Hondo Member

Unit Name: Hondo Member
Unit Type: Lithostratigraphic
Rank: Member
Status: Formal
Usage: Currently in use
Age Interval: Frasnian (385.3 - 374.5 ma)
Province/Territory: Alberta

Originator: Belyea, H.R., 1952.

Type Locality:

Barnsdall West Wabiskaw No. 1 well, in 11-17-78-2W5M, in Alberta, between 884 and 981 m (2,900 and 3,216 ft).

Distribution:

Ranges from zero to 140 m (459 ft) in thickness; localized in Twps. 68-90, Rges. 23W4M-10W5M in Alberta.

Lithology:

Interlayered cream to brown, finely laminated dolomite, anhydritic dolomite, white to reddish brown anhydrite, and minor green siltstone and shale. Commonly a carbonate clast breccia with green shale matrix occurs. To the east nearer the subcrop edge Belyea's (1952) "evaporite limestone" (in part dedolomite; pers. comm. W.G. Cutler and L.S. Eliuk) occurs interbedded with dolomite at the same stratigraphic level as the anhydrites.

Relationship:

Occurs within the upper portion of the Grosmont Formation, grading laterally into fossiliferous carbonates of that unit to the north, west and south. The lower boundary is markedly diachronous. To the east the anhydrite is absent 30 to 60 km (18 to 36 mi) downdip from the sub-Cretaceous erosional subcrop edge, making the Hondo difficult to distinguish from nonanhydritic Grosmont. The Hondo Member is overlain by the Nisku Formation of the Winterburn Group, which also may be anhydritic at its base.

History:

Originally proposed as a member of the Woodbend Formation. Used as a formation when the Woodbend was raised to group rank. The authors (Cutler and Eliuk, in prep.) propose that the unit be reduced to a member of the Grosmont because it is markedly diachronous at its lower boundary, it is surrounded as well as underlain by Grosmont Formation lithologies, and it is difficult to define and map in the absence of anhydrite toward the eastern subcrop edge.

Other Citations:

Belyea, 1952; Cutler, 1983.

Source: CSPG Lexicon of Canadian Stratigraphy, Volume 4, western Canada, including eastern British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and southern Manitoba; D.J. Glass (editor)
Contributor: L.S. Eliuk; W.G. Cutler; P.A. Monahan
Entry Reviewed: Yes
Name Set: Lithostratigraphic Lexicon
LastChange: 25 Oct 2007