Mackenzie–Peel Platform and Ellesmerian Foreland Composite Tectono-Sedimentary Element, northwestern Canada

Abstract

The Mackenzie-Peel Platform tectono-sedimentary element, and the overlying Ellesmerian Foreland tectono-sedimentary element, consist of Cambrian to Early Carboniferous shelf and slope sedimentary deposits in Canada&s northern Interior Plains. In this chapter, these elements are combined into the Mackenzie-Ellesmerian Composite Tectono-Sedimentary Element. The history of the area includes early extensional faulting and subsidence in the Mackenzie Trough, passive margin deposition across the Mackenzie-Peel Platform, local uplift and erosion along the Keele Arch, subsidence and deposition in the Ellesmerian Foreland, possible minor folding during the Ellesmerian Orogeny, and folding and faulting in Cretaceous to Eocene time associated with the development of the Canadian Cordillera. Recorded petroleum discoveries are within Cambrian sandstone (Mount Clark Formation), Devonian carbonate strata (Ramparts and Fort Norman formations), and Devonian shale (Canol Formation). Additional oil and gas shows are documented from Cambrian to Silurian carbonate units (Franklin Mountain and Mount Kindle formations), Devonian carbonate units (Arnica, Landry, and Bear Rock formations), and Late Devonian to Early Carboniferous siliciclastic units (Imperial and Tuttle Formations). Petroleum exploration activity within the area has occurred in several phases since 1920, most of it associated with the one producing oil field at Norman Wells.