July/August Reservoir 2021

JULY/AUGUST 2021 • ISSUE 4

THE MAGAZINE OF CANADIAN ENERGY GEOSCIENTISTS

Reservoir cspg.org

Service Beyond Analysis ■ www.agatlabs.com

CRISP: A New Method for Determining Petrophysical Properties in Athabasca Oil Sands Plays Graham Spray, M.Sc., P.Geo

GUSSOW AD COMING

Technical Advisor, AGAT Laboratories

AGAT Laboratories introduces a new methodology for petrophysical measurements in unconsolidated media. CRISP – Cyclically Restored In Situ Petrophysics – is a new technique developed at AGAT Laboratories to provide petrophysical data for oil sands. The new approach provides data that is much more representative of in situ reservoir characteristics, is highly repeatable and reliable, and yields a wide array of data from a single test. The method has been developed to overcome both the data quality limitations of sleeved-plug net-overburden analysis, and the cost and time limitations of special core analysis. This talk will go into the essentials of the new device and method, outputs and accuracy, customizable test stages, and the current status of ongoing method validation work. Be sure to check out the upcoming Geoconvention 2021 Technical Program for more information regarding the session and time.

Come Join Us and register at www.geoconvention.com/registration-information

In This Issue

J U LY / A U G U S T 2 0 2 1

4

Letter from the Editor

6

Message from the Board

7

2020 CSPG Graduate Thesis Award – Best Ph.D. Thesis

10 Part 4 of 4: Our Role as Professionals, Collaboration with Regulators, Governments and the Courts, and Some Policy Recommendations

UPCOMING EVENTS Page 23

Mountjoy Conference

14 Go Take A Hike – Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park

August 17-19, 2021

20 2020 CSPG Graduate Thesis Award – Best M.Sc. Thesis

EETiG 2021 Symposium

24 Go Take A Walk – Red Square & Rapakivi 29 2021 Regional Scholarship Winners

Page 33

November 17-18, 2021 Page 30

32 From the Desk of the AER

Gussow 2022: A Technical Conference about Your Professional Future

34 Go Take A Hike – Ethiopia, #5

May 10-12, 2022

EASTERN MAIN RANGES, YOHO NATIONAL PARK, BRITISH COLUMBIA. Folded calcareous shales of the Cambrian Waterfowl and lower part of the Sullivan formations have been eroded to expose an anticline in the core of Whaleback Mountain to the north-northeast of Field, B.C. To the northwest, the triangular summit of Isolated Peak displays nearly horizontally strata of the middle part of the Sullivan Fm. on the downthrown side of a normal fault that lies between the two peaks. Ice sheets are of the Glacier des Poilus complex. Photo by: Naomi Wiebe

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FROM THE EDITOR TOM SNEDDON, PROFESSIONAL GEOLOGIST (ALBERTA), PROFESSIONAL GEOSCIENTIST

The Go Take a Hike series continues with a thought-provoking set of routes to allow a geological plan for exploration of the Saskatchewan/Alberta bi-Provincial Cypress Hills Park, by the trio of Hoffman, Bamforth and Benham. Let me add that there is a particularly good 9-hole golf course at the top of the Elkwater Lake side of the border, for those so-inclined.

T

he Benign Season of Summer has finally arrived, with clear robin’s egg blue skies and (this year) 40 C days, long lazy evenings, and green stuff all over the place. Hopefully also in your bank accounts! Thanks to all our contributors to this edition and several more for the tightly packed upcoming September/October edition as well. Your efforts make the Reservoir the preferred choice for beach reading and planning materials for back-country adventures. And for your 2021/22 Continuing Professional Development Program! We begin Summer with Board Member Kurt Armbruster’s peek into the Technical Division’s plan for the (hopefully) postCOVID year of our 11 Divisions’ updates on geoscience and developing technologies. Let me pitch the 2021/22 Technical Division authors for extended articles on their noon-hour presentations for printing in the Reservoir as well. Not all of us can attend all the talks and we would like more of an insight into the topic than is possible with the (also Reservoir published) abstract.

This year’s Best Masters Thesis was awarded to Nakarí Díaz of Simon Fraser University for her Viking Formation sequence stratigraphy interpretation. The Viking is near and dear to all of us and expect a good read of the Reservoir article and maybe even the entire thesis. There is also a video interview with Nakarí at the end of the article.

If international travel is on your agenda (or dream list) we present a field trip to Ethiopia, guided by Benham, Mulugeta and Pfeiffer. This intriguing contribution covers hot mineral springs that only a hydrogeologist can love, particularly if volcanism is part of the mix.

We round out our celebration of academic excellence with our list of regional scholarship winners for your future colleagues from around the country. They are the future of our professions.

George Eyenon completes his four installments on the regulatory aspects of the geoscience professions, with an exploration of where we fit into the continuing interface with governments and interest groups/stakeholders. Thanks, George, for the series, it has been an eyeopening read.

We continue the Go Take a Walk series with a celebratory point-of-departure on Bill Ayrton’s well-known Geology of Downtown Calgary. Gabrielle Abernathy and Philip Benham then update our knowledge to include the newer stops for an informative +15 field trip on a convenient noon-hour (when there is not a Technical Division talk to attend).

Our Regulatory Series continues with a description of the rapidly changing Alberta Energy Regulatory. This will be a must read for those involved with the AER directly or in planning future exploration and development activities. Do not forget to decommission those unproductive wells! AER is watching… CSPG also continues with its celebration of academic excellence with an article on the Best PhD thesis award to Benjamin Daniels. Highlights of his exploration and interpretation of the Late Cretaceous of Chile appear in this edition. Do not miss Ben’s exclusive video interview at the end of the article.

September to December is Conference Season. Check out CSPG’s best as advertised in this edition and check into the ones that suit you best. That is the wrap for July and August. Once again, keep those articles and ideas for articles coming. Do not hesitate with ideas for innovative ways to present your project results in the Reservoir, as we always find a way to make it happen. n

Tom Sneddon

PUBLICATIONS INFORMATION The RESERVOIR is published 6 times per year by the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists. The purpose of the RESERVOIR is to publicize the Society’s many activities and to promote the geosciences. We look for both technical and non-technical material to publish. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced either in part or in full without the consent of the publisher. No official endorsement or sponsorship by the CSPG is implied for any advertisement, insert, or article that

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RESERVOIR ISSUE 3 • MAY/JUNE 2021

appears in the RESERVOIR unless otherwise noted. All submitted materials are reviewed by the editor. We reserve the right to edit all submissions, including letters to the Editor. Submissions must include your name, address, and membership number (if applicable). The material contained in this publication is intended for informational use only. While reasonable care has been taken, authors and the CSPG make no guarantees that any of the equations, schematics, or devices discussed will perform as expected

or that they will give the desired results. Some information contained herein may be inaccurate or may vary from standard measurements. The CSPG expressly disclaims any and all liability for the acts, omissions, or conduct of any third-party user of information contained in this publication. Under no circumstances shall the CSPG and its officers, directors, employees, and agents be liable for any injury, loss, damage, or expense arising in any manner whatsoever from the acts, omissions, or conduct of any third-party user.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS 2021

PRESIDENT

PRESIDENT ELECT

PAST PRESIDENT

FINANCE DIRECTOR

Neil Watson

Kelty Latos

Jen Russel-Houston

Jason Frank

Enlighten Geoscience Ltd. president@cspg.org Linkedin

ConocoPhillips Canada Ltd. presidentelect@cspg.org LinkedIn

Osum Oil Sands Corp. pastpresident@cspg.org Linkedin

Athabasca Oil Corp. directorfinance@cspg.org Linkedin

FINANCE DIRECTOR ELECT

DIRECTOR

DIRECTOR

DIRECTOR

Erin Crerar

Kurt Armbruster

Mona Enachescu

Amy Fox

directorfinanceelect@cspg.org Linkedin

technicaldivisions@cspg.org Linkedin

Cavalier Energy Inc. outreach@cspg.org Linkedin

Enlighten Geoscience Ltd. education@cspg.org Linkedin

DIRECTOR

DIRECTOR

DIRECTOR

DIRECTOR

Chad Glemser

Mark Mallamo

Kiersten Mohr

Genga Nadaraju

conferences@cspg.org Linkedin

Acquisition Oil Corp. fieldtrips@cspg.org Linkedin

Terra Firma Transition publications@cspg.org LinkedIn

membershipdirector@cspg.org Linkedin

OFFICE CONTACTS MEMBERSHIP INQUIRIES Tel: 403-264-5610 Email: membership@cspg.org

CSPG OFFICE #150, 540 - 5th Ave SW Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2P 0M2 Tel: 403-264-5610 | www.cspg.org

ADVERTISING INQUIRIES Emma MacPherson Tel: 403-513-1230 Email: emma.macpherson@cspg.org

SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES Yarina Moharam Tel: 403-513-1235 Email: yarina.moharam@cspg.org MANAGING DIRECTOR Yarina Moharam Tel: 403-513-1235 Email: yarina.moharam@cspg.org

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MESSAGE FROM THE BOARD KURT ARMBRUSTER, TECHNICAL DIVISIONS DIRECTOR

The CSPG anticipates another successful season going into autumn 2021, and that as energy sources evolve, our high-quality Division content will evolve with them.

T

he Technical Divisions are an outstanding legacy of the CSPG. Beginning with the Palaeontology Division in the 1960s, the Technical Divisions have been offering exceptional technical discussions and networking opportunities for geoscientists for around 60 years! In the past 60 years, the CSPG has had up to 11 active divisions in any given year, providing free technical content to CSPG members.

With the pandemic-inspired 2020/2021 season concluding, the 10 current divisions; Basin Analysis and Sequence Stratigraphy (B.A.S.S.), Environment, Geological Modelling & Analytics, Geothermal, Heavy Oil/Oil Sands, Hydrogeology, International, Operations Geology, Palaeontology, and Structural Geology will be going on hiatus during the summer months.

The CSPG Technical Divisions could not exist without over 50 CSPG members, who volunteer their time as co-chairs and committee members, who bring the Technical Divisions to life. These volunteers spend countless hours finding speakers, sponsors, venues, and organizing Division events such as socials and field trips, their tireless efforts make the Technical Divisions work.

The CSPG is proud to announce the start of our newest Technical Division: The Energy Transition and Sustainability (ETS) Division will have its inaugural meeting on Thursday September 23rd at 6:30 PM MST. Keep watching the Technical Divisions section at CSPG.org to register for the event.

Our sponsors include our Technical Divisions sponsor, geoLOGIC Systems, and the individual Division sponsors who provide our Divisions with coffee, light snacks, and more. Between our volunteers and our sponsors, we can not do it without you, and express our deepest gratitude for your participation in Division events. I would also like to express my gratitude to the CSPG Office Staff who also work tirelessly to keep everything running smoothly. From young professionals to the most seasoned geoscientists, the Technical Divisions offer training opportunities, professional development hours, and opportunities to mingle with peers in a friendly environment. The Divisions offer topical monthly educational talks from the local to around the globe, and it’s all a free benefit to CSPG members! We even have Divisions who organize field trips to some of the best outcrops and geological features in the province, at remarkably affordable costs, and sometimes, they’re even free for CSPG members!

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In September, there will be 11 Divisions beginning their new season!

In the past year, the CSPG has made the decision to continue to offer the Division talks free of charge to CSPG members as a member benefit. The general public is still welcome to attend the talks, however, now there is now a $10 fee for non-members. In this Pandemic year, COVID has forced many changes across all industries, including our own. With the safety of our members in mind, the CSPG moved the Division talks to an online format when the lockdowns began. By doing so, we have accomplished a few of the goals I set when I first joined the CSPG Board of Directors in the newly formed Technical Divisions portfolio. I wanted to start webcasting our Division talks so that we could finally, truly become the Canadian Society that our name promises. Now, geoscientists, not only from coast to coast to coast, but across the world, have access to our Technical Divisions, as speakers and viewers. My second goal for the Divisions, was to record the sessions for development of a video library. As events were forced online by the COVID pandemic, we were able to accomplish this goal of recording Division talks. For the foreseeable future, the CSPG plans to continue webcasting

Division events live and recording them. The library launched earlier this year and will be updated on a quarterly basis with all of the Division talks which have been recorded. The video library can be accessed through the CSPG website as another free benefit for CSPG members. Non-members can also access the video library, however, there will be a subscription fee for nonmember access. The CSPG Technical Divisions offer many benefits to members. The outstanding technical talks and speakers gathered by hard working TD committees offer world-class opportunities for professional development and for presenting your own technical work to your peers! If you have an idea or topic to share with the geoscience community, contact a TD chair now through the CSPG website. When we are back to in-person events, the Divisions will continue to offer friendly networking environments to have a coffee, light snack, and a chance to mingle and engage with your peers, or even find a new mentor. And it’s all a free CSPG member benefit! The CSPG anticipates another successful season going into autumn 2021, and that as energy sources evolve, our high-quality Division content will evolve with them. Come join a CSPG Technical Division event as they return in the fall, volunteer for a committee, or even pitch a talk to a Division of your choice. n We’ll see you in the fall.

