Palliser Formation
{{Short description|Geologic formation in Canada}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2025}}
{{Infobox Rockunit
| name = Palliser Formation
| image = Lake Minnewanka in 1902.jpg
| caption = The type section of the cliff-forming Palliser Formation near Lake Minnewanka
| type = Geological formation
| age = {{fossil range|Famennian|Famennian|Famennian}}
| period = Famennian
| prilithology = Limestone, dolomite
| otherlithology = Anhydrite
| namedfor = Palliser Range
| region = Canadian Rockies
| country = Canada
| map =
| map_caption =
| coordinates = {{Wikidatacoord|Q7127913|display=inline,title}}
| unitof =
| subunits = Costigan Member
Morro Member
| underlies = Exshaw Formation
| overlies = Alexo Formation
| thickness = up to {{convert|580|m|ft|-1}}
| extent =
| area =
}}
The Palliser Formation is a stratigraphic unit of Late Devonian (Famennian) age in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin.{{Cite web |url=http://www.ags.gov.ab.ca/publications/wcsb_atlas/a_ch13/ch_13.html |title=The Geological Atlas of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin, Chapter 13: Devonian Wabamun Group of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin |author=Mossop, G.D. and Shetsen, I., (compilers), Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists and Alberta Geological Survey |year=1994 |access-date=October 18, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150314214223/http://www.ags.gov.ab.ca/publications/wcsb_atlas/a_ch13/ch_13.html |archive-date=March 14, 2015 }} It is a thick sequence of limestone and dolomitic limestone that is present in the Canadian Rockies and foothills of western Alberta. Tall cliffs formed of the Palliser Formation can be seen throughout Banff and Jasper National Parks.
The formation was named for the Palliser Range in Banff National Park (which in turn took its name from John Palliser, the leader of the 1850s Palliser Expedition), by H.H. Beach in 1943.Beach, H.H., 1943. Moose Mountain and Morley map-areas, Alberta; Geological Survey of Canada, Memoir 236, 74 p. The type locality was defined in 1994 in the "Devil's Gap" section south of Mount Costigan of the Palliser Range, north of Lake Minnewanka.Meijer Drees, N.C. and Johnston, D.I. 1994. Type Section and conodont biostratigraphy of the Upper Devonian Palliser Formation, southwestern Alberta. Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology. 42:1. P 55-62.
Lithology and paleontology
The Palliser Formation was deposited in a marine environment as an extensive carbonate shelf.Beales, F.W. 1954. The Palliser Banks in the Late Devonian seas of southwestern Alberta. Alberta Society of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin, vol. 2, no. 10, p. 1-5. It is subdivided into the Morro Member (the lower part) and the Costigan Member (the upper part).DeWit, R.W., and McLaren, D.J. 1950. Devonian Sections in the Rocky Mountains between Crowsnest Pass and Jasper, Alberta. Geological Survey of Canada, Paper 50-23. The Morro Member consists of massive, fine-grained limestone and dolomitic limestone. It contains remains of brachiopods, crinoids, gastropods, ostracods and conodont elements. The Costigan Member is less dolomitic, more argillaceous, and more fossiliferous than the Morro. It contains remains of brachiopods, crinoids, conodont elements, nautiloids, bryozoans, stromatoporoids and stromatolites.
{{Cite web |url=http://cgkn1.cgkn.net/weblex/weblex_litho_detail_e.pl? |title=Palliser Formation |author=Lexicon of Canadian Geologic Units |access-date=March 1, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090416121153/http://cgkn1.cgkn.net/weblex/weblex_litho_detail_e.pl |archive-date=April 16, 2009 }}
Anhydrite beds can be present in both members.Glass, D.J. (editor) 1997. Lexicon of Canadian Stratigraphy, vol. 4, Western Canada including eastern British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and southern Manitoba. Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists, Calgary, 1423 p. on CD-ROM. {{ISBN|0-920230-23-7}}.
Distribution and thickness
Relationship to other units
The Palliser Formation is disconformably overlain by the Exshaw Formation and conformably underlain by the Alexo Formation. It is equivalent to the Wabamun Group in central Alberta, to the middle part of the Three Forks Formation in Saskatchewan and Montana and to the Tetcho Formation and Kotcho Formation in the Fort Nelson area of British Columbia.{{cite web |last1=Alberta Geological Survey |title=Alberta Table of Formations, May 2019 |url=https://ags.aer.ca/document/INF/Table_of_Formations_2019.pdf |publisher=Alberta Energy Regulator |access-date=March 24, 2020 |archive-date=September 25, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190925232736/https://ags.aer.ca/document/INF/Table_of_Formations_2019.pdf |url-status=live }}
Economic resources
Limestone quarried from the Palliser Formation is used to manufacture cement at Exshaw, Alberta.Leckie, D.A. 2017. Rocks, ridges and rivers – Geological wonders of Banff, Yoho, and Jasper National Parks, p. 47. Brokenpoplars, Calgary, Alberta, 217 pp. {{ISBN|978-0-9959082-0-8}}.
References
{{reflist}}
{{Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin|Canadian Rockies=yes}}
Category:Geologic formations of Alberta
Category:Devonian southern paleotropical deposits
Category:Limestone formations of Canada
Category:Shallow marine deposits