Supriya Ghosh (Editor)

Pine Point Formation

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Type
  
Geological formation

Country
  
Canada

Primary
  
Limestone, Slate

Overlies
  
Chinchaga Formation

Named by
  
A.E. Cameron, 1918

Underlies
  
Presqu'ile Formation, Sulphur Point Formation

Thickness
  
up to 115 metres (380 ft)

Region
  
Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin

Named for
  
Pine Point, Northwest Territories

The Pine Point Formation is a stratigraphical unit of Givetian age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin.

Contents

It takes the name from Pine Point, a promontory (and former townsite) on the south shore of the Great Slave Lake, west of Fort Resolution, and was first described in outcrop on the shore of the lake between Pine Point and Fort Resolution by A.E. Cameron in 1918.

Lithology

The Pine Point Formation is composed of bituminous limestone and calcareous shale.

Distribution

The Pine Point Formation reaches a thickness of up to 115 metres (380 ft) in its type locality on the shore of the Great Slave Lake.

Relationship to other units

The Pine Point Formation is overlain by the Presqu'ile Formation and Sulphur Point Formation; It conformably overlays the Chinchaga Formation and Fitzgerald Formation.

It is equivalent to Muskeg Formation in northern Alberta, the Dunedin Formation in British Columbia and the upper Nahanni Formation in western Northwest Territories.

Subdivisions

The Pine Point has group status in the southern Northwest Territories, and includes:

  • Buffalo River Member
  • Horn River Formation shale tongues
  • Keg River Formation platform facies was included in the group before 1975
  • References

    Pine Point Formation Wikipedia