Kurt Armbruster Kurt Armbruster, P. Geol. Director, Technical Divisions

Benjamin Daniels The recipient of the 2020 Ph.D. thesis award is Benjamin Daniels. His thesis, which was titled “Multi-Scale Stratigraphic and Geochronologic Investigations of Late Cretaceous SedimentRouting Systems, Magallanes Basin, Chile”, was completed under the supervision of Dr. Stephen Hubbard at the University of Calgary. Funding for the research presented in this thesis was provided by the industrial sponsors of the Chile Slope Systems joint industry project (Anadarko, BHP Billiton, ConocoPhillips, Chevron, Equinor, Hess, Nexen-CNOOC, Repsol, and Shell), an NSERC Discovery grant to Dr. Hubbard, as well as scholarships from the University of Calgary (e.g., Silver Anniversary Fellowship, Queen Elizabeth II scholarships). Ben holds previous degrees in geology from the University of Calgary (M.Sc., 2015) and the University of Waterloo (Honours B.Sc., 2012), and is currently working as a Geoscience and Geospatial Data Specialist at the Artisanal Gold Council in Victoria, British Columbia. Ben’s Ph.D. research focused on characterizing the depositional evolution of ancient deep-water sediment-routing systems associated with the Cretaceous Magallanes retroarc foreland basin, which is located in Chilean Patagonia. While investigations into the evolution of deep-water depositional systems have been undertaken by previous workers in many other basins worldwide, deciphering the nature of the processes that impact the development of stratigraphic architecture related to those systems, as well as the time scales over which they occur, remains an important topic of research. The stratigraphic interval of interest discussed in Ben’s thesis, which includes the Punta Barrosa, Cerro Toro, Tres Pasos, and Dorotea formations, preserves a comprehensive record of sedimentation in deep-water environments and related shallow marine settings in a foreland basin over ~35 million years (~101-66 Ma). Exceptional 2-D and 3-D exposures of the aforementioned stratigraphic units along a ~150 km-long outcrop belt in Chilean Patagonia provided a unique opportunity to investigate the relationship between sedimentary processes, the development of stratigraphic architecture, and the long-term evolution of the Magallanes Basin. The objectives of Ben’s thesis were to: (1) elucidate the role of fundamental sediment transfer processes (i.e., erosion, bypass, deposition) in the development of deep-water slope deposit architecture; (2) constrain the evolutionary timing of deep-water stratigraphic intervals in the Magallanes Basin; and (3) investigate the influence of Andean orogenesis on the evolution of the Magallanes Basin across deep geologic time (i.e., millions of years).

FIGURE 1. Overview of stratigraphic architecture associated with slope channel systems preserved in the Figueroa clinothem of the Tres Pasos Formation (see Daniels, 2019 for more information). The satellite image shows the geographic extent of outcropping features associated with the Figueroa clinothem. Paleocurrent data is derived from Daniels et al. (2018) and references therein. Depositional-dip-oriented cross-sections of the clinothem are shown in X-X' and X'-X". Stratigraphic correlations enable identification of three distinct composite channelform bodies that crop out along the length of the transect, which are termed “channel complex sets” (see Daniels, 2019 for more information). Lines denoted by “XS” refer to locations where depositional-strike-oriented cross-sections were constructed to evaluate along-dip changes in channel fill stacking patterns (see Daniels, 2019 for more information).

2020 CSPG Award Recipients

2020 CSPG Graduate Thesis Award – Best Ph.D. Thesis

To assess the role of fundamental sediment transfer processes in the development of deep-water stratigraphic architecture, a 50 km-long depositional-dip-oriented outcrop transect of the Tres Pasos Formation was characterized via measurement of stratigraphic sections and GPS mapping of key stratigraphic surfaces (Fig. 1). Deposits from this interval of the Tres Pasos Formation largely record deposition within deep-water slope channels; as a result, research was specifically focused on elucidating longitudinal variations in deep-water slope channel element fill and stacking patterns along the outcrop transect. This study concluded that the along-slope distribution

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FIGURE 2. Stratigraphic framework of the shelf-slope system preserved in the Tres Pasos and Dorotea formations. Paleoflow was from left to right (north to south). Correlation is based on field mapping augmented with U-Pb ages shown in the diagram. (A) Satellite image of the studied outcrop belt, looking down tectonic dip to the east. Geochronology sample locations are indicated in red (detrital zircon) and yellow (ash). (B) Regional cross section of the shelf-margin system. Fine-grained-dominated deposits are largely composed of siltstone; coarse-grained-dominated deposits are largely composed of sandstone. All sample ages were computed from the weighted mean of the youngest cluster of dates that overlap within 2σ uncertainty (YC2σ) with the exception of the three ages from the Río de las Chinas area, which were determined from the weighted mean of the youngest cluster of dates that overlap within 1σ uncertainty (YC1σ; see Daniels, 2019 for more information). Bold ages were used to calculate rates of shelf-margin growth (see Daniels, 2019 for more information). VE—vertical exaggeration.

of coarse-grained detritus in deep-water channel systems is primarily tied to the propensity for coarse-grained sediment bypass along a slope, while stacking patterns are strongly linked to the topographic profile of the slope. This information is critical for helping to predict the fill and arrangement of individual channel elements at various positions along a deep-water slope, and can provide key insight into numerous aspects of analogous petroliferous deep-water slope systems, including the nature, geometry, and position of updip stratigraphic traps. Additional field mapping of the Tres Pasos Formation revealed that the formation as a whole was composed of four distinct stratigraphic intervals (Fig. 2). These stratigraphic intervals, which are defined by notable changes in stratigraphic architecture in the depositional record, plausibly represent discrete phases of deepwater slope evolution, and cumulatively record a transition from a slope that was dominated by mass-wasting to one characterized by propagation of slope clinothems. While similar evolutionary patterns have been documented in many other deep-water systems worldwide, information on the timing and duration of

individual slope evolutionary phases is limited. To investigate the timing of the aforementioned slope evolutionary phases, stratigraphic data from the Tres Pasos and Dorotea formations were considered alongside U-Pb zircon depositional ages from sandstone-prone units in both formations, which were acquired using a novel depositional age determination method. Analysis of these data revealed that the entire depositional system evolved over 9.9 ± 1.4 million years, with individual phases spanning up to 4.6 ± 2.2 million years in length. While this work provides important constraints on the amount of time spanned by discrete phases of slope evolution, it also offers key insight into the utility of U-Pb zircon geochronology for computing depositional ages, as well as related depositional durations and rates for ancient sedimentary systems. The novel U-Pb zircon depositional age determination method that was developed to elucidate the slope evolutionary phases of the Tres Pasos Formation was used to temporally constrain the depositional evolution of strata associated with the other formations of the Magallanes Basin (e.g., Punta Barrosa, Cerro Toro formations; Fig. 3). This effort resulted in the construction of a new chronostratigraphic framework for the Magallanes Basin between 50-52ºS, which is largely grounded in high-precision U-Pb zircon depositional ages for numerous bounding surfaces associated with each formation in the basin. This framework will assist current workers with age calibration of recently discovered paleoflora and paleofauna in the region, and allows future workers to critically assess the role of external controls on the evolution of the Magallanes Basin (e.g., tectonic activity, sea-level change). Previous work on the tectonic history of southern Chile has identified that a notable shift in rock uplift and deformation style in the Patagonian Andes occurred during the Coniacian-Campanian in the vicinity of the study area discussed in Ben’s thesis. This

FIGURE 3. Chronostratigraphic framework for the Magallanes Basin (50-52ºS). Labels at top correspond to sectors defined by Daniels et al. (2019). Architectural information and age data is from Daniels et al. (2019) and references therein. Only maximum depositional ages that approximately temporally coincide with the true depositional ages of the studied stratigraphic intervals are shown. The majority of ash samples from the Cerro Toro Formation are derived from fine-grained units adjacent to conglomeratic strata; this relationship is shown by a gradational contact between the two time-equivalent units in the diagram. Depositional ages for stratigraphic units in Sector 5 deposited between ca. 94-79 Ma and ca. 74-72 Ma (indicated by hatched lines) are poorly constrained; stratigraphic boundaries in these intervals are based on interpretations from Sector 4 and are speculative. CT—Cerro Toro Formation; DO— Dorotea Formation; LTA—Laguna Tres de Abril; NA—not available; PB—Punta Barrosa Formation; SS—Silla Syncline; TP—Tres Pasos Formation.

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shift, which was characterized by a switch from a regime characterized by cratonward propagation of duplex structures to one marked by internal wedge thickening and out-of-sequence thrusting, is hypothesized to have exerted a strong control on the evolution of stratigraphic architecture in the Magallanes Basin. To interrogate this hypothesis, U-Pb zircon depositional age data from the aforementioned chronostratigraphic framework were integrated with sediment provenance information from the Cerro Toro, Tres Pasos, and Dorotea formations, and compared with independent temporal constraints on tectonic activity in the Patagonian Andes during the same time period. This investigation demonstrated that Magallanes Basin evolution is strongly tied to tectonic processes in the Andes, where major changes in stratigraphic architecture are related to punctuated phases of metamorphism, deformation, and rock uplift in the fold-thrust belt (Fig. 4). Deep-water deposits of the Magallanes Basin provide key information on a wide range of geological phenomena, from sedimentary processes at the bed scale, through to the depositional evolution of sediment-routing systems at the basin scale. Since the aforementioned depositional systems are dynamically linked to rock uplift and deformation in the Andes, the Magallanes Basin also preserves a comprehensive record of Andean orogenesis, facilitating future investigations into the long-term evolution of South America. The findings presented in Ben’s thesis provide a unique perspective into continental evolution in the Southern Hemisphere during the Mesozoic and elucidate paleoenvironmental changes that helped shape Earth’s present day landscapes. The findings also help constrain the spatial and temporal development of analogous stratigraphic intervals that represent key deep-water hydrocarbon reservoirs on Canada’s Atlantic and Arctic margins. A copy of the thesis can be downloaded at:

WEBSITE

Award Recipient Interview

Daniels, B.G., 2019, Multi-Scale Stratigraphic and Geochronologic Investigations of Late Cretaceous Sediment-Routing Systems, Magallanes Basin, Chile: Ph.D. Thesis, University of Calgary, 318 p. Daniels, B.G., Hubbard, S.M., Romans, B.W., Malkowski, M.A., Matthews, W.A., Bernhardt, A., Kaempfe, S.A., Jobe, Z.R., Fosdick, J.C., Schwartz, T.M., Fildani, A., and Graham, S.A., 2019, Revised chronostratigraphic framework for the Cretaceous Magallanes-Austral Basin, Última Esperanza Province, Chile: Journal of South American Earth Sciences, v. 94, 102209. Daniels, B.G., Auchter, N.C., Hubbard, S.M., Romans, B.W., Matthews, W.A., and Stright, L., 2018, Timing of deep-water slope evolution constrained by large-n detrital and volcanic ash zircon geochronology, Cretaceous Magallanes Basin, Chile: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 130, p. 438-454.

FIGURE 4. Conceptual model of the paleogeographic evolution of the Magallanes Basin during deposition of the Cerro Toro, Tres Pasos, and Dorotea formations. CC—Villa Cerro Castillo; CG—Cerro Guido; CT—Cerro Toro Formation; DO—Dorotea Formation; MTD—Mass-transport deposit; PB—Punta Barrosa Formation; PN—Puerto Natales; S—Sector; TP—Tres Pasos Formation (see Daniels, 2019 for more information on locations identified with stars). (A) shows the evolution of basinscale sediment-routing systems around the onset of uplift and exhumation of duplex structures in the hinterland (~89 Ma; lower Cerro Toro Formation). (B) shows the development of deep-water channellevee systems during continued uplift and exhumation of duplex structures (~83 Ma; upper Cerro Toro Formation). It is unclear whether the southernmost upper Cerro Toro Formation tributary (S5) was routing sediment to the basin during this time. (C) shows the evolution of a mass-failure-dominated slope system that developed in response to internal wedge thickening processes (~79 Ma; lower Tres Pasos Formation). (D) shows the development of a linked shelf-slope system during the erosional unloading of the orogenic wedge (~73 Ma; upper Tres Pasos and Dorotea formations). Structural features shown in red in (C) and (D) are associated with areas of internal wedge thickening (see Daniels, 2019 for a summary).

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Regulating the Geoscience Professions:

A series on the Complementary Roles of Regulators, Individual Professionals, Employers, Academia and Government George Eynon, PGeo FGC FEC [Hon] ICD.D Principal, geos - eynon & associates consulting inc Past-President, APEGA (Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta) Associate, University of Calgary, School of Public Policy and Haskayne Business School

PART 4 of 4: Our Role as Professionals, Collaboration

with Regulators, Governments and the Courts, and Some Policy Recommendations In this the final part of the series, I want to consider a number of items. First, I want us to consider expanding our role as professionals, by taking a more active part in explaining our work to the public. Next, for us to use APEGA as a means to collaborate with other regulatory agencies more effectively on professional practice issues. Then, to discuss our involvement with other institutions of government and the legal system. And, finally, offer some conclusions and policy recommendations.

Competent geoscience professionals with training in communications who work on projects could provide members of the public and other stakeholders with fact-based information. Such a direct engagement would help to address their issues and concerns, and help all stakeholders understand the projects appropriately.

As professionals, we have an obligation to conduct our work in the public interest. The public includes the “general public”, and all stakeholders, including the companies, corporate shareholders, and government agencies (regulatory bodies, geological surveys, and energy and minerals departments) for whom most of us work.

