Skoki Formation
{{Infobox rockunit
| name = Skoki Formation
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| type = Formation
| age = Middle Ordovician ~{{Fossil range|485|470}}
| prilithology = dolomite
| otherlithology = Limestone
| namedfor = Skoki Mountain
| namedby =Charles Doolittle WalcottWalcott, C.D. 1928. Pre-Devonian Paleozoic formations of the Cordilleran Provinces of Canada; Part 5. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, vol. 75, no. 5, p. 175-368.
| region = Canadian Rockies
| country = {{flag|Canada}}
| coordinates = {{coord|51|32|00|N|116|03|39|W|name=Skoki Formation|display=inline,title}}
| unitof =
| subunits =
| underlies = Owen Creek Formation
| overlies = Outram Formation or Tipperary Quartzite
| thickness = Up to 186 metres (610 ft)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}}.
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The Skoki Formation is a stratigraphic unit of Early to Middle Ordovician age that is present on the western edge of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin in the Canadian Rockies of Alberta and British Columbia.{{Cite web|url=http://ags.aer.ca/reports/atlas-of-the-western-canada-sedimentary-basin.htm|title=The Geological Atlas of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin (Mossop, G.D. and Shetsen, I., compilers), Chapter 8: Middle Cambrian and Early Ordovician Strata of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin|author=Slind, O.L., Andrews, G.D., Murray, D.L., Norford, B.S., Paterson, D.F., Salas, C.J., and Tawadros, E.E., Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists and Alberta Geological Survey|year=1994|accessdate=2018-07-13}} It was named for Skoki Mountain near Lake Louise in Banff National Park by Charles Doolittle Walcott in 1928. The Skoki Formation is fossiliferous and includes remains of brachiopods and other marine invertebrates, as well as conodonts and oncolites.
Lithology and deposition
The Skoki Formation formed as a shallow marine shelf along the western shoreline of the North American Craton during Early to Middle Ordovician time.Aitken, J.D. 1966. Middle Cambrian to Middle Ordovician cyclic sedimentation, southern Rocky Mountains of Alberta. Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology, vol. 14, no. 6, p. 405-441. Most of the original limestone was subsequently altered to dolomite. Many beds include quartz sand and silt, and some include layers of brown argillite.
Distribution and stratigraphic relationships
The Skoki is present in the Canadian Rockies of Alberta and British Columbia. It reaches a thickness of up to 186 metres (610 ft) in the southern Rockies and about 500 metres (1800 ft) in the northern Rockies. It conformably overlies the Outram Formation or the Tipperary Quartzite, depending on the location, and underlies the Owen Creek Formation.{{cite web|last1=Alberta Geological Survey, 2013|title=Alberta Table of Formations; Alberta Energy Regulator|url=http://ags.aer.ca/table-of-formation|accessdate=1 May 2018}}
Paleontology
The Skoki Formation contains several genera of brachiopods, as well as gastropods, conodonts, cephalopods, trilobites, echinoderms, stromatolites, corals, and oncolites.
References
{{reflist}}
- {{cite web|title= Fossilworks: Gateway to the Paleobiology Database|author= ((Various Contributors to the Paleobiology Database))|url= https://www.fossilworks.org|access-date= 17 December 2021}}
{{Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin|Canadian Rockies=yes}}
Category:Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin
Category:Paleontology in Alberta
Category:Geologic formations of Alberta
Category:Geologic formations of British Columbia