Titkana Formation Explained

The Titkana Formation is a stratigraphic unit of Middle Cambrian age that is present on the western edge of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin in the northern Canadian Rockies of Alberta and British Columbia.^[3] It was named for Titkana Peak near Mount Robson by Charles Doolittle Walcott in 1913. The Titkana Formation is generally unfossiliferous.

Lithology and deposition

The Titkana Formation formed as a shallow marine shelf along the western shoreline of the North American Craton during Middle Cambrian time.^[4] Some of the original limestone was subsequently altered to dolomite.

Distribution and stratigraphic relationships

The Titkana is present in the northern Canadian Rockies of Alberta and British Columbia where it reaches thicknesses of up to about 520 metres (1700 ft). It conformably overlies the Pika Formation and is unconformably overlain by the Tatei Formation. It is equivalent to the Eldon Formation in the southern Canadian Rockies.

Notes and References

1. Walcott, C.D. 1913. Cambrian Formations of the Robson Peak District, British Columbia and Alberta, Canada. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, vol. 47, no. 12, p. 327-343.
2. 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. .
3. Web site: 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. 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. 1994. 2018-07-13.
4. 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.