Regrettably, the public gets much of its technical information from all types of media that do not provide unbiased explanations of the facts; indeed, may not present any facts at all. Unfortunately, the public is overly reliant on the media, and seems to accept the veracity of their sensationalism. This can create a significant problem for projects, given widespread acceptance of the concept of “social licence”. Social license leads project opponents, who may be ill informed, to believe they have a right of veto, misguided though that belief may be. Decision makers now regularly succumb to political pressure to veto projects approved previously by properly constituted government agencies.

All too seldom does the information come directly from the professionals who conceive and develop the projects; most emanates from communications or public relations departments that do not have the technical competencies. In addition, public relations people are not “registered professionals” in the same manner as geoscientists.

It is obvious, from experience of listening to public intervenors at numerous hearings, that local stakeholders expect direct engagement of the people who know most about the projects and the issues involved. This is a perfectly reasonable expectation. As professionals, we have an obligation to society to redress misinformation and disinformation by effectively communicating the

A Role for Professionals in Stakeholder Engagement

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We are fortunate that, in addition to the democratic decision-making processes, Canada has a highly respected judicial system (a major part of Crowley’s “… endowment of institutions and behaviours…” referred to at the outset).

technical aspects of our work to non-technical people. Competent professionals must take a greater role in communicating the factbased details of their projects, and directly address questions and concerns of the people who might feel the projects affect them.

regarding financial and professional misconduct respectively, and to OHS and APEGA re professional misconduct. The same companies and individuals could be under investigation by more than one regulator at the same time.

Although this issue is not directly within the purview of our professions’ self-regulatory bodies, it does concern the ethical conduct of professionals. Honest dialogue between all individual, institutional and corporate stakeholders, with technical professionals who have the information to mitigate concerns and/ or adapt projects to them, could obviate conflicts.

For all regulators to operate more effectively in the public interest there needs to be greater collaboration among the agencies in the same jurisdiction, as well as between the same types of agencies across jurisdictions.

Collaboration by Regulators on Professional Practice Issues Perhaps the weakest link is poor inter-agency communication and co-operation within their jurisdictional areas. Agencies with similar regulatory scope (financial, safety, etc.) co-operate to a degree with their direct counterparts in other geographic jurisdictions. However, the various types of regulators within their home jurisdictions need to improve communication and collaboration, given significant overlapping interests. In Alberta, the principal regulatory agencies that geoscience professionals might have contact are APEGA, AER, ASC, and OHS. They each have separate mandates, but their jurisdictions overlap regarding ethical misconduct by individual professionals or their employers. All of them may have occasion to censure or reprimand companies and individuals that are registered professionals or permit holders with APEGA, for legal and/or ethical misconduct. To my knowledge, the ASC is one of the few agencies that handles the interface between licenced professionals and the public with genuine legal “clout”— and isn’t afraid to use it. Under Actions re principals Section 106 of the Oil and Gas Conservation Act (OGCA), the AER has the right to name individuals “…who are principals of a licensee, approval holder, or working interest participant that contravenes or fails to comply with an order… or has an outstanding debt to the Regulator or the account of the orphan fund… regarding suspension, abandonment or reclamation costs.” This kind of action is similar to that available to the ASC and APEGA

Involvement of Governments and the Courts The federal, provincial, territorial, and local governments should uphold the prevailing regulatory processes and decisions made by duly constituted agencies. Ideally, governments create those agencies at arms’ length from political interference, with the intention of providing unbiased analysis and making independent decisions in the public interest. For the most part, project opponents have access to the decisionmaking process by submitting evidence to the appropriate Regulator directly— and/or appearing before a public hearing. We are fortunate that, in addition to the democratic decision-making processes, Canada has a highly respected judicial system (a major part of Crowley’s “…endowment of institutions and behaviours…” referred to at the outset). If an individual or group, including municipal or rural districts, governments or First Nations, wants to challenge a decision, it has the right to do so through the courts.

Conclusions and Policy Recommendations The foregoing observations and the following conclusions and policy recommendations are set in the context of a growing societal requirement for regulated professionals of all types to understand our social responsibilities. There are some key safeguards governments, regulatory authorities, and educational institutions should take to avoid failures in regulatory application and oversight—and maintain public trust and confidence in regulatory agencies.

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The relationship we have with our professional regulatory body—in our case, APEGA—is nothing the same as we have with our geosciences and engineering technical societies. [1] Although all professional engineers and geoscientists must act ethically, in the public interest, this may not always be in the best interests of their stakeholders or shareholders, and their ethical position might not always be an easy one to take. Professions’ self-regulatory agencies must enforce the ethical requirements to which licensed professionals subscribe. [2] Post-secondary institutions that produce young professionalsto-be must provide education in their ethical obligations, something they could undertake in collaboration with the regulatory agencies. Teaching ethics, professionalism, and workplace regulation in post-secondary geoscience curricula should be mandatory. Furthermore, it should be mandatory for faculty members to lead by example and be registered professionals. [3] The professions’ self-regulatory agencies must take a more proactive approach to regulating the practice of engineering and geoscience by both individuals and corporate entities. In the interests of protecting the public, professionals must continue to update their knowledge and skills: reporting professional development should be mandatory; and regulators need to do a better job of enforcement. [4] The governance and oversight function that member-elected Councils currently provide is inadequate for self-regulatory purposes. We should replace elected Councils with appointed Boards, consisting of properly qualified Professional Members and a high proportion of government-appointed Public Members. [5] The various types of regulators—operational, financial, and professional, such as APEGA, AER, ASC, and OHS in Alberta— continue to improve their regulatory processes within their own legislative mandates. It is equally important for these regulators to co-operate with one another, particularly communicating on areas of potential overlap of professional jurisdiction, not just across geographical jurisdictions. No regulator should hold back from doing its job just because another agency is already investigating an issue or incident.

[6] Governments at all levels have a duty to support the decisions of the regulatory agencies by providing them with clear and timely policy direction, and then allowing those agencies to implement them, recognising that opponents have access to the Courts to seek judicial redress. [7] Governments must also exercise their right to intervene when agencies fail to implement those policies. The decision by the government Québec to take over the running of L’Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec (OIQ) given the evidence from the Charbonneau inquiry is an excellent example of appropriate government intervention. [8] When politicians surrender to the pressure of veto by special interest groups, acknowledging the concept of social licence, they de facto succumb to mob rule, ignoring our society’s carefully constructed democratic institutions. Although politicians have the right to reserve decisions to their purview, when they forgo evidence-based decision-making, they risk capitulating to special interests over the public interest and the greater good for the sake of support at the polls. [9] Industry has both the ability and necessity to improve its fullcycle engagement with stakeholders, particularly in the areas where they operate. They can do this, in part, by training their own technical professional staff in effective communications to provide fact-based information, understanding of the concepts of risk and uncertainty, and directly address issues and concerns. It might need regulatory direction (outside our Professions’ enabling legislation) for inclusion of professionals in stakeholder engagement. [10] Perhaps the greatest problem is that numerous individual geoscience Professionals (conceivably the majority) lack a full appreciation of some key elements: the legal obligations conferred under legislation; what it means to act in the public interest; and the privilege of self-regulation. Regulatory agencies like APEGA that encounter this problem must communicate better to their Professional Members and unregistered professionals within their jurisdictions—and enforce non-compliance.

Final Comments I cannot emphasize just how important proper Regulation in general, and of the professions in particular, is to society. The selfregulation of our professions utilizes the concept of peer-review, in an agreement enacted by government to allow our professional body to regulate the formal activities of its members. As with other professional self-regulatory agencies, the EGP Act enables our government to have some level of control over the practice of our professions without the need to maintain the detailed knowledge required to regulate them directly. The relationship we have with our professional regulatory body—in our case, APEGA—is nothing the same as we have with our geosciences and engineering technical societies. Self-regulation is an exceptional privilege. The Government of Alberta entrusts us as professional members to set aside selfinterest to protect the public interest safety and the safety of our fellow citizens.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am grateful to Oliver Bonham, Tirian Eynon, Kate MacLachlan, John Rhind, Craig Waldie and Tom Sneddon, several colleagues on APEGA’s Council, RCEO Jay Nagendran, and staff members Matthew Oliver and Sloan d’Entremont. Their reviews of various versions of the manuscript; their insights and constructive comments greatly improved the final text. Finally, I am particularly indebted to Dan McFadyen, the ERCB Board Chair 2007-2013, who not only reviewed an early version of these pieces, but more importantly provided significant insights into appropriate regulation both during my tenure as an ERCB Board member and over the ensuing years. n

REFERENCES [1]

Eynon, G. 2016, Professionalism and GeoEthics in Resource Development in Canada: Cooperation among Regulators and with Academia—Missed Opportunities, Needed Changes. 35th International Geological Congress, Quadrennial Meeting, 2016, Cape Town, South Africa, Program and Abstracts.

[2]

Crowley, B.L. 2015. Who Licenses the Licensors? Social Licence and the Future of the Natural Resource Economy. Oral presentation, University of British Columbia.

[3]

APEGA Members’ and Permit Holders’ Code of Ethics and Legal Obligations https://www.apega.ca/members/legal-obligations

[4]

Andrews, G. C. 2013. Canadian Professional Engineering and Geoscience: Practice and Ethics. Nelson, Thomson Canada Limited, paperback.

[5]

Hrudey, S. 2016. We Must Honour the Privilege of Self-Regulation - or Risk Losing It. Available from https://www.apega.ca/assets/peg/PEG-Fall-2016-Issue.pdf

[6]

Mogk, D., and Bruckner, M., 2015. Teaching GeoEthics across the Geoscience Curriculum, Illinois Institute of Technology, Center for the Study of Ethics in Professions. Available from http://serc.carleton. edu/geoethics/index.html

[7]

Carter, D.C. and Stewart, R.D. 2016, Professional Geoscientist SelfRegulation in Small Jurisdictions: Lessons Learned by Geoscientists Nova Scotia and Applicability for International Start-ups. Oral presentation, 35th International Geological Congress, Cape Town, South Africa.

[8]

McFadyen, D. and Eynon, G. 2020. Risks of Failure in Regulatory Governance, University of Calgary School of Public Policy, SPP Research Paper, Volume 13:28 November 2020. http://dx.doi. org/10.11575/sppp.v13i0.70596

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GO TAKE A HIKE

Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park South of Medicine Hat, AB Trailhead: From the turnoff to Elkwater, drive south on Alberta Highway 41 for 6.0 km to the Graburn Road (gravel). Turn left (east) and follow the road for 3.9 km to a post labeled G3 on the north side of the road (Figs. 1, 2). Park (P) off the road. Walk north from the stake along a dirt track for ~100–200 m and then drop down into the small coulee on your right (east) side (Fig. 3). Follow the coulee and its tributaries through the outcrops.

Georgia Hoffman, Emily Bamforth and Philip Benham

Distance: About 2 km or more, depending how much of the coulee system you want to explore. Elevation change: About 20 m; more if you go farther down the coulee system. Risks: Cattle at large; wildlife including cougars, moose, elk, rattlesnakes, and ticks.

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T

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he Cypress Hills plateau rises about 200 m above the 2 surrounding plains to an elevation of 1468 m. It is the remnant of a once more widespread planar surface, most of which has been removed by erosion since the late Miocene. This hike will take you through some outcrops of the resistant conglomerate beds of the Cypress Hills Formation that cap the plateau. The Cypress Hills Formation consists of conglomerate, sandstone (or gravel and sand in areas where it is not cemented), and minor marlstone. It was deposited unconformably on older formations during the late Eocene to earliest Miocene (Leckie and Cheel, 1989). It is present on the Cypress Hills and Swift Current plateaus in southeastern Alberta and southwestern Saskatchewan. Its thickness averages about 38 m with a maximum of about 76 m (Vonhof, 1965). The clasts in the formation range in size from gravel to boulders (Figs. 4-7). Most are ellipsoidal and well rounded, or tabular with rounded edges. They have smooth to polished surfaces, and some show percussion marks. They have obviously travelled a long way. Imbrication and cross-bedding indicate transport directions to the north and northeast (Leckie and Cheel, 1989). The majority of the clasts are quartzite, but there are also rarer clasts of igneous and metamorphic rocks that give clues to provenance. Red and green argillites suggest those of the Belt Supergroup, which lies at least 300 km to the southwest. Some of the metamorphic rocks resemble those surrounding the Boulder and Idaho batholiths. Possible sources of volcanic and intrusive clasts include the Highwood Mountains, Bearpaw Mountains, and Sweetgrass Hills of northwestern Montana (Leckie and Cheel, 1989).

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4 FIGURE 1. The location of roads and selected trails (dashed lines) in the Alberta portion of Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park. FIGURE 2. The G3 post marks the trailhead for this hike. FIGURE 3. The hike takes you through this coulee and its tributaries. The outcrops begin on the right (east) bank beyond the tree. FIGURE 4: An outcrop of the conglomerates of the Cypress Hills Formation. Note the imbrication of the clasts in the centre bed. Transport direction here is toward the northeast. Vertical height of the exposure is about 1.4 m.

FIGURE 5. The outcrops become more extensive as the coulee cuts deeper into the formation. Note the poorly bedded nature of the strata.

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FIGURE 7. White caliche deposits on the matrix and clasts are evidence of the ongoing cementation by carbonate minerals that precipitate from groundwater as it percolates from the outcrops. Lens cap for scale

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FIGURE 6. Most of the clasts are quartzite. The clasts are well rounded, poorly sorted, poorly imbricated, and have smooth to polished surfaces.

