Unit Name: Mannville Group
Unit Type: Lithostratigraphic
Rank: Group
Status: Formal
Usage: Currently in use
Age Interval: Early Cretaceous (145.5 - 99.6 ma)
Province/Territory: Alberta; Saskatchewan
Originator: Nauss, 1945
Type Locality:
Northwest Mannville 1 well, in Lsd. 1, Sec. 18, Twp. 50, Rge. 8W4M, east-central Alberta, between 558.7 and 703 5 m (1,833 and 2,308 ft).
Distribution:
144.8 m (475 ft) thick in the type well and found throughout the Vermilion area, in Twp. 43 to 57, Rges 1 to 14W4M. It has been used in the area between Edmonton, Athabasca and Lloydminster, Alberta and extended southward to the International Boundary, westward to the disturbed Mesozoic belts of the foothills and eastward into central and southwestern Saskatchewan. The northern limit of the Mannville Group is approximately at the southern edge of the Deep Basin area. Price (1963) defined the probable geographic limits of the Mannville Group, but did not limit its northern extent.
Locality Data:
Thickness(m): Typical 144.8.
Lithology:
The Mannville Group consists of interbedded nonmarine sands and shales overlain by a thin, nonmarine calcareous member which is overlain by marine shales, glauconitic sands and nonmarine salt-and-pepper sands in southern and central Alberta. In east-central and northeastern Alberta the marine sequence is overlain by a paralic and nonmarine sequence having a diachronous contact with the marine sequence.
Relationship:
The Mannville Group underlies the Colorado Group (Joli Fou Formation), with a widespread disconformity separating the two units. The Mannville resides above the post-Paleozoic unconformity. It is equivalent to the lower part of the Blairmore Group below the Mill Creek Formation at its southwestern limits and to the Bullhead Group and the lower part (Spirit River Formation) of the Fort St. John Group at its northern limits. It may be considered a subgroup of the Blairmore Group. The Cantuar Formation of southeastern Saskatchewan and the Swan River Formation of Manitoba form the eastern equivalents of Mannville sediments.
References:
Nauss, Arthur William, 1945. Cretaceous stratigraphy of Vermilion area, Alberta, Canada; American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG), AAPG Bulletin, vol. 29, no. 11 (November), pp. 1605-1629.
Price, Leon L., 1963. Lower Cretaceous rocks of southeastern Saskatchewan (Report, 12 figures, 3 tables, appendix); Department of Mines and Technical Surveys, Geological Survey of Canada, Paper 62-29, 44 p.
Source: CSPG Lexicon of Canadian Stratigraphy, Volume 4, western Canada, including eastern British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and southern Manitoba; D.J. Glass (editor)
Contributor: P.E. Putnam; A.I. Burnett
Entry Reviewed: Yes
Name Set: Lithostratigraphic Lexicon
LastChange: 27 May 2010