Coal Occurrences of the Vulcan-Gleichen Area, Alberta

The Vulcan-Gleichen area lies between longitudes 112 degrees 15'' and 113 degrees 30'' west and latitudes 49 degrees 50'' and 51 degrees 00 north. As part of a continuing survey aimed at re-assessing the coal energy resources of Alberta, especially those recoverable by stripping methods, this area was examined in 1961 chiefly by means of boreholes spaced at 2-mile intervals. Only three small localities hold any reserves of strippable cool, and in none of these are the recoverable volumes as much as 10 million tons. From the experience gained in this typical area, it appears that few considerable bodies of strip-coal remain to be discovered in the prairie regions of Alberta. Some details were added to positions of the upper and lower boundaries of the Edmonton Formation, both of which are considered gradational and possibly diachronous; on the Bow River the lowest strata of the Paskapoo Formation may be latest Cretaceous in age. In a small region about 113 degrees 10'' west and 50 degrees 20'' north, the upper part of the Edmonton Formation is deformed by a swarm of small faults related to the Sweetgrass Arch. On the evidence of observed gravel beds and valley conformation, a sequence of stream-courses, relating both to the modern Bow River Valley and to McGregor Valley, is postulated, extending from late Tertiary time to the present.