The clasts have undergone at least two cycles of uplift and erosion. They were originally derived from the western ranges of the Rocky Mountains during the Laramide orogeny, and were probably moved farther into the basin during rebound following the erosion of the recently uplifted highlands. The most recent transport likely resulted from uplift due to intrusive activity in the Highwood Mountains, Bearpaw Mountains, and Sweetgrass Hills (Leckie and Cheel, 1989). The clasts were deposited in their present location by braided river systems, with the fine-grained sediments representing temporary lakes and mud flats (Leckie and Cheel, 1989). Cementation consists of carbonate minerals and began relatively recently. It is limited to the most permeable beds in areas adjacent to valley walls. The minerals precipitate as the groundwater percolates from the outcrops and carbon dioxide is released. The process is therefore post-glacial and is continuing today (Kupsch and Vonhoff, 1967). The Cypress Hills Formation was originally thought to represent a single epoch of geologic time, but we now know that it spans the time from the mid-Eocene though the Oligocene and into the earliest Miocene (Uintan to Hemingfordian in the North America land-mammal age scheme (NALMA)). It therefore encompasses the major floral and faunal turnover event that occurred across the Eocene-Oligocene (E-OG) boundary. That turnover is thought to have occurred as the climate cooled. Forests began to disappear and

were replaced by grasslands. Many browsing mammals (i.e., leafeating mammals such as brontotheres) went extinct and grazing mammals (i.e., grass-eating mammals such as horses) became more prevalent. No other geological formation in Canada, and few others in North America, offer such an excellent opportunity to study this sequence of evolutionary and ecological transitions. The Southfork Quarry near Eastend in southwestern Saskatchewan (see Figs. 12A and B for the location of Eastend) has produced an abundant and diverse assemblage of vertebrate fossil taxa from a bonebed in the Cypress Hills Formation (Figs. 8-10) and it illustrates some of the formation's depositional environments. McDougall (2002) suggested that the quarry was the site of a river crossing for migrating brontothere (cf. Megacerops sp.) herds. The size of the cobbles in the bonebed layer indicates that the river flow would have been rapid, and some of the animals may have drowned while attempting to cross. Adult brontotheres, which had a large bony horn on each side of the nose, stood more than 2 m high at the shoulder. Some skulls found in the Cypress Hills Formation reach more than 1 m in length (Russell, 1965; Tokaryk, 1985). The Southfork Quarry has also yielded remains of smaller ungulate species including the early horse Mesohippus, the deer-like Leptomeryx, the rhino-like Hyracodon, the tapir-like Colodon, and the entelodont Brachyhyops. A creodont, Hyaenodon, is the only mammalian carnivore that has been found at the site. Other

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FIGURE 8. Part of the skull of “Bud”, an adult brontothere, during excavation from the Cypress Hills Formation at the Southfork Quarry bonebed near Eastend, Saskatchewan. Note the mandible on the left (arrow) with molars and premolars that are adapted for shearing relatively soft leaves and shoots, rather than abrasive grasses. The maxilla is in the centre, and the pronged horn is on the right. You can visit Bud and his friends at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum in Regina and the T. rex Discovery Centre in Eastend. The quarry lies in Saskatchewan beyond the east edge of the map in Fig. 1. Photo by Frank MacDougall.

8 9 FIGURE 9. Part of a brontothere jaw with teeth. Photo by Emily Bamforth.

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FIGURE 10. The hip structure from a baby brontothere at the Southfork Quarry. Photo by Emily Bamforth.

vertebrates found at the quarry include fish (including catfish), lizards, frogs, crocodiles, turtles, and a possible bird (Storer, 1984). Fossils from the Cypress Hills Formation are mildly radioactive due to the presence of small amounts of uranium and its decay products in the sediment. For this reason, at some museums such as the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, fossils from the Cypress Hills Formation are kept in special lead-lined cabinets. The next phase of deposition in the Cypress Hills began during the late Pleistocene as the Wisconsin ice sheet advanced and retreated across the area several times. Drift was deposited over the

surrounding plains and the lower slopes of the Cypress Hills, but the higher elevations stood above the ice and remained unglaciated (Westgate, 1968; Kulig, 1995). These ice-free highlands remained forested and acted as refugia (Fig. 12A). The Cypress Hills contain a weird mix of Rocky Mountain flora along with plants and animals more typically found much farther south (yucca, horned toads, spider-like solpugids, and certain species of wasps typical of Texas) and also endemic species of Oreohelix snails (Dempsey et al., 2020).

The Paleo-Bell River The conglomerates of the Cypress Hills were deposited by one of the largest river systems in the history of the Earth: the Paleo-Bell River. By the early Eocene (54 million years ago) the continent-spanning Western Interior Seaway had retreated to the margins of Laurentia (ancient North America) and the young Cordillera (today’s Rocky Mountains) was at its “peak" elevation. Tectonic uplift in western Laurentia reorganized the rivers that had previously flowed westward across the Canadian Shield. The new, northeastflowing fluvial systems converged eastwards in what is now Hudson Bay and flowed through the Hudson Strait to the mouth of the Paleo-Bell (Fig. 11). Between 55 and 5 Ma that system deposited massive amounts of sediment in the Saglek Basin in the Labrador Sea (east of northern Labrador and southern Baffin Island). Fossil pollen and geochemical data from the sediment all support a source to the far southwest of the continent. Geological evidence from outcrops in the United States even suggests

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that the precursor of the Colorado River also flowed northeast and connected to the Paleo-Bell watershed. This continued until about 16 Ma when flood basalts erupted on the Snake River Plateau (triggered by the long-lived Yellowstone hotspot) and faulting of the Colorado Plateau forced a different path for the river, ultimately producing today's Grand Canyon. Another branch of the Paleo-Bell (the Paleo-Missouri) was diverted due to gradual regional uplift during the Oligocene and late Miocene. Prior to that time the continental divide between the Paleo-Mississippi and Paleo-Bell lay about 800 km to the south in southern Wyoming and Nebraska. By the Pliocene it had shifted north to Milk River Ridge and the Cypress Hills. This enabled the deposition of the Wood Mountain Formation and younger strata (including the Souris gravels) in Saskatchewan before the drainage was diverted farther south to the present-day Missouri River (Leckie, 2006). The mighty Paleo-Bell river system (which

drained two-thirds of continental North America) flowed for over 50 million years, first constructing and then eroding most of a great wedge of sediment to the east of the Rockies, of which the Cypress Hills are a remnant. When Pleistocene glaciers grew to cap most of Canada, however, they blocked the flow, rearranged the topography, and brought an end to the mighty river at about 2.6 Ma. In its place as the ice retreated, the Mackenzie River in the Arctic, the Mississippi in the southeast, and the Missouri River in the immediate south took over the margins of the massive watershed. The remnants of the Paleo-Bell are reflected in the smaller rivers (such as the Saskatchewan) that flow into present-day Hudson Bay, ending thousands of kilometres short of the original delta in Labrador. Isolated outcrops, Eocene sedimentary xenoliths in kimberlites, and the massive stack of sediment in the Labrador Sea are the only remaining physical elements of the Paleo-Bell. All things must pass.

As the ice retreated, winds deposited loess over much of the top and southern slopes of the hills. Rivers of meltwater cut large (up to 60 m deep) channels around the hills (Figs. 12B, 13) (Westgate, 1968; Kulig, 1995), and fluvial dissection followed by rotational landslides became the dominant geomorphic processes. The Police Point slump that occurred as several events between 1965 and 1967 is an excellent example of a rotational landslide (Fig. 14) (Goulden and Sauchyn, 1986). In all, about 1.5 million cubic metres of Cenozoic and late Cretaceous strata have been involved in the slumping, with the basal slip-surfaces occurring in the bentonite-rich clays and shales below the Cypress Hills Formation.

Seasonal meltwater and rainfall-generated erosion continue to cut into the slide debris, resulting in ongoing localized slump reactivation of the sediments. Decades later, the slopes have few well-established trees as they get toppled by ongoing slumping, inundated by debris flows, or washed away by erosion. Much older landslides blocked the Elkwater channel roughly around 9440 BP when the first of two slumps impounded water to form Elkwater Lake (Wiseman et al., 2002). The newly formed lake (Fig. 15) soon became a focus for human activity. The earliest evidence of human presence in the area comes from the deeply stratified Stampede site where artifacts including a bone needle were uncovered in a

FIGURE 11. Reconstruction of the Paleo-Bell River Basin at its peak

in the Miocene. Its branches reach from the Northwest Territories in the north to a north-flowing Colorado River in the south via an ancestral Yellowstone River. Note the watersheds of the ancestral Mississippi and St Lawrence Rivers, and the present-day drainage basins of the Saskatchewan and Mackenzie Rivers (shown as medium and light green polygons). The figure is adapted from Jackson (2018), after Sears (2013) and others.

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The Mackenzie is very recent, established at perhaps 13,000 BP during a catastrophic drainage of Glacial Lake Agassiz. This proglacial lake (blue polygon) had a very dynamic history in the late stages of the Ice Age, shaping not only the modern rivers but also changing global sea level with its outbursts. In one of its final throes, at about 8,480 BP, the Lake Agassiz floods raised global sea level approximately 1-3 m, causing temporary global cooling (Li et al., 2012). This in turn may have contributed to flood narratives in ancient mythologies, driven Neolithic migrations, and triggered the rise of agriculture (Turney and Brown, 2007).

12A

12B

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FIGURE 12. A: The position of the ice at the maximum of the Late Wisconsin Glaciation about 20,000 years before present, showing the location of ice lobes (white) and unglaciated highlands (brown). Arrows show the direction of ice flow. After Kulig, 1995, p. 226. B: The position of the ice about 14,000-15,000 years before present showing the developing meltwater channels (blue). After Kulig, 1995, p. 234. FIGURE 13. Elkwater Lake lies within a remnant glacial meltwater channel (see figure 15).

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cultural layer some 6 metres below surface dating to 8070 BP. Some 20 cultural layers were encountered in the 6 metres of alluvial sediments and the cultural remains from these levels included campfires, boiling pits, stone tools, bone tools, shell beads and bone beads (Vivian et al., 2008; Meyer et al., 2009; and pers. comm. G. Oetelaar).”n John Storer, Dale Leckie and Gerald Oetelaar are thanked for helpful discussions on the complex stratigraphy and the archaeology of Cypress Hills.

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FIGURE 14. The Police Point rotational landslide (arrow) occurred as several events between 1965 and 1967 (Goulden and Sauchyn, 1986). Note the arcuate scars to the left and right that mark the tops of similar landslides that occurred at earlier times. Image from Google Earth.

FIGURE 15: Elkwater Lake formed when the East Slump Block (ESB), followed by the West Slump Block (WSB), impounded water from the remnant Elkwater glacial meltwater channel. The Stampede archeological site, to the east of the lake, has a record of at least 8000 years of intermittent human occupation. The hummocky terrain to the north marks the Green Lake Moraine, deposited during final retreat of the glaciers about 13,500 BP. The Ross Creek outlet is the drainage outlet for the lake that formed after the landslides (Image from Wiseman et al., 2002; photo base from Alberta Environment, Airphoto Services).

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FIGURE 16: The 10th buried soil at the Stampede Site yielded artifacts dating to about 6000 BP. These include an awl from a ground antler tip (left), a stone chipped dart point (top, left of centre), two stone chips with retouch (chipping) along the left edges (probably used for cutting or scraping), a white biface fragment (a biface is a piece of stone worked on both side), and a worked bird bone. Note the horizontal groove (marked by red arrow) near the bottom edge, representative of the groove-and-snap technique used to cut through bone. Image and interpretation provided by G. Oetelaar (pers comm.). For more information see also Meyer et al. (2010) and Chandler (2015).

FIGURE 17. Simplified stratigraphic column for southwestern Saskatchewan adjacent to the Cypress Hills area of Alberta. Yellow represents coarse grained strata and grey = muddy strata. The Tertiary stratigraphy is poorly time-constrained due to a combination of factors including numerous unconformities, isolated outcrops and intermittent fossil recovery (D. Leckie and J. Storer, pers. comm.). The figure is adapted from Saskatchewan Industry and Resources (2004).

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18 FIGURES 18, 19, 20 AND 21 respectively are classic paintings of a brontothere (Megacerops), an ancestral horse (Mesohippus), the predator Hyaenodon and the pig-like entelodont Brachyhyops. The Miocene of Cypress Hills would have made an exciting safari! The figures were painted by paleo-artists Charles R. Knight (18) and Heinrich Harder (19, 20 and 21).

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Leckie, D.A., 2006; Tertiary fluvial gravels and evolution of the western Canadian prairie landscape; Sedimentary Geology, v. 190, p. 139-158.

