Sequence Stratigraphy, Correlations Between Wopmay Orogen and Kilohigok Basin, and Further Investigations of the Bear Creek Group (Goulburn Supergroup), District of Mackenzie, N.W.T.

Abstract

Results indicate that the Rifle, Beechey, Link, and basal Burnside Formations are correlative with the lower member of the Odjick Formation (Coronation Supergroup). The lower Burnside Formation is also correlative with the middle member of the Odjick Formation. Correlatives of the Hackett Formation and Kimerot Group are not present in the Coronation Supergroup. In the Tinney Hills area the Rifle Formation is divided into four sequences. The marine to alluvial transition in the north Tinney Hills is characterized by three main associations of facies which represent storm-influenced marine shelf, lower delta slope, and upper delra slope. Additionally, studies of areally extensive conglomerate intervals indicate transport of gravel across the entire Slave craton, in excess of 200 km. This requires a fundamental change in the disrribution of subsidence across the basin. Areally-extensive conglomerates indicate reduced subsidence rates in the proximal part of the basin. The transition from lower Burnside Formation deltaic and distal alluvial facies to gravelly proximal alluvial facies probably records a shift from subsidence-dominated foreland sedimentation to erosion- and uplift-dominated sediment redistribution.