Moving beyond ‘salt thickness’: a detailed assessment of lithological heterogeneity within salt-bearing evaporite successions in the Elk Point Group of Alberta

The Elk Point Group of Alberta includes a number of thick evaporite successions of economic importance. These evaporites have been the focus of regional-scale studies in the past, as part of assessments of halite and potash potential. Within Alberta, halite beds within the Lotsberg and Prairie Evaporite formations have been utilized as solution-mined caverns for storage and waste disposal. Given the increased interest in thick halite beds as vessels for disposal, and new possibilities including compressed-air energy storage, this paper presents new province-wide stratigraphic mapping of the Elk Point Group lithostratigraphy, down to the resolution of marker beds within evaporite-bearing formations. Within this framework, the province-wide halite potential is assessed through net-evaporite mapping using modern log suites within the Lotsberg, Cold Lake, and Prairie Evaporite formations. These data provide an up-to-date picture of halite deposits within these formations, and provides: 1) cumulative halite thicknesses, 2) thicknesses of individual halite beds parsed by discontinuities comprising anhydrite, shale, red beds, and dolomite, and 3) areas where there is evidence of both regional- and local-scale dissolution of evaporite minerals (e.g., Prairie Evaporite halite dissolution scarp and eastern flank of the Peace River Arch, respectively).