REFERENCES BChandler, A, 2015. Cypress Hills, Alberta: Secrets of the Great Plains. Canada’s History. https://www.canadashistory.ca/explore/ historic-sites/cypress-hills-alberta-secrets-ofthe-great-plains Dempsey, Z.W., Goater, C.P. and Burg, T.M. 2020; Living on the edge: comparative phylogeography and phylogenetics of Oreohelix land snails at their range edge in Western Canada; BMC Evolutionary Biology, v. 20, no. 3; https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-0191566-1 Goulden, M. R., and Sauchyn, D. J., 1986; Age of rotational landslides in the Cypress Hills, Alberta-Saskatchewan; Géographie physique et Quaternaire; v. 40, p. 239-248. Jackson, L., 2018; The Paleo-Bell River: North America's vanished Amazon; Earth Magazine. https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/paleobell-river-north-americas-vanished-amazon Kulig, J.J., 1995; The Quaternary history of the Cypress Hills and adjacent areas in Alberta and Saskatchewan; Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta. Kupsch, W.O., and Vonhof, J.A., 1967; Selective cementation of Tertiary sands and gravels, Saskatchewan; Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, v. 4, p. 769-775.

Leckie, D.A., and Cheel, R.J., 1989; The Cypress Hills Formation – A semi-arid braid plain deposit resulting from intrusive uplift. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, v. 26, p. 1918-1931. Li, Y.-X., Törnqvist, T.E., Nevitt, J.M., and Kohl, B., 2012; Synchronizing a sea-level jump, final Lake Agassiz drainage, and abrupt cooling 8200 years ago; Earth and Planetary Science Letters, v. 315-316, p. 41-50. McDougall, F.H., 2002; Southfork Fossil Locality Field Guide; T. rex Discovery Centre publication for Southfork Quarry tours, 18 p. Meyer, D., Vivian, B., Blakey, J., and Roe, J., 2010. The 2007 and 2008 Excavation Programs at the Stampede Site, Cypress Hills, Alberta. Lifeways of Canada Limited. Poster at the 43rd Annual Meeting of the Canadian Archaeological Association, April 28-May2, 2010, Calgary. https://lifewaysofcanada.com/ wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Meyer-VivianBlakey-Roe-2010.pdf Russell, L.S., 1965; Macropaleontology of the surface formations, Cypress Hills area, Alberta and Saskatchewan; Alberta Society of Petroleum Geologists, 15th Annual Field Trip Guidebook, p. 131-136. Saskatchewan Industry and Resources, 2004; Stratigraphic Correlation Chart; http:// www.ir.gov.sk.ca/files/co2monitoring/PDFs/ strat%20char.pdf

Sears, J.W., 2013; Late Oligocene-early Miocene Grand Canyon: A Canadian connection? GSA Today, v. 23, no. 11, p. 4-10; http://archives.datapages.com/data/cspg_ sp/data/001/001001/473_cspgsp0010473. htm Storer, J.E., 1984; Fossil mammals of the Southfork local fauna (early Chadronian) of Saskatchewan; Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, v. 21, p. 1400-1405. Tokaryk, T., 1985; A historical review of the Brontotheriidae collected in Saskatchewan; Blue Jay Journal, v. 43, p. 151-154. Turney C.S.M., and Brown, H., 2007; Catastrophic early Holocene sea level rise, human migration and the Neolithic transition in Europe; Quaternary Science Reviews, v. 26, no. 17–18, p. 2036-2041. Vonhof, J. A., 1965; The Cypress Hills Formation and its reworked deposits in southwestern Saskatchewan; Alberta Society of Petroleum Geologists, 15th Annual Field Trip Guidebook, p. 142-161. Vivian, B., Meyer, D., Roe, J., and Blakey, J., 2008. 2007 Historical Resources Excavations at the Stampede Site (DjOn-26), Final Report, Permit 2007-382. Consultant’s report on file, Archaeological Survey of Alberta, Edmonton. Westgate, J.A., 1968; Surficial geology of the Foremost – Cypress Hills area, Alberta; Research Council of Alberta, Bulletin 22 and Map 29. Wiseman, D.J., Running IV, G.L. and Freeman, A., 2002. A paleoenvironmental reconstruction of Elkwater Lake, Alberta. Géographie physique et Quaternaire, 56: 279-290.

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2020 CSPG Award Recipients

2020 CSPG Graduate Thesis Award – Best M.Sc. Thesis Nakarí Díaz development potential as they shift from shoreface to deltaic settings along depositional strike.

The recipient of Best M.Sc. thesis award for 2020 is Nakarí Díaz. Her thesis, entitled Sequence Stratigraphy and Facies Analysis of the Viking Formation in Crossfield and Adjacent Areas, Alberta, Canada, was supervised by Dr. James A. MacEachern at Simon Fraser University. Funding for this research was provided by the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). Nakarí also received SFU Graduate Fellowships in Earth Sciences in 2017, 2018 and 2019, an AAPG Grandin-Aid Award in 2017, the Petro-Canada Graduate Scholarship in Earth Science in 2017, and a Travel and Minor Research Award in 2019. Nakarí earned her M.Sc. from the Department of Earth Sciences at Simon Fraser University in March, 2020. She also worked for seven years as a Petroleum Geologist in Exploration Geology in the Oil & Gas industry in Venezuela, which included both technical and scientific roles. Her research project at Simon Fraser University focused on developing a high-resolution facies characterization of the Lower Cretaceous Viking Formation in a sequence stratigraphic framework, in order to predict the alongstrike variations of reservoir units in the Crossfield area of Alberta. Nakarí is passionate about the applied contributions that her research provides in furthering our geological understanding of tight shallow-marine reservoirs and their exploration/

FIGURE 1: Schematic representation of the idealized stratigraphy in the Crossfield area (well: 102/06-11-2528W4). Sequence boundaries are associated with the bases of their respective depositional sequences, with SB1, SB3 and SB4 representing composite surfaces (WRS/SU) produced by an initial period of subaerial exposure followed by transgressive modification. By contrast, SB2 represents only subaerial exposure, and corresponds to a subaerial unconformity (SU). Two types of paleosols are encountered in the study area: incipient paleosols that were formed during long periods of time and mark the subaerial unconformities, and pedogenically modified sandstone formed in short periods of time during the late lowstand system tract, when accommodation space began to develop within the sequence.

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The Viking Formation (Late Albian) occurs within the Lower Cretaceous Colorado Group, and is widely distributed in the subsurface of Alberta and Saskatchewan in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. The Viking in the Harmattan East and Crossfield areas were last studied by Hadley (1992). The Viking Formation produces hydrocarbons from shallow-marine sandstones at Crossfield but had not yet received an integrated sedimentological and ichnological analysis to differentiate the depositional facies and explain the changes in reservoir quality of sandstone intervals along depositional strike. Additionally, the study area had not been evaluated sequence stratigraphically, and it was clear that in order to facilitate meaningful correlations and understand the depositional history of the reservoir interval, such a framework was essential. The sequence stratigraphy of the Viking Fm has been long debated. Owing to the generally low-accommodation conditions that prevailed at the time, bounding discontinuities are complex, cannot be expressed by a single origin, and are difficult to correlate (e.g., Pattison and Walker, 1994; MacEachern et al., 1999; Schultz et al., 2019). To that end, the Depositional Sequence Type IV approach (Catuneanu 2006)

was employed, so that the Crossfield model could be integrated into the regional framework being developed elsewhere in the basin. The thesis proposes a sequence stratigraphic framework that identifies the remnants of four different depositional sequences, and these sequences are bounded by four (4) sequence boundaries: SB1, SB2, SB3 and SB4 (Figure 1). SB1, SB3 and SB4 represent composite surfaces (WRS/SU) produced by an initial period of subaerial exposure and erosion followed by its transgressive modification. By contrast, SB2 represents only subaerial exposure and corresponds to a subaerial unconformity (SU). The reservoir interval at Crossfield occurs in the highstand system tract of Sequence 3, and broadly consists of stacked shallow-marine successions that record the progradation of a mixed-process (wave-dominated, riverinfluenced) delta. Sequence 3 is unconformably bounded by SB3 (WRS/ SU) at its base and unconformably overlain by SB4 (WRS/SU) at its top. Sequence Boundary 3 (SB3) is demarcated by an omission trace fossil suite of the Glossifungites Ichnofacies and separates bioturbated lower offshore silty mudstones of the TST of Sequence 2 below from overlying sharp-based shoreface sandstone deposits of the TST of Sequence 3. In the study area, SB4 (WRS/SU) separates delta plain deposits of the highstand system tract of Sequence 3 below from overlying cross-stratified to parallelstratified, coarse-grained sandstone intercalated with dark fissile mudstone. The subaerial unconformity (SU) was generated by a regional base level fall that had shifted the shoreline as far east as Saskatchewan (i.e., VE4 of Walker, 1995). Hence, SB4 is also highly diachronous and marks a major stratigraphic break in the study area.

FIGURE 2: A) Classification scheme of Ainsworth et al. (2011). B) Modified process classification scheme of Ainsworth et al. (2011) to evaluate the dominant processes acting in depositional environments where tidal processes are very minor, but where fluvial processes are more significant and wave energy can be differentiated into those associated with fairweather shoaling and those with storm energy

Facies mapping of the deltaic deposits in the HST of Sequence 3 records significant along-strike variations as a function of the relative importance of fluvial energy, fairweather waves, and storm wave processes, which impacted the Viking Formation’s reservoir quality. Owing to the minimal influence of tidal processes, the process classification scheme of Ainsworth et al. (2011) was modified accordingly in order to evaluate the interplay of fluvial sediment influx, fairweather wave energy and the magnitude of storm events on facies of the prodelta, delta front and distributary channels (Figure 2). Facies successions of the prodelta and delta front display the most pronounced variation along depositional strike. The delta front is main reservoir unit and is characterized by greater proportions of erosionally amalgamated HCS towards the northern part of the study area. By contrast, south of the distributary channel deposits, the delta-front intervals were partially sheltered from storm energy, leading to them being markedly heterolithic. These heterolithic intervals are characterized by thinner tempestites intercalated with fairweather wave-generated bioturbated mudstone and fissile mudstone drapes deposited as fluid mud from river-derived hypopycnal (buoyant) plumes. This indicates that fluvial influences on delta-front facies are better preserved to the south and imparts a facies asymmetry along depositional strike. Facies successions of the prodelta, however, demonstrate only a progressive increase in fluvial influence (e.g., fluid mud layers, hyperpycnites) towards the distributary channels, and are otherwise largely similar along

FIGURE 3: Along-Strike Variations in the HST Delta Deposits.

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strike, showing comparable proportions of micro-HCS and HCS storm beds and bioturbated fairweather mudstone beds away from the mouth of the distributary. This arrangement clearly demonstrates that from a process perspective, the delta was symmetrical (Figure 3). This thesis demonstrates that careful mapping of paleoenvironments within discrete system tracts is essential for their accurate depositional characterization. Specifically, under shallow-water, high-energy conditions typified by pronounced erosional amalgamation of some bed types, spatial changes in the resulting facies successions may be a function of a

preservational bias – a sedimentological control that preferentially removes beds generated by other processes (i.e., fluvial and tidal) that were operating in the system and giving the false impression of delta asymmetry. Rather, successions that favour a more complete record of deposition (e.g., prodeltaic intervals) are superior for characterizing the actual distribution of depositional processes that operated on the delta. Correspondingly, along-strike variations in the preservation of facies in high-energy delta fronts cannot be taken to be indicative of process-driven delta asymmetry. n Nakarí’s thesis is available for download from

WEBSITE

Award Recipient Interview

References Ainsworth, R.B., Vakarelov, B.K., and Nanson, R.A., 2011. Dynamic spatial and temporal prediction of changes in depositional processes on clastic shorelines: Toward improved subsurface uncertainty reduction and management: AAPG Bulletin, v. 95, p. 267-297. Catuneanu, O., 2006. Principles of Sequence Stratigraphy, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 375p. Hadley, S.W., 1992. The Sedimentology, Stratigraphy and Depositional History of the Lower Cretaceous Viking Formation at Harmattan East and Crossfield, Alberta, Canada [Unpublished M.Sc. Thesis]: McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, 293p. MacEachern, J.A., Zaitlin, B.A., and Pemberton, S.G., 1999. A sharp-based sandstone of the Viking Formation, Joffre field, Alberta, Canada: Criteria for recognition of transgressively incised shoreface complexes: Journal of Sedimentary Research, v. 69, p. 876-892. Pattison, S.A.J., and Walker, R.G., 1994. Incision and filling of a lowstand valley: Late Albian Viking Formation at Crystal, Alberta, Canada: Journal of Sedimentary Research, v. B64, p. 365-379. Schultz, S.K., MacEachern, J.A., and Gibson, H.D., 2019. Late Mesozoic reactivation of Precambrian basement structures and their resulting effects on the sequence stratigraphic architecture of the Viking Formation of east-central Alberta, Canada: Lithosphere, v. 11, p. 308-321. Walker, R.G., 1995. Sedimentary and tectonic origin of a transgressive surface of erosion: Viking Formation, Alberta, Canada. Journal of Sedimentary Research, v. B65, p. 209-221.

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ABOUT THE CONFERENCE The three half-day Virtual Sampler Meeting will feature a series of keynote presentations and discussion sessions led by a diverse panel of experts that will highlight recent state of the art trends in carbonate research and resource extraction. Themes including changing ocean chemistries, inorganic carbonates, dissolution, the state of CO2 sequestration in carbonate reservoirs, and the present & future of big data/machine learning in understanding carbonate systems are planned, just to mention a few

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GO TAKE A WALK Go Take a Walk is a new series of articles brought to you by the CSPG Field Courses Committee to explore easily accessible geology at home and abroad. These articles focus on geological points of interest in cities, historical sites, museums and geological destinations a short walk from the car.

