Unit Name: Titkana Formation
Unit Type: Lithostratigraphic
Rank: Formation
Status: Formal
Usage: Currently in use
Age Interval: Middle Cambrian (513 - 499 ma)
Province/Territory: Alberta; British Columbia
Originator: Walcott, C.D., 1913.
Type Locality:
Titkana Peak and adjacent Tatei Ridge, on the British Columbia-Alberta boundary east of Robson Pass.
Distribution:
366 to 519 m (1,200 to 1,700 ft) thick (Mountjoy, 1964) [not 671 m (2,200 ft), as Walcott (1928) stated ]. It thins eastward to 244 m (800 ft) feet in the Chetamon thrust sheet. It is a lateral equivalent of the Eldon Formation. Until more stratigraphic work is done in the Mount Robson area it may still be a useful local formation name.
Locality Data:
Thickness(m): Minimum 244, Maximum 519.
Lithology:
Massive, cliff forming grey limestones and dolomitic limestones, micritic and generally unfossiliferous.
Relationship:
Overlain conformably by the Pika Formation and underlain unconformably by the Tatei Formation.
History:
Has been recognized by all subsequent workers as a distinctive cliff forming unit beneath the Arctomys and Pika formations. It was amended by Mountjoy (1962, p. 10) to exclude 61 to 214 m (200 to 700 ft) of recessive weathering, argillaceous limestone from the top which were assigned to the Pika Formation.
Other Citations:
Mountjoy, 1962, 1964, 1980; Mountjoy and Aitken, 1978; Walcott, 1913, 1928.
References:
Mountjoy, E.W., 1962. Mount Robson map-area (southeast), Rocky Mountains of Alberta and British Columbia; Geological Survey of Canada, Paper 61-31.
Mountjoy, E.W., 1964. Mount Robson (southeast quarter, 83E5E); Geological Survey of Canada, Map 47-1963.
Walcott, C.D., 1913. Cambrian formations of the Robson Peak District, British Columbia and Alberta, Canada; Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, vol. 47, no. 12, pp. 327-343.
Walcott, C.D., 1928. Pre-Devonian Paleozoic formations of the Cordilleran provinces of Canada; Cambrian geology and paleontology, Part S. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, vol. 75, no. 5, p. 175-368.
Source: CSPG Lexicon of Canadian Stratigraphy, Volume 4, western Canada, including eastern British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and southern Manitoba; D.J. Glass (editor)
Contributor: E.W. Mountjoy
Entry Reviewed: Yes
Name Set: Lithostratigraphic Lexicon
LastChange: 11 Mar 2009