Type Geological formation Primary Gravel, sand Country Canada Overlies Ravenscrag Formation | Underlies erosional surface Other Conglomerate, marl Named for Cypress Hills | |
Thickness up to 80 metres (260 ft) Region Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin | ||
The Cypress Hills Formation is a stratigraphical unit of Oligocene age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin.
Contents
It takes the name from the Cypress Hills, and was first described in outcrops on the slopes of the Cypress Hills by M.Y. Williams and W.S. Dyer in 1930. Type localities are found at Anxiety Butte in south-western Saskatchewan, as well as hill slopes in south-eastern Alberta.
Lithology
The Cypress Hills Formation is composed of loose quartzitic gravel and sand, occasionally conglomerate and marl.
Distribution
The Cypress Hills Formation reaches a maximum thickness of 80 metres (260 ft) in the sub-surface in Saskatchewan, and is typically 40 metres (130 ft) thick. It occurs in the elevated Cypress hills, as well as in several plateau remnants in south-eastern Saskatchewan, south of the Frenchman River.
Relationship to other units
The Cypress Hills Formation forms the present day erosional surface, or may be covered by Laurentian Drift and loess. It conformably overlays the Ravenscrag Formation.
It is equivalent to the Swift Current Creek Formation in southern Saskatchewan.