Channel trends in the Glauconitic Member, southern Alberta

A series of Glauconitic Member and post-Glauconitic or ''Lithic'' channel systems has been mapped over a large area of southern Alberta. Channel trends were identified by a channel-like character on well logs and the absence of the typical regional Ostracod succession. Glauconitic channel sandstones are highly quartzose and form excellent reservoirs. They are commonly associated with a thick mudstone fill which complicates the internal reservoir geometry. Lithic channel sandