CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Author : Fisher, T.G.; and Smith, D.G.
Date : 1993.
Title : Pleistocene aggregate resources of the Clearwater-lower Athabasca spillway, NW Saskatchewan and NE Alberta
Publication : CANQUA : Canadian Quaternary Association : Applied Quaternary research, program with abstracts and field guide, April 18-21, 1993, Royal British Columbia Museum, Victoria, British Columbia
Issue :
Page(s) : A14.
Abstract
At present, the Fort McMurray region of Alberta is experiencing an aggregate supply and cost crisis. Both Syncrude and Suncor oil sand extractions plants, have exploited most of their own reserves and haul costs from distant new reserves are high. Cost is doubled for users in Fort McMurray who are hauling in gravel from 80 km distance. Previous aggregate studies in this region have focused on mapping known deposits rather than explaining the distribution or processes responsible for these sediments and thus using a process-model as an exploration tool. Some known deposits are along the margins of the Lower-Clearwater and Athabasca valleys (spillway system) which extends 148 km westwards from northwestern Saskatchewan to Fort McMurray. From there the spillway continues northwards down the Lower Athabasca River another 85 km. On average, the spillway is 140 m deep, 4 km wide and is essentially straight. The most probable source of water foreroding the spillway and depositing flood gravel was a catastrophic flood from glacial Lake Agassiz 9.9 ka B.P. All existing aggregate resources are found in localized reaches on the benchlands adjacent to the spillway. Representative flood facies are 1) boulder lags; 2) poorly sorted boulder gravel often with armoured till balls and intra-formational glaciolacustine, till and bedrock mega blocks; 3) cross-stratified gravels; and, 4) upper flow regime sandy plane beds. Discovery of future aggregate resources in the Fort McMurray region will be best accomplished by utilizing knowledge of the regional deglacial history, specifically spillway forming processes.
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology