Unit Name: Mount Whyte Formation
Unit Type: Lithostratigraphic
Rank: Formation
Status: Formal
Usage: Currently in use
Age Interval: Early Cambrian - Middle Cambrian (542 - 499 ma)
Province/Territory: Alberta; British Columbia
Originator: Walcott, C.D., 1908.
Type Locality:
On the north slope of Mount Whyte, in the Bow Range, 3 km (2 mi) west of the outlet of Lake Louise, Banff National Park, Alberta. Also on Ptarmigan Peak 16 km (10 mi) northeast of original type locality (Deiss, 1939), and on the eastern slope of Pope's Peak, about 0.6 km (1 mi) south of original type locality.
Distribution:
The unit is 84 m (275 ft) thick in the amended type section (Deiss, 1939). Thicknesses measured by Rasetti (1951) range from 18 to 176 m (58 to 578 ft). The formation is known at numerous localities in the Kicking Horse Pass area.
Lithology:
Deiss (1939, p. 998-1000) amended the original description of the Mount Whyte Formation to: Upper member: interbedded oolitic limestones and shales; 44 m (143 ft) thick. Middle member: green shales with thin sandstones and conglomerates, grading upward into shady calcareous sandstones and, finally into blue-grey, nodular, impure limestones; 32 m (106 ft) thick. Basal member: flaggy beds of limestone and arenaceous limestone, with lenticular beds of pebbly sandstone and shale partings; 18 m (26 ft) thick.
Relationship:
The Mount Whyte Formation overlies the Lower Cambrian St. Piran Formation and is overlain by the Middle Cambrian Cathedral Formation; both contacts apparently conformable. The basal member of Deiss (1939) contains the Olenellus fauna, and the upper member the Plagiura zone. Rasetti (1951) placed the Olenellus fauna in the upper limestone of the St. Piran Formation, suggesting that the Mount Whyte Formation is of Middle Cambrian age only. There may be a marked disconformity between the basal Olenellus zone and the remainder of the formation.
Other Citations:
Allan, 1914; Burling, 1916, 1922; Deiss, 1939, 1940; Fox, 1953; North and Henderson, 1954, Rasetti, 1951; Walcott, 1908, 1917, 1928.
Source: CSPG Lexicon of Canadian Stratigraphy, Volume 4, western Canada, including eastern British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and southern Manitoba; D.J. Glass (editor)
Contributor: ASPG Lexicon 1960
Entry Reviewed: Yes
Name Set: Lithostratigraphic Lexicon
LastChange: 29 Apr 2003