Geological Survey of Canada Open File 1751

Organic petrology, thermal maturity and Rock-Eval/TOC data 
for upper Paleozoic to Upper Cretaceous strata from wells near 
Liard River, northeast British Columbia 

Potter, J., Goodarzi, F., Morrow, D.W., Richards, B.C., and Snowdon, L.R.

2003

Abstract

During the period 1998-2001 I initiated a study of the Upper Ordovician/Lower Silurian strata of southwestern Ontario with the object of more clearly delineating the regional stratigraphic, sedimentological and resource potential framework of the Taconian Foreland Succession of the Appalachian Basin. These rocks have received only modest attention in recent decades but represent a key geologic interval in the earth history of this heavily populated area. This work was encouraged by T. Carter of Ministry of Natural Resources, and D. Armstrong of Ontario Geological Survey, who also assisted with extensive discussions in the field and core lab.
	These rocks have economic value due to the enclosed a) oil and gas, b) building and landscape stone, and c) bricking and pottery clay; all important resources in the southern Ontario local market. Scientifically, they are important because they document two stacked major third-order Transgressive-Regressive sequences, within the Tippecanoe Sequence, which filled the Appalachian Basin as a result of the Taconian Orogeny. The presence of basinwide stacked coarsening-upward, shallowing-upward fourth-order fill sequences throughout the succession can be identified, mapped and related to both the tectonic history and the resource potential.
	A total of 104 outcrop and 16 subsurface core sections were measured, ranging from 1 m to 525 m in length and totalling 5008 m of descriptive logs: by far the most extensive and detailed data set of its kind for these rocks. This study is also the first attempt to integrate surface and subsurface rock sections of this age on a regional basis. Additionally, this initial work includes the largest paleocurrent data set to date (722 measurements). A collection of 105 subsurface well logs, from scattered deep wells, and covering the interval of interest, have been assembled, but not yet analysed and compared to the surface outcrop sections. Analysis, synthesis and interpretation of this data is not yet complete but will continue and eventually lead to a GSC Bulletin detailing the stratigraphy, sedimentology and resource potential of the Upper Ordovician/Lower Silurian succession.
	In this preliminary report, all 120 measured sections, drafted in CorelDraw are included on a CD, and important information for these is listed in Tables 1-5. Several simplified location maps are also includedIntroduction
	Approximately 64 core and 93 drill cuttings samples were collected from shale and siltstone intervals in Middle Devonian to Upper Cretaceous strata in the following seven well sections located between N59o 15' and N60o and W122o and W125o, northeast British Columbia (Figure 1):

	Aquitaine Tatoo a-2-D			a-2-D/94-O-11
	IOE Pan Am Viscount a-77-D		a-77-D/94-O-11
	Amin-Aquitaine Windflower d-87-A	d-87-A/94-O-11   
	Amoco LaBiche a-67-D			a-67-D/94-O-13
	Imperial Pan Am LaBiche b-55-E		b-55-E/94-O-13		
	Central Leduc Toad River No.1		c-10-E/94-N-7
	IOE Dunedin a-75-E			a-75-E/94-N-8
	
	The samples were collected as part of a study of the organic petrology, thermal maturity and Rock-Eval\TOC, hydrocarbon potential and thermal maturity of the Upper Devonian and Lower Carboniferous in the northern part of the Liard Basin and adjacent platform in the southern District of Mackenzie and northeastern British Columbia (Potter, 1998). Samples (100g) were hand picked from washed cuttings or core (C) and are labeled according to the logged depths and assigned GSC C-numbers (Tables 1 & 2). The stratigraphic intervals sampled are indicated in Figure 2.