The Earlie Formation is a stratigraphic unit of Middle Cambrian age in the

Western Canada Sedimentary Basin The Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin (WCSB) underlies of Western Canada including southwestern Manitoba, southern Saskatchewan, Alberta, northeastern British Columbia and the southwest corner of the Northwest Territories. This vast sedimentary ...

that is present beneath the plains of Alberta and eastern Saskatchewan. It was named for Earlie Lake in the County of Vermilion River, Alberta, by D.C. Pugh in 1971, who described the type section based on data from an oil well drilled in that area.Glass, D.J. (editor) 1997. Lexicon of Canadian Stratigraphy, vol. 4, Western Canada including eastern British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and southern Manitoba. Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists, Calgary, 1423 p. on CD-ROM. .

Lithology

The Earlie Formation consists of interbedded glauconitic

siltstone Siltstone, also known as aleurolite, is a clastic sedimentary rock that is composed mostly of silt. It is a form of mudrock with a low clay mineral content, which can be distinguished from shale by its lack of fissility.Blatt ''et al.'' 1980, p ...

s and fine-grained sandstones and

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especial ...

s. The presence of glauconite indicates that the sediments were deposited in a marine environment.

Deposition and stratigraphic relationships

The Earlie Formation underlies the plains of Alberta and eastern Saskatchewan. It rests conformably on the unnamed basal sandstone unit that was deposited on the

Precambrian The Precambrian (or Pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pꞒ, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of the ...

rocks of the North American Craton at the start of a marine transgression of that area. It is overlain by the Pika Formation or, in areas where the Pika is not present, by the Deadwood Formation. It thickens to the west where it grades into the

Mount Whyte Mount Whyte is a mountain in Alberta, Canada located in Banff National Park, near Lake Louise. The mountain can be seen from the Trans-Canada Highway, and offers views of the Valley of the Ten Peaks, including the Chateau Lake Louise. The mounta ...

, Cathedral, Stephen, and lower Pika Formations; the upper Eldon formation is age-equivalent. It thins eastward to zero in Saskatchewan. Trilobite biostratigraphy supports an age in the upper Wuliuan (''Ehmaniella'' Zone, lower to upper ''Altiocculus'' subzone)

References

{{Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin, Canadian Rockies=yes Cambrian Alberta Cambrian System of North America Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin Geologic formations of Alberta Geologic formations of Saskatchewan Sandstone formations of Canada Shale formations Siltstone formations