| Title | An organic geochemical study of outcrop oil shows in the Colville Hills, Mackenzie Corridor: oil-saturated Quaternary sand and Cretaceous sandstone and oil-stained Devonian dolostone |
| Download | Downloads |
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| Licence | Please note the adoption of the Open Government Licence - Canada
supersedes any previous licences. |
| Author | Jiang, C ; Fallas,
K M; MacNaughton, R B |
| Source | Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 8569, 2019, 22 pages, https://doi.org/10.4095/314731  Open Access |
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| Year | 2019 |
| Publisher | Natural Resources Canada |
| Document | open file |
| Lang. | English |
| Media | on-line; digital |
| File format | pdf (Adobe® Reader®) |
| Province | Northwest Territories |
| NTS | 96K; 96L |
| Area | Colville Hills; Mackenzie River; Lac à Jacques; Lac des Bois; Belot Ridge |
| Lat/Long WENS | -128.0000 -124.0000 67.0000 66.0000 |
| Subjects | fossil fuels; geochemistry; surficial geology/geomorphology; petroleum resources; hydrocarbon potential; hydrocarbons; oil; oil sands; bituminous sands; organic geochemistry; pyrolysis; chromatographic
analyses; gas chromatography; mass spectrometer analysis; bedrock geology; sedimentary rocks; sandstones; dolostones; carbonates; sediments; sands; source rocks; reservoir rocks; biodegradation; Bear Rock Formation; Martin House Formation; Franklin
Mountain Formation; Mount Kindle Formation; Arnica Formation; Landry Formation; Hume Formation; Hare Indian Formation; Ramparts Formation; Mount Clark Formation; Phanerozoic; Cenozoic; Quaternary; Mesozoic; Cretaceous; Paleozoic; Devonian |
| Illustrations | location maps; photographs; tables; plots; spectra |
| Program | GEM2: Geo-mapping for Energy and Minerals Mackenzie Corridor, Shield to Selwyn |
| Released | 2019 06 05 |
| Abstract | Outcrop samples collected from some visually oil-stained or oil-saturated exposures in the Colville Hills area were submitted for bulk and molecular organic geochemical analyses to investigate their
crude oil quality, sources of the hydrocarbons, and/or their potential as petroleum source rocks. Results show that the apparently oil-stained Devonian Bear Rock Formation dolostone interval at Lac à Jacques cannot be considered as an effective
source rock due to its low content of organic matter, nor can it be an efficient reservoir rock due to its low oil content. The Quaternary (?) oil sand deposit at Lac des Bois and the oil-saturated Cretaceous sandstone at Belot Ridge both contain
hydrocarbons that have been subjected to very heavy to severe biodegradation, with a majority of their saturated and aromatic compounds having been removed due to microbial activities. Within their saturated and aromatic fractions only terpane
biomarkers can be detected in these bituminous sands or sandstone. Although the characteristics of their main source rocks cannot be ascertained, their different distributions of tri-, tetra- and penta-cyclic terpanes appear to indicate that oil
charges to the Quaternary sand at Lac des Bois and the Cretaceous sandstone at Belot Ridge are from source rock units developed within different depositional environments. |
| Summary | (Plain Language Summary, not published)
Two oil sand samples, one oil-saturated sandstone sample and one oil-stained dolostone sample collected from the outcrops in the Coleville Hills area
were submitted to the GSC-Calgary labs for organic geochemical analysis. Results indicate that hydrocarbons in the oil sand and the sandstone have been severely biodegraded, and they were likely originated from different source rock units. The
dolostone contains much lesser amount of oil, and cannot be considered as either an effective reservoir or a potential source rock in the area. |
| GEOSCAN ID | 314731 |
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