Red Square & Rapakivi: Looking at History Along Bill Ayrton’s Popular Walking Tour of Downtown Calgary By Gabrielle Abernethy & Philip Benham

BILL AYRTON ON TOUR EXPLAINING TYNDALL LIMESTONE. Image Source: Bill Ayrton

Bill Ayr ton has been offering a popular walking tour of Calgar y’s downtown buildings for several decades. Involved in the exploration of Western Canada for over 40 years, Bill is familiar to many geologists, having been a popular presenter, instructor and field trip leader to industr y. Now, you’re more likely to find Bill in Windermere, B.C., enjoying the views offered by the Purcell Mountains, but on special occasions, like this July, he will return to Calgar y to lead a walking tour of Calgar y’s downtown building rocks

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on behalf of the CSPG. Not only will the tour showcase the spectacular features of igneous, metamorphic and sedimentar y rocks but also offer the fascinating histor y and stories of many of these buildings. One such building of note is the Petro Canada Towers, renamed the Suncor Energy Centre after their merger in 2009. Completed in 1984, Calgar y’s decades of boom (and bust) are writ large in the lustre of its red granite slabs.

In 1975, in an effor t to address Canada’s petroleum security and help Canadianize the petroleum industr y during the world oil crisis of the 70s, parliament created the national energy company, Petro Canada. It was from 1976-1983, while Petro Canada was located in the red brick offices of Canada Place on the corner of 4th Ave and 2nd St SW, purchases of Atlantic Richfield Canada ($325 million), Pacific Petroleums ($1.4 billion), Petrofina Canada ($1.6 billion) and the refining and marketing assets of BP Canada ($348 million), earned their head offices the nickname ‘Red Square’ (C. Tippett, pers. comm., May 28, 2021). “..using taxpayers’ money to finance purchases - private oil companies protested strongly. Their executives said that publicly funded competition in the oil industr y was a destructive practice” (Finalyson et al., 1985). The use of the term Red

FORMER PETRO CANADA TOWERS (NOW SUNCOR ENERGY CENTRE) WITH CALGARY PLACE I AND CALGARY STOCK EXCHANGE TOWER IN THE FOREGROUND.

THE ORIGINAL RED SQUARE - THE RED-BRICK OFFICES OF CANADA PLACE ON THE SW CORNER OF 4TH AVE AND 2ND ST. SW. PETRO CANADA’S HEADQUARTERS FROM 1976-1984. Image from Google

Image Source: Bill Ayrton

Square, intentional or not, created uncomfor table allusions to Moscow’s Red Square and the economic stagnation of state controlled markets within the Soviet Union. The global price spikes of the 70s had meant a boom for Alber tans, driving an influx of people to Alber ta’s thriving resource economy and nearly doubling the population in that decade. Local petroleum historian, Clint Tippett, says the federal government attempted to regulate pricing beginning in 1973 through imposed discounts on domestic crude and taxation of crude expor ts; tax revenues were used to subsidize globally-priced crude impor ts into Eastern Canada. When the National Energy Program (NEP) was introduced in 1980, the federal government created revenue sharing agreements to allow other provinces to benefit from higher oil prices (Anderson & Dempster, 2020). Other controversial elements of the program, including favorable grants for Canadian companies and the levying of the Petroleum and Gas Revenue Tax (PGRT) on the cash flow of petroleum companies (C. Tippett, pers. comm., May 28, 2021), stifled foreign investment in Alber ta’s oil industr y. Unfor tunately, the introduction of the NEP coincided with the star t of a global recession and falling crude prices (Anderson & Dempster 2020). The prices nullified the NEP’s goals and multiplied the effects of fleeing capital. “By the end of 1982, Canada's unemployment rate was 13 per cent and Alber ta's was more than 10 per cent” (Anderson & Dempster 2020).

The NEP was dismantled in 1985, but the moniker Red Square would continue to be used after Petro Canada’s move in 1984 into two newly built towers on the NE corner of 6 Ave and 1 St SW - the former Petro Canada Towers. Petro Canada, a Canadian Crown corporation, had become a flashpoint of the controversial NEP. The polished red granite, known as ‘Balmoral Red’, used for the new building’s exterior cladding was, in retrospect, an unfor tunate choice. Major rapakivi granite batholiths in Finland. Figure from Härmä, 2020. The source of Balmoral Red rapakivi granites is the Proterozoic Vehmaa batholith in SW Finland. 350 km to the east, in SE Finland, the Wiborg batholith is another mass of intrusive igneous rock covering ~18,000 square km in SE Finland and the adjacent Leningrad region of the Russian Federation. An identical ‘New Balmoral Red’ granite is quarried from this region.

of quar tz and hornblende. ‘Rapakivi’ is a Finnish term meaning ‘crumbly stone’, referring to the “feldspathic rubble in the weathered zone above cer tain granites in S. Finland” (Vorma, 1989). South Finland’s rapakivi granite

Within the Wiborg batholith, various textures and hues of rapakivi granite are sourced from the different quarries, including the ‘Baltic Brown’ building stone seen on the exterior of Encor Place at 7th Ave and 6th St SW. In contrast to the red granites of the former Petro Canada Centre, E n c o r ’s facade is c ov e r e d in brownish, large, ovoid, or thoclase ( K - s p a r ) phenocr ysts rimmed by plagioclase and MAJOR RAPAKIVI GRANITE BATHOLITHS IN FINLAND. sitting in a matrix Figure from Härmä, 2020.

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BALTIC BROWN RAPAKIVI GRANITE AT ENCOR PLACE.

EXAMPLE OF THE RUBBLY WEATHERED SURFACE THAT LENDS RAPAKIVI ITS NAME. THE PHOTO IS FROM THE SHORELINE OF NARVIJÄRVI, NEAR RAUMA, FINLAND. Image by Kallerna, distributed under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Rapakivi_granite#/media/ File:Moro_Narvij%C3%A4rvi_3.jpg)

THIS DIAGRAM SHOWS HOW THE ORIGINAL ORTHOCLASE (KFS) CRYSTAL FORM IS OBSCURED BY DISSOLUTION AND REPLACEMENT BY PLAGIOCLASE (PL). FIGURE FROM CURRIER ET AL., 2019. BALMORAL RED RAPAKIVI GRANITE. Image Source: Bill Ayrton

intrusions are the type locality for this variety of granite. Dempster et. al. (1994) proposed the ovoid shape is controlled by the reorganization of mobile feldspar components, with the early K-feldspar cr ystals (or thoclase) becoming more Na-rich as the melt chemistr y evolves. An inward-moving reaction front, coupled with precipitation of a plagioclase (Na-Ca feldspar) mantle creates a replacement front progressing inwards, obscuring the original cr ystal faces into an ovoid. Most rapakivi granites formed during the Proterozoic but they occur from the Archean to Recent. They are associated with anorogenic magmatism, i.e. mid ocean ridges, mantle plume hotspots and at continental rifts. Larin (2009) associates the late Archean occurrences with the onset of tectonism at 3 Ga and the main accumulations of rapakavi granite (formed between 1.9 and 0.6 Ga) to be related to the rapid growth of continental cr ust as the ear ly supercontinents (Nuna, Rodinia and Pannotia) evolved. Rapakivi granites tend to be high in fluoride providing natural

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fluoridation in ground waters, though it can be excessive. They also are high in uranium, up to 24 ppm, creating a radon gas hazard, par ticularly in Finland where readings can often exceed the safe limit of 400 Bq/m3 (Valmari et al., 2012). The Balmoral Red granites from SW F inland are medium-grained rapakivi granites. The granites consist of K-feldspar, quar tz, plagioclase, with minor biotite and hornblende. Quarried from the central par ts of the Vehmaa batholith, the massif was emplaced as a succession of granitic intrusions, roughly concentrically arranged from the margins to the center. The first pulses produced the typical coarse grained rapakivi texture with K-feldspar ovoids rimmed with plagioclase. Later pulses were medium to fine grained rapakivi granites, reflecting the progressive cooling of the magma (Selonen et al., 2011). The Balmoral Red granites of the former Petro Canada Towers and its influence on entrenching the Red Square moniker has a surprising connection to political symbolism nearly 8000km away and on a separate continent. The quarries in the SE Wiborg batholith have been in use since the Middle Ages. Between 1760 and 1917, all Wiborg rapakivi granites, including a ‘New Balmoral Red’ doppelgänger and Baltic Brown, were used in the buildings of St.Petersburg, Russia (Bulakh, et. all, 2020). St. Petersburg was once the capital of Russia until social and political upheaval, ignited by the October Revolution of 1917, saw imperialist Russia over thrown by the communist Bolsheviks. The royal family was unceremoniously killed and the government moved to Moscow in 1918,

VARIOUS DEPOSITS USED AS ST. PETERSBURG ORNAMENTAL STONE INCLUDING FINNISH ‘NEW BALMORAL RED’ AND ‘BALTIC BROWN’ RAPAKIVI GRANITES (DEPOSITS 16&17). Figure from Bulakh, et al., 2014.

BALTIC BROWN RAPAKIVI GRANITE AT ENCOR PLACE. Image Source: Bill Ayrton

where Moscow’s Red Square became synonymous with the epicenter of Soviet power. Through the quirks of histor y, Finland’s rapakivi granites have, at different times, been architectural emblems of unpopular governments in both Russia and Canada.

Bill Ayrton’s reflections on the NEP are captured in an inter view he gave in 2001 for the Petroleum Industr y Oral Histor y Project: “I’ve probably been through 4 cycles where we’ve been up and down and up and down, and one of them of course, was the National Energy Policy [sic] that was instituted that just caused people to flee from Canada. I’d already left Amoco at that time. And the price of oil and gas being so low, people were actually shutting in wells and companies were cutting back to the bare bones. I mean the motto around town was leaner and meaner.” “I was right in the middle of putting $5 million together for Flame Oil and Gas' first joint venture. I had, I think, about 15 either individuals or joint venture groups of doctors, primarily, all ready to put up their money … and all my investors just ran for cover. It took me about 3 more months to put ever ything back together with a revised program which included investing in the United States and I got it put back

together again. But the timing on that just couldn’t have been worse for me because I had invested my own money in getting the company star ted and I needed investor capital to get the projects going… We did come out of it okay, we got our money put together and got Flame Oil and Gas star ted and it was a successful little company for 5 years.” Bill Ayr ton’s geological walking tour of Calgar y’s building rocks offers a geologist’s perspective on our city’s built heritage and the cultural relevance of stone. The former Petro Canada Tower stop (now Suncor Energy Centre) is just one of the many stories recorded in our skyline; a city’s humble beginning of local stone and brick that an oil strike at Leduc in 1947 propelled skyward. It is a stor y wor th hearing and thankfully we’ve had Bill to tell it. The tour is scheduled for July 28th 1-4pm. Keep your eyes posted on the CSPG e-Newsletter for registration updates for this popular tour! In keeping with evolving AHS guidelines, the group is currently limited to 10. A waitlist will be created as more spaces become available with easing restrictions.

Acknowledgements We’d like to thank Clint Tippett for providing invaluable notes about the National Energy Program and Petro Canada’s early days. We’d also like to thank Bill Ayr ton, Mark Mallamo and Marcelina Labaj for their feedback and suggestions. This ar ticle is in no way an endorsement or criticism of the NEP or Petro Canada. n

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References Anderson, D., & Dempster, A. (2020, October 24). Lougheed, Trudeau and the notorious NEP: How a political fight 40 years ago still casts a long shadow in Alberta. CBC News. https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/ longform/notorious-nep Ayrton, W.G. (Bill). (2001, June 14). Petroleum Industry Oral History Project Transcript [Personal Interview]. Interviewed by Finch, D. Retrieved May 9, 2021 from https://glenbow.ucalgary.ca/wp-content/ uploads/2019/06/PIOHP_Ayrton_Bill.pdf Balmoral Red Granite From Finland. (n.a.). International Granites. Retrieved May 9, 2020, from https://igranites.com/balmoral_red.html Bulakh, A., Härmä, P., Panova, E., Selonen, O. (October 21, 2020). Rapakivi granite in the architecture of St Petersburg: a potential Global Heritage Stone from Finland and Russia. Geological Society, London, Special publications (2020), 486(1), 67. Bulakh, A.G. (2014, June 10). Ornamental stone in the history of St. Petersburg architecture. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 407, 243-252. https://doi.org/10.1144/SP407.4 Currier, R., Ashauer, Z., Norfleet, M. (2019). Textural analyses of classical rapakivi granites: Texture formation through coarsening, sizeselective replacement, and stirring. Precambrian Research. 321. 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.precamres.2018.11.020 Dempster, T.J., Jenkin, G.R.T., Rogers, G. (1994). The Origin of Rapakivi Texture. Journal of Petrology. 35(4). 963-981. https://doi. org/10.1093/petrology/35.4.963 Finlayson, A., Salter, M., Pole, K., Adams, J. (1985, August 26). Special Report: Creating an oil giant too big to hate. Maclean’s. https:// archive.macleans.ca/article/1985/8/26/creating-an-oil-giant-too-bigto-hate Google. (n.d.). [Google Street View of Calgary Place]. Retrieved May 31, 2021, from https://www.google.com/maps/@51.0494317,114.0676625,3a,75y,224.14h,126.28t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sGqY6 VC8JKl8jpDEnaUTWXg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Härmä, P. (2020). Natural stone exploration in the classic Wiborg rapakivi granite batholith of southeastern Finland - new insights from integration of lithological, geophysical and structural data. Academic Dissertation. Geological Survey of Finland. Bulletin 411. Monograph: Academic Dissertation. https://doi.org/10.30440/bt411 Larin, A. (2009). Rapakivi granites in the geological history of the Earth. Part 1. Magnetic associations with rapakivi granites: age, geochemistry, and tectonic setting. Stratigraphy and Geological Correlation. 17(3). 235-258. https://doi.org/10.1134/ S0869593809030010 Petro-Canada, from a Calgary hotel room to ‘Red Square’. (2009, March 24). Calgary Herald. Page 4 of 60. https://search.proquest. com/hnpcalgaryherald/docview/2263976014/6487C63A0AF7443CPQ /1?accountid=46584 Selonen, O., Ehlers, C. ,Luodes, H. & Karell, F. (2011). Magmatic constraints on localization of natural stone deposits in the Vehmaa rapakivi granite batholith, southwestern Finland. Bulletin of the Geological Society of Finland. 83. 25-39. https://doi.org/10.17741/ bgsf/83.1.002 Schmidt, L. (2009, March 24). Petro-Canada’s early days marked by controversy: National energy company bore brunt of western rage. Edmonton Journal. Page 4 of 60. Tippett, C. (2020, December). The National Energy Program of 1980. Petroleum History Society Archives, 31(4), 11-19. Valmari, T., Arvela, H., ja Reisbacka, H. (2012). Radon in Finnish apartment buildings. Radiation Protection Dosimetry. 152 (1-3). 146149. https://doi.org/10.1093/rpd/ncs211 Vorma A. (1989). Rapakivi texture. In: Petrology. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-308458_209

