Biostratigraphy and sedimentology of Middle Cambrian deep-water deposits (Rockslide Formation), Mackenzie Mountains
Principal Investigator: Pratt, Brian R. (7)
Licence Number: 13344
Organization: University of Saskatchewan
Licensed Year(s): 2012 2002 2000 1998
Issued: Jun 28, 2002
Project Team: Sean Robso

Objective(s): Outcrops in the Mackenzie Mountains preserve an almost uninterrupted sequence of strata of Cambrian age, sedimentary rocks some half a billion years old. This study aims to collect in bed-by-bed detail samples containing fossils from the Rockslide Formation ie. the Middle Cambrian portion of the sequence, exposed in the Backbone Ranges of the southern Mackenzie Mountains. Samples will be split or dissolved in the laboratory and fossils of trilobites and brachiopods prepared, photographed and identified. The biostratigraphy of these fossils, based on the successive evolution of immigration of species, will generate a more refined relative time scale for this part of the geologic column. This project was begun in 1983 and 1984 and continues in 1998. The results will aid in correlation of Cambrian rocks around the world and help us understand the evolution of the earth and this part of North America at this time.