Bedrock Geology of the Northernmost Bulge of the Rocky Mountain Cordillera

Well logs, CDP seismic interpretations, field mapping and LANDSAT imagery, show that sediments ranging in age from Proterozoic to Recent exist in the subsurface and crop out around the northernmost bulge of the Rocky Mountains. These represent the Rapitanian, questionably the Franklinian, the Ellesmerian, the rift-associated Break Up, the Brookian and Tuktoyaktuk depositional megasequences. Each sequence records distinct and major changes in basin geometry.

North Slope hydrocarbon resources are distributed through out the megasequences. Currently, the Ellesmerian and Break Up megasequences are undergoing development.  However current exploration indicates that the older sequences have an undetermined reserve base, and the Brookian units contain larger, but currently uneconomical oil and gas reserves and extensive coal deposits than either the Ellesmerian or Breakup sequences.