GEOLOGY WALKING TOUR OF DOWNTOWN CALGARY

J U LY 2 8 | 1 : 0 0 - 4 : 0 0

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L E A D E R : B I L L AY RTO N

R EG I ST E R TO DAY

2021 REGIONAL SCHOLARSHIP WINNERS Eastern PhD Winner

Carla Skinner (Dickson) | Dalhousie University Thesis Title: Geothermal Energy in Salt-Rooted Basins: the Road to Carbon Neutrality Supervisors: Grant Wach, Adam Donaldson & Tom Martel Address: 31 Rannoch Road, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia B2X 1J7 Phone: 1-403-828-7560 E-mail: carla.skinner@dal.ca

Eastern MSc Winner

Fredrick Nwasike | Queen’s University

Thesis Title: Influence of Submarine Channel Sinuosity and Length on Grain-Size Sorting of Submarine Fan Deposit Supervisors: Elisabeth Steel Address: 210 Colborne Street, Kingston, ON K7K 1E3 Phone: 613-483-7437 E-mail: 20fcn@queens.ca

Western PhD Winner

Brendan Bishop | University of Regina Thesis Title: Rare Earth Element Potential of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin Supervisors: Leslie Robbins Address: 164 Marsh Crescent, Regina, SK S4S 5J7 Phone: 780-227-0154 E-mail: bab495@uregina.ca

Western MSc Winner

Nicole Greiner | University of Calgary Thesis Title: Applications of UAV-SfM Photogrammetry to Stratigraphically Characterize Upper Cretaceous Shelf-Edge Deltaic Deposits of the Magallanes Basin, Southern Patagonian Region, Chile Supervisors: Steven Hubbard Address: 310 – 138 Waterfront Crt. S.W., Calgary, AB T2P 1L1 Phone: 403-771-5430 E-mail: nicole.greiner@ucalgary.ca

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Gussow 2022: A Technical Conference about Your Professional Future

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n May this year, the International Energy Agency to zero? Is it to stop petroleum extraction for its own sake? Or is it create room (IEA) dropped a bombshell on our geological in the atmosphere from high-income countries so low-income countries can community. The IEA published a report improve lives and develop their economies with proven and affordable fossil-fuel about how to reach a “Net Zero Emissions” technology? Is it all three? And how will the costs and disruptions of all possible world, defining what they termed “the essential pathways be shared in a just and balanced way? Those important questions are conditions for the global energy sector still to be answered by governments and policy makers. to reach net-zero CO2 emissions by Recent court challenges of large energy companies on 2050” and a roadmap to achieve this their reduction goals are a harbinger of things to come. goal. The headline news focussed And some are being successful. on the IEA’s pathway milestone that The future cannot be But regardless of those questions, most Canadian energy states “no new oil and gas fields would geologists who see their careers lasting beyond the next predicted, which is be approved for development from five to ten years will have to operate in this new world. 2021 onwards”, and needless to say, While this represents a disruption for the community why scenarios and forever after that. From now on, this of practice, this move can have two benefits. For path demands that electrification and forecasts should be the individual, emergent new opportunities can mean carbon-less renewable energy would challenging and rewarding careers can be continued, in a viewed with caution. have to increasingly substitute for “doing good while doing well” scenario. For the world in fuel hydrocarbons as existing oil and general, engaging geologists means that more pathways to gas fields, while still allowed, go into Net Zero can be explored. Maybe better, more affordable, permanent decline and abandonment and socially just pathways to the desired outcomes can as demand and prices go to zero. be discovered because earth and energy geosciences are The IEA report outlines one pathway to Net Zero, one better represented in decisions and investments to come. that relies on development and deployment at scale The 2022 Gussow Conference is about this great paradigm shift we are of existing and yet-to-be technologies at the expense experiencing. The theme is Expanding Horizons: Emergent Opportunities for of petroleum, coal, geothermal, and nuclear energy. Geologists in Energy, Land, and Water. The theme is purposely set to have For this pathway choice, it has already been criticized. an optimistic, but realistic, view about the disruption we may be facing. It is But such criticism misses an important point, which purposefully targeted to the technical aspects of this change and what it can is that the global to national policy framework, and to mean at the individual and personal level. Gussow 2022 will be different in some degree public opinion, has shifted, profoundly this regard from prior Gussow conferences, but we want to create the space for and permanently, towards achieving a Net Zero a meaningful dialogue. We want to talk about what it means for technical and CO2-emission world by 2050 and avoid the worst scientific practitioners in the energy geosciences to stay relevant, engaged, and impacts of CO2-driven global warming Now we need valued in the emerging world. to find the pathway(s) to that goal and establish Gussow 2022: Expanding Horizons is structured to make the conversation our role within it. Other pathways to achieve Net as relevant as possible for the attendee looking hard at the future of their Zero exist, such as those outlined by BP and Shell professional future. We have divided the single-track tradition of a Gussow scenarios, and Saudi Arabia’s put forward a circular Conference into a succession of mini-sessions revolving around three invited carbon-economy proposal. Pathway choice depends speakers who will enlighten us to the opportunities in future energy, future land, in part on the goal – Is it to reduce CO2 emissions

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and future water use on the journey to a Net Zero world. Future energy means the energy mix of 2050 including wind, solar, nuclear, geothermal, hydrogen, and petroleum. Future land means how we live on Earth, with reference to land use, critical raw materials like lithium and fertilizers, living safely alongside natural and induced geological hazards, urbanization, and biodiversity conservation. Future water means how we manage our water resources, especially groundwater, in the face of climate change, population growth, pollution, carbon capture and storage (CCS), subsurface injection, and waste disposal. The mini-sessions will be anchored in core areas of existing professional technical practice, as follows: n n n n

pure “soft rock” geology, petroleum and bitumen, natural gas, geothermal energy,

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Kevin Parks

carbon capture and storage, critical raw materials, and technology.

P.Geo., Principal Hydrogeologist and Founding President of Deep Time Advisory Services Ltd

The goal is to start from a familiar place in these core areas of CSPG member practice and explore the “adjacent possible” and innovative opportunities in future energy, future land, and future water in a Net Zero world. The future cannot be predicted, which is why scenarios and forecasts need to be approached with caution. But one can use them to make informed choices about how to recognize, shape, and take advantage of new opportunities and survive professionally in this changing world. Geology has undergone many revolutionary changes in the areas of pure science and professional practice. Like in evolution, sometimes this change has been gradual and sometimes it has been abrupt. It looks like we are in for a rapid change this time around, and the need for geoscience has never been greater. Gussow 2022 will empower you with ideas to help you thrive in new arenas while you continue to inform social, environmental, and economic choices with expert knowledge about the Earth, for everyone’s benefit. n

Jon Fennell

M.Sc., Ph.D., P.Geo. Hydrogeologist & Geochemist Water Security | Climate Risk

Gussow Co-Chair Interview

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From the Desk of the AER Brent Welsh, Michael Bevan and David Helmer, Alberta Energy Regulator

Water Conservation Policy for Upstream Oil and Gas Operations On April 20, 2021, the AER released a bulletin to invite public feedback on a draft of our new water conservation policy Manual for upstream oil and gas operations. The Manual provides guidance to all oil and gas operations that submit Water Act applications for hydraulic fracturing, enhanced oil recovery, thermal in situ or oil sands mining water allocations.

The Water Conservation Policy for Upstream Oil and Gas Operations (WCP) was written by Alberta Environment and Parks (AEP), and released on December 1, 2020. AER is tasked with implementing this policy through our regulatory applications process. The purpose of our Manual is to provide guidance to industry so we can ensure the WCP is implemented as consistently as possible and that the outcomes expected by the Government of Alberta are achieved. One of the key differences between the new WCP and the 2006 Water Conservation and Allocation Policy for Oilfield Injection is that it no longer requires all types of nonsaline water to be regulated equally. Under the WCP, nonsaline water is divided into high-quality nonsaline (HQNS) and alternative nonsaline (ANS). The main outcome of the WCP is to conserve HQNS water, which includes surface water and groundwater that support the aquatic ecosystem or are usable with standard treatment systems for domestic or agricultural purposes. The new water source selection hierarchy is as follows:

To ensure HQNS water is conserved, HQNS water falls under higher risk-based tiers and will have more application requirements than ANS water. In areas that are water-short the risk-based tier increases incrementally. Furthermore, operators will have to demonstrate that they have looked for ANS water and other alternatives prior to applying for an HQNS water licence. We expect this will encourage the use of ANS water over HQNS water throughout the energy sector. ANS water includes surface water and nonsaline groundwater that has already been used or has degraded water quality due to the geological setting or impacts from anthropogenic activity. Most ANS water supplies require treatment if they are to be returned to the environment, and many of them are sent to disposal wells or stored in long-term containment ponds. In non-water-short areas, ANS groundwater also includes deep nonsaline groundwater that is hydraulically isolated from the aquatic ecosystem. In general, ANS water supplies have very low potential to be used for non-industrial purposes and their use would not have an impact on the aquatic environment. Many ANS water supplies have been overlooked, and AER expects several companies will seek input from their geologists, hydrogeologists, and other environmental specialists to find these sources. While ANS water that is currently being sent to disposal wells is the ideal choice for use under the WCP, minimizing the overall environmental net effects of a project is also a major consideration. It is possible that a suitable ANS aquifer might be present directly below your project’s footprint, and our Manual provides a screening process for distinguishing ANS groundwater from HQNS. Examples of deep nonsaline water-bearing formations that might now fall under the ANS water category in our Manual include the Cardium, Belly River, Peace River (Paddy-Cadotte), Grand Rapids, Clearwater, McMurray, and Keg River. We are excited to see if any other deep ANS water-bearing formations will be discovered through the course of implementing the WCP!

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The public feedback period closed on May 21, and at the time of writing this article, we were in the process of considering the feedback and determining if any changes are needed prior to finalizing the manual and releasing it in the late summer or early fall. After our WCP Manual is finalized and released, AER will not stop there. Our next step will be to modify our industry performance report on water use, so Albertans can monitor the conservation of

HQNS water over time. This transparency will hold industry and the AER accountable for achieving the WCP outcomes. You can expect to see this update on our website in 2022, when we release the 2021 water use performance report. We are also making changes to our regulatory framework to help facilitate the use of ANS water and other alternative waters to ensure that our requirements are not preventing the energy industry from achieving the WCP goals. n

Save the date! www.cspg.org/EETiG

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GO TAKE A HIKE – ETHIOPIA, #5

The Halo-Volcanic Geothermal Complex of Dallol

Philip Benham, Enku Mulugeta, and Tom Pfeiffer

Trailhead: Dallol is typically visited on a tour along with exploration of the surrounding Danakil Desert. It can be reached from Mekelle airport in a day-long drive. Please note: since the lead authors visit, Mekelle was subject to shelling in the civil war in November 2020.

Distance: The hike is 3-4 km round trip, depending on where you meander. Elevation differential is perhaps 50 m, starting at 130m below sea level.

Risks: Risks include extreme heat, rugged and remote terrain, kidnappings, poor road conditions, questionable driving, lack of emergency facilities, rustic conditions, and poor hygiene at campsites. The hydrothermal crusts are weak and thin. Walking on them risks falling into boiling, highly acidic water. We suggest visiting this challenging region with responsible tour company such as VolcanoDiscovery.

FIGURE 1. Typical active hydrothermal platform with white and yellow salt pillars bubbling or spitting water or exhaling steam and noxious fumes. The inactive areas quickly turn a rusty brown, or grey-brown. Pillars in foreground are 20-60 cm high.

