Unit Name: Pardonet Formation
Unit Type: Lithostratigraphic
Rank: Formation
Status: Formal
Usage: Currently in use
Age Interval: Norian (216.5 - 203.6 ma)
Province/Territory: British Columbia
Originator: McLearn, F.H., 1940.
Type Locality:
Pardonet Hill, in the Peace River Foothills on the south side of Williston Lake, opposite the mouth of Nabesche River, NTS 94B/3 Mount Brewster. Section contains small scale thrust faulting (Tozer, 1967). Supplemental reference section at the headwaters of Eleven Mile Creek, 30.6 km (19 mi) south of Pardonet Hill (Gibson, 1971). NTS 93O/15W Carbon Creek.
Distribution:
The Pardonet Formation is confined mainly to the Rocky Mountain Foothills between Liard River in the north and Sukunka River in the south. The formation attains a maximum thickness of 137.2 m (450 ft) near the headwaters of Eleven Mile Creek, south of Williston Lake and thins eastward to zero in the subsurface of the eastern Foothills and Peace River Plains.
Lithology:
Dark grey to dark brownish grey weathering, very carbonaceous-argillaceous limestone, silty limestone, calcareous and dolomitic siltstone, and minor shale with strong fetid odor upon fracture. Limestone commonly bioclastic, consisting of whole and fragmented pelecypod shells which resemble wavy to crenulated laminations.
Relationship:
In most areas the Pardonet Formation is unconformably overlain by dark grey, recessive shale, shaly siltstone and limestone of the Jurassic Fernie Formation. Between Pine Pass and Peace River it is overlain abruptly and probably disconformably by pale grey weathering limestone of the Bocock Formation. The Pardonet is underlain conformably by resistant, cliff forming, pale to medium grey weathering carbonates of the Baldonnel Formation. The basal Pardonet is possibly equivalent to the upper Winnifred Member of the Whitehorse Formation in the Smoky River region of Alberta (Gibson, 1975).
History:
Originally defined and named 'Pardonet Member' by McLearn (1940); raised to formation status in 1960.
Remark:
Parent is the Schooler Creek Group
Age from BC map compilation given as Triassic (K.Bellefontaine, A. Legun, N.W.D. Massey et al., 1995) Is this just a less precise age assignment, or a real cahnge?
Other Citations:
Gibson, 1971, 1975; McLearn, 1940, 1960; Tozer, 1967.
Source: CSPG Lexicon of Canadian Stratigraphy, Volume 4, western Canada, including eastern British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and southern Manitoba; D.J. Glass (editor)
Contributor: D.W. Gibson
Entry Reviewed: Yes
Name Set: Lithostratigraphic Lexicon
LastChange: 31 Mar 2006