norford, B.S., 1967. The Devonian Cedared and Harrogate formations in the Beaverfoot, Brisco and Stanford ranges, southeast British Columbia; Geological Survey of Canada, Bulletin 146, 64 p.
Evans, C.S., 1933. Brisco-Dogtooth Map-area, British Columbia (with Map 295A); Geological Survey of Canada, Summary Report 1932, Part A, II, pp. 106-176.
Shephard, F.P. 1926. Further investigations of the Rocky Mountain Trench. Journal of Geology, volume 34, pages 623-641.
Source: CSPG Lexicon of Canadian Stratigraphy, Volume 4, western Canada, including eastern British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and southern Manitoba; D.J. Glass (editor)
Contributor: B.S. Norford; P.H. Davenport
Entry Reviewed: No
Name Set: Lithostratigraphic Lexicon
LastChange: 24 Dec 2008