ABSTRACT: Precambrian Basement Faults in the Northern Alberta Basin

TOUBERG, JENS F., J.F. Touberg Consulting Inc., Oakville, Ontario, Canada

We address Devonian exploration plays in the Northern Alberta basin based on a fault map that is interpreted from a series of magnetic shadow plots using G.S.C. total field data and enhancements of NOAH weather satellite and Landsat scenes.

The map covers basin and Precambrian shield terrains from the Peace River arch in the south to Great Slave Lake and Lake Athabasca in northeastern Saskatchewan, and it illustrates four principal fault trends: (1) a northeast-southwest system associated with the Hay River subprovince boundary fault, (2) and (3) a conjugate set of dominant ENE-WSW and WNW-ESE dextral faults that are superposed on the northeast-southwest system, and (4) a northwest-southeast sinistral set that parallels the Cordilleran trend.

The ENE-WSW system is an important regional fault trend, and it can be traced from the Cordilleran Foothills across the basin into the Precambrian shield to the Proterozoic Athabasca sandstone basin in the east. Most important, the ENE-WSW faults control the Mid-Devonian Rainbow, Zama, and Shekillie pinnacle reef basins, and they are important fracture porosity controls in the Dizzy Creek field.

The northeast-southwest, ENE-WSW, WNW-ESE, and northwest-southeast fault trends have been analyzed at the detailed prospect scale in the Dizzy Creek field area using Canada Centre for Remote Sensing C band, SAR radar data with 6 m resolution obtained from an airborne test survey. We present a series of enhancements and merged data sets to illustrate the surface expression of a field that produces from Keg River interval under 1200 m of Devonian and Cretaceous shale and Pleistocene till cover.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91012©1992 AAPG Annual Meeting, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, June 22-25, 1992 (2009)