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he Dallol halo-volcanic geothermal complex is a unique and spectacular system in the remote Danakil Desert of Ethiopia. Brilliantly coloured yellow, green and blue pools, massive terrace systems (Figure 1), noxious steaming fumaroles and myriad mineral shapes and structures are all the product of a magmatic intrusion into salt. Dallol is a fairly recent feature, having evolved in perhaps the last 10,000 years, well after the Danakil Sea evaporated and left a desolate salt plain (Benham et al., in press). Dallol is a broad low dome about 50 m high and just over 3 km in diameter (Figure 2). As the Danakil arm of the Afar triple junction of the East African Rift System continued to grow, a series of volcanoes (including Erta Ale), maars, salt diapirs and hot highly saline springs have formed along the fracture systems. The severely extended crust is thin here, resulting

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FIGURE 4: The sill below Dallol is injected perhaps 1 km below surface from a shallow magma chamber that was injected just above the potash beds of the Houston Formation. The intrusion, high heat flow, highly dissolvable minerals and numerous fault systems allow for a very active halo-volcanic geothermal complex with ephemeral acid springs, degassing vents, more sustained acid ponds, occasional phreatic explosions and even mineral flows (such as bischofite) (from Lopez-Garcia et al., 2020).

in shallow magma chambers and intrusions along fracture systems. At Dallol, a sill was injected into the contact between the potash beds below (the last gasp of the Danakil Sea) and the late Quaternary salt pan deposits of the Upper Rock Salt Formation (URS, Figures 2 and 4). The salt diapir and ongoing uplift have been accompanied by extensive hydrothermal activity, recharged by seasonal rains that supply the aquifer with water from the highlands. The highly soluble “mountain” undergoes continuous karstification and erosion, tending to follow fracture systems and creating fault-aligned canyons in the exposures of the URS to the southwest of Dallol (Figure 3). Dallol geothermal springs produce anoxic, hot (90-109° C), hyperacidic (from ~ 0 to −1.7 pH, by comparison battery acid is pH=1), hypersaline brines (often reaching 30% TDS), containing up to 150 g/L of iron (Cavalazzi et al., 2019). Could life exist here? Some posit Dallol as a test for the conditions permitting life on other planets. Colourful hot springs, such as the Prismatic Pool in Yellowstone National Park, often take their colouration from mats of various species of bacteria and archaea preferentially growing within a certain temperature range. There are numerous examples of “extremophile” organisms that can survive at high temperatures (thermophiles), in high salinity (halophiles) or even in very acidic settings (acidophiles). But combine all these conditions and the presence of magnesium salt (which damages biological processes in cell membranes (Lopez-Garcia et al., 2020) and the result is a polyextreme setting and perhaps most difficult place on the surface of the Earth for organisms

FIGURE 2: Schematic of likely evolution of Dallol from early intrusion during time of shallow salt lake or salt pans, followed by salt deformation and doming from multiple intrusions up fault planes and concentration of magma at the contact between the potash of the Houston Fm. and the layered halite and silts of the URS. As the dome began to fracture further, the hydrothermal system was established, and hydrothermally-driven mineral salt flows began to occur on its flanks. In the present day, the primary geothermal activity is centred on the crest but the active fumaroles move around seasonally depending on water supply, sealing and opening of fluid pathways within the soluble and mobile salts. (Image source: López-García et al., 2020).

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to survive. And yet, DNA sequencing of Dallol spring water samples and SEM images of fumarole mineral samples reveal the presence of ultra-small microorganisms of the Order Nanohaloarchaea, (Gómez et al., 2019) (although another recent study (Belilla et al., 2019) suggests the minimal presences found in their own study were possibly due to contamination). However, in the vicinity of Dallol some geothermal ponds, where conditions are only slightly less “intolerable”, a diverse suite of archaea exist. Archaea are one of the three super-kingdoms in biology including bacteria and eukaryotes (to which the animal kingdom belongs). Superficially they resemble bacteria, but these single celled organisms lack a nucleus. The lineage of Archaea may be the oldest form of life on Earth, and, as such, their presence in such unpleasant conditions is suggestive not only of their origin but as an indicator of what we

FIGURE 3: Google Earth view of Dallol. The dark brown to yellowish coloured (currently active) hydrothermal area about 1 km in diameter is restricted to the peak. The light brown to the north consists recent salt flows and a thin veneer of muds. The darkercoloured western portion of the dome is mostly comprised of uplifted and exposed URS, partially incised into by canyons (yellow arrow). The white dotted lines are fault systems which show preferential dissolution and erosional enhancement. Most excursions park at the black “P” for the ascent of Dallol and then move to the yellow “P” for exploration of the salt canyons. For more detail on Dallol location in Danakil Desert refer to Benham et al., in press.

FIGURE 5: While many geothermal deposits have strong evidence of biological mediation, Dallol is unusual in that the chemical processes are perhaps almost entirely free of biological influence. In the blue-green terraced pools displayed, the water colour depends on the Fe ionic state (see inset from Kotopoulou et al., 2019). As the temperature drops and atmospheric O2 diffusion occurs, Fe(III) evolves and there is an associated drop in pH. The terrace and vent deposits are controlled by the same Fe oxygenation state, although the solids display a different colour spectrum (from white-yellow to rusty orange or brown). To the left are a snaking series of brown terraces that perhaps held water only months before.

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FIGURE 6: View of a large dried geothermal pond with chainlike halite-gypsum-anhydrite terraces growing to segregate the various ponds resulting in different temperatures, acidity and iron oxidation states… the ponds would have displayed a range of colours as seen in other photos in this article. Upon the termination of the spring / fumarole activity the water evaporated and / or drained away through fractures or the original vent paths. The 3 m-high mound in the right of the figure is an inactive vent, recrystallizing and exfoliating.

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FIGURE 7: Field of inactive 2-3 m mounds, comprised mostly of halite but also iron oxides and gypsum/anhydrite. After the springs shift elsewhere, the mounds may continue to degas as fumaroles for years, but the mounds degrade, losing their delicate and complex structures.

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FIGURE 8: At a later stage the highly soluble salts often begin to form a jagged, Swiss cheese karst. These form the last remnants of the geothermal mounds. FIGURE 9: Salt lilies mark the presence of a hydrothermal pond, now dried up. The lilies grow to the surface of the water and then spread radially at the surface. They are composed mainly of halite.

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FIGURE 10: Very fragile halite eggshell structures around a degassing vent. These fast growing structures occur as minerals drop out of the bubbling supersaturated water or steaming fumaroles as they cool.

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might encounter in life on other planets and where one might search on those planets. The fact that they are likely absent in the most extreme pools helps us understand the limits of where life can exist (Belilla et al., 2019). The dynamic and extreme setting, along with soluble mineral systems in Dallol, create a variety of structures including massive pillars 2-3 m high (Figures 6,11), broad hydrothermal platforms tens of metres across, salt flowers (Figure 9), robust terraces (Figures 5,16), micro-terraces (Figure 13), small geysers, fumaroles, delicate egg shell structures (Figures 10,12), popcorn textures (Figure 19), salt pearls, delicate effluorescences and even thin hairs all directed in the direction of the prevailing wind at the time they formed. Their colour range is diverse and just as temporary as the structures themselves. Depending on the features, they dissolve, recrystallize, and turn a grey-brown as they age, or form a jagged salt karst with more holes than mineral solids (Figure 8). The transitory structures and colours are also reflected in the mineral systems present including: halite (NaCl), jarosite (a hydrous sulfate of potassium and iron), various iron oxides and hydroxides, gypsum, anhydrite, sylvite and carnallite. Steer clear of the more vigorous fumaroles and steam clouds or you will take a dazing hit of the acidic fumes … gas masks with ABE filtering are strongly recommended

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11 12 FIGURE 11: One of the more dramatic springs (in February 2020). The flow is from right to left stepping down across a series of shallow, steaming terraced pools varying from yellow, through lime green to dark blue-green. The salt pillars in the mid-ground reach 3 m in height and perhaps mark the limit in height as the springs self-regulate, reaching the limit of the artesian pressures and finding new outlets through fractures and dissolution features. The remains of the Dallol mining camp (see Figure 14) are visible in the distance and behind them is the western wall of the rift valley. FIGURE 12: Many of the fumaroles have elongate, spherical, bubble-like or irregular structures which form as a result of vapor emission and salt precipitation. Over time they tend to coat with fine hairs or lumpy popcorn structures and as the vents diminish in activity they switch from white and yellow to orange or rusty brown. This bubble structure is almost 20 cm high.

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FIGURE 13: Close-up of a series of micro-terrace rills on an active spring. The width of the photo is almost 10 cm. FIGURE 14: Near the crest of Dallol are the remains of a ghost town. Rusting hulks of trucks, a sulphur pellet maker, a few concrete foundations and some collapsing walls made of salt blocks are all that remain of potash and sylvite extraction efforts between 1925 and 1929 by the Italian firm Compagnia Mineraria Coloniale. FIGURE 15: SEM analysis of mineral samples taken from active vents yielded examples of ultra-small micro-organisms entombed within precipitated minerals. How significant a role they play in the mineralization process is as yet uncertain (image from Gomez et al., 2019). The scale bar shows it is a little more than 1 μm in length.

FIGURE 16: The shallow terraced pools can be quite extensive, but are seasonally variable in size and activity.

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FIGURE 17: Close-up of hot spring mound with numerous bubbling and spouting vents with abundant halite micro-terraces. Brown in background is an inactive pool rimmed by a halite-gypsum and iron oxide platform.

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FIGURE 18: Series of fumarole mounds with blue-gray exhalation of steam and gases dominated by H2S,SO4, HCl and CO2. FIGURE 19: Delicate halite eggshell structures and yellowish to brownish popcorn structures (mostly comprised of jarosite) typically mantle the drier platforms. The eggshells mark orifices where the emitted gases condense and then evaporate at the contact between the salt surface and the atmosphere, allowing delicate structures to form (Cavalazzi et al., 2019).

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REFERENCES Benham, P. Mulugeta, E., Morozova, M. and Vakhitova, I., in press. Reefs and Salt Lakes of the Danakil Desert, GTAH Ethiopia #4, CSPG Reservoir. Belilla, J., Moreira, D., Jardillier, L., Reboul, G., Benzerara, K. López-García, J.M., Bertolino, P., López-Archilla, A.I., López-García, P., 2019. Hyperdiverse archaea near life limits at the polyextreme geothermal Dallol area. Nat Ecol Evol 3, 1552–1561 (2019). https://doi. org/10.1038/s41559-019-1005-0 Cavalazzi, B., Barbieri, R., Gó, F., Capaccioni, B., Olsson-Francis, K., Pondrelli, M., Rossi, A.P. Hickman-Lewis, K., Agangi, A., Gasparotto, G., Glamoclija, M., Ori, G.G., Rodríguez, N. and Hagos, M., 2019. The Dallol Geothermal Area, Northern Afar (Ethiopia)-An Exceptional Planetary Field Analog on Earth. Astrobiology. 19. 10.1089/ast.2018.1926. www.ncbi.nlm. nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6459281/

Gómez, F., Cavalazzi, B., Rodríguez, N., Amils, R., Ori, G.-G., Olsson-Francis, K., Escudero, C., Martínez, J., and Hagos, M., 2019. Ultra-small microorganisms in the polyextreme conditions of the Dallol volcano, Northern Afar, Ethiopia. Scientific Reports. 9. 10.1038/s41598-01944440-8.

López-García J. M., Moreira D., Benzerara K., Grunewald O., López-García P., 2020. Origin and Evolution of the Halo-Volcanic Complex of Dallol: Proto-Volcanism in Northern Afar (Ethiopia). Frontiers in Earth Science, V.7, p 351. https://www.frontiersin.org/ article/10.3389/feart.2019.00351

Hovland, M., Rueslaatten, H., and Johnsen, H., (2008). Hydrothermal salt—but how much?: Reply to Christopher Talbot on his comments to our articles. Marine and Petroleum Geology. 25. 203–204. 10.1016/j. marpetgeo.2007.05.006.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Kotopoulou, E., Huertas, A.D., Garcia-Ruiz, J.M., Dominguez-Vera, J.M., Lopez-Garcia, J.M., Guerra-Tschuschke, I., and Rull, F., 2019. A Polyextreme Hydrothermal System Controlled by Iron: The Case of Dallol at the Afar Triangle, ACS Earth and Space Chemistry 2019 3 (1), 90-99.

Go Take A Hike is a compendium of 83 hikes in beautiful natural areas around Alberta and Eastern BC with a focus on the geological story of the outcrops and natural processes that are encountered along the way.

Copies are available for sale through the CSPG office.

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Dedicated to supporting its members since 1927, the CSPG continuously offers new opportunities to enhance their skills and enrich their experiences, from events to publications to receiving grants to awards and much more. Join CSPG, and:

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• Benefit from member discounts on all conferences, luncheons and webinars • Enhance your technical skills through our revamped educational program • Attend more than 20 free technical talks offered every year • Have fun checking out rocks through our field trips • Engage with specialised CSPG communities • Advance your technical knowledge through peer reviewed papers in the Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology and articles in the digital Reservoir magazine • Learn new skills and expand your professional network by volunteering with any of CSPG’s programs • Share your experiences through CSPG’s upcoming mentorship program • Build your professional brand through our communications opportunities • Receive grants and awards for your distinguished work

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