Type Locality:

Ridge about 13 km (8 mi) west of Hayhook Lake in the Plateau thrust plate (63 deg 33'30"N, 127 deg 03'W).

Distribution:

Thickness ranges between a few tens to 500 m (1,640 ft), and is 235 m (771 ft) at the type section. Extends from central Mackenzie Mountains northwesterly for 500 km (310 mi).

Lithology:

Massive, buff or reddish-weathering tillite and grey-green composite diamictite, interstratified with shale, siltstone, and minor sandstone. Striated clasts common in tillite, rare in glaciomarine diamictite. Cobble and boulder composition is mainly dolomite, limestone, greenstone, quartzite, and a small amount of shield-derived crystalline rocks. Matrix of diamictite is lithic arenite or greywacke, and reflects composition of cobbles and boulders at the same stratigraphic level.

Relationship:

Grades downward into Sayunei Fm and is also unconformable on older units. The base of the Shezal is placed at the first occurrence of numerous subrounded to well-rounded clasts of dolomite, limestone, quartzite, greenstone or crystalline rocks embedded in a matrix of unevenly bedded to scaly siltstone and greywacke. The top is placed at the sharp contact of diamictites of the Shezal, with dark grey to black pyritic shale or thinly laminated lime-stone of the conformably overlying Twitya Fm. The Shezal corresponds to the Bonnet Plume Tillite of Ziegler (1959), the middle unit of the Rapitan Gp by Gabrielse et al. (1973) and Upitis (1966) and the "Diamictite" of Eisbacher (1976).

Other Citations:

Eisbacher, 1976, 1978a, 1978b; Gabrielse et al., 1973; Upitis, 1966; Ziegler, 1959.