Orogeny and the collapse of the Devonian Prairie Evaporite karst in Western Canada: impact on the overlying Cretaceous Athabasca Oil Sands
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Published:January 01, 2018
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CiteCitation
Paul L. Broughton, 2018. "Orogeny and the collapse of the Devonian Prairie Evaporite karst in Western Canada: impact on the overlying Cretaceous Athabasca Oil Sands", Advances in Karst Research: Theory, Fieldwork and Applications, M. Parise, F. Gabrovsek, G. Kaufmann, N. Ravbar
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Abstract
The Middle Devonian Prairie Evaporite Formation accumulated up to 200 m of halite-dominated beds across Western Canada in a salt basin extending from northern Alberta southeastwards into southern Saskatchewan and western North Dakota. A 1000 km long salt dissolution trend along the eastern basin margin resulted in the removal of 100–150 m of halite–anhydrite beds. A second salt dissolution trend removed up to 200 m of section across southern Saskatchewan. The removal of the halite-dominated beds and the collapse of the overlying strata responded to regional aquifer and vertical water flows driven by compaction up-structure to the NE towards...
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Advances in Karst Research: Theory, Fieldwork and Applications
CONTAINS OPEN ACCESS

Karst landscapes and karst aquifers are composed of a variety of soluble rocks, such as salt, gypsum, anhydrite, limestone, dolomite and quartzite. They are fascinating areas of exploration, study and research. As karst rocks are abundant on the Earth’s surface, the fast evolution of karst landscapes and the rapid flow of water through karst aquifers present many challenges from a number of different perspectives. This collection of 25 papers deals with different aspects of these challenges, including karst geology, geomorphology and speleogenesis, karst hydrogeology, karst modelling, and karst hazards and management. Together these papers provide a state-of-the-art review of the current challenges and solutions we face in describing karst from a scientific perspective, while at the same time providing useful data and information for managing karst territories to land planners, developers, and managers of show caves, natural parks and reserves in karst terrains.
GeoRef
- Alberta
- anhydrite
- Athabasca Oil Sands
- basins
- Canada
- chemically precipitated rocks
- chlorides
- collapse structures
- Cretaceous
- deposition
- Devonian
- evaporites
- faults
- flows
- fractures
- halides
- halite
- Jurassic
- karst
- Laramide Orogeny
- Lower Cretaceous
- McMurray Formation
- Mesozoic
- Middle Devonian
- Middle Jurassic
- orogeny
- Paleozoic
- Prairie Evaporite
- sedimentary rocks
- sulfates
- Western Canada