Preliminary Results of Sediment and Bedrock Coring in the Edmonton-Calgary Corridor, Central Alberta

This report summarizes the drilling, geophysical logging and subsequent core analysis for subsurface drilling program in the Edmonton-Calgary Corridor.

After many years of working together on groundwater-related projects, Alberta Geological Survey and Alberta Environment entered into a partnership to map groundwater resources in Alberta. The goal was to jointly characterize the hydrogeological framework for Alberta. The first area mapped was the central part of the province. The Edmonton-Calgary Corridor (ECC) in Central Alberta, Canada, is experiencing rapid urban and industrial development resulting in increased demand for freshwater resources, including shallow, nonsaline groundwater. As part of the hydrogeological characterization of this area, we designed a drilling program in 2008 to drill, core and geophysically log 12 sites.

A wet, rotary-drilling method drilled and continuously cored the boreholes to depths ranging from 129 to 151 m at separate locations within the ECC study area. Depending on their locations, these boreholes were drilled through a variety of sediment types (fluvial, glaciofluvial, glaciolacustrine and till materials) and five bedrock units. These include the Paleogene-aged Paskapoo Formation, Paleogene-Cretaceous-aged Scollard Formation and the Cretaceous-aged Battle, Whitemud and Horseshoe Canyon formations.

The report contains a brief description of the location and physiography of each drill site. Core logs, stratigraphic contacts, mini-permeameter data, thermal conductivity data and geophysical logs are in the appendices.