Unit Name: Yahatinda Formation
Unit Type: Lithostratigraphic
Rank: Formation
Status: Formal
Usage: Currently in use
Age Interval: Middle Devonian - Late Devonian (397.5 - 359.2 ma)
Province/Territory: Alberta
Originator: Aitken, 1966a
Type Locality:
The type section is the lens of red, channel-filling beds on the east face of Wapiti Mountain, above Ya-Ha-Tinda Ranch, at 51° 44'N, 115° 12'W, Alberta.
Distribution:
Because it was deposited on a surface of considerable topographic relief the Yahatinda Formation varies rapidly and erratically in thickness and is absent at many pre-Devonian and Devonian stratigraphic contacts. Maximum thickness is 265 m (870 ft), but more typical thicknesses are less than 30 m (98 ft). The formation outcrops discontinuously in the front ranges of the Rocky Mountains, from Sylvan Pass near Kananaskis Lakes in the south to Brazeau River in the north, and possibly on Mount Wilson in extreme southern Alberta.
Locality Data:
Thickness(m): Minimum 30, Maximum 265.
Lithology:
Mainly dolomites of detrital origin; dolarenite, dolsiltite, conglomerate and breccia, with subordinate quartz sandstone and siltstone. The beds are varicolored, mainly red. The upper part of the formation (nonchannel facies) is generally finer grained, less red in color and contains beds of argillaceous, silty, very fine-crystalline dolomite.
Relationship:
Rests unconformably on strata ranging in age from Middle Cambrian to Late Ordovician. The contact with overlying sub-Cairn evaporitic limestone breccias and limestone is probably disconformable. The Yahatinda Formation was largely deposited on the west Alberta ridge; it represents a fluvial to estuarine facies equivalent to the Cedared Formation west of the ridge, and to some part of the Elk Point Group east of the ridge.
History:
Refer to Ghost River Formation.
References:
Aitken, J.D., 1966a, p.15-24.
McGregor and Rouse, 1962
McGregor, D.C., 1963. Palaeobotanical evidence for the age of Basal Devonian strata at Ghost River, Alberta. Bull. Can. Petrol. Geol., v. 11, no. 3, p. 299-303
Source: CSPG Lexicon of Canadian Stratigraphy, Volume 4, western Canada, including eastern British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and southern Manitoba; D.J. Glass (editor)
Contributor: J.D. Aitken; D.K. Norris
Entry Reviewed: Yes
Name Set: Lithostratigraphic Lexicon
LastChange: 28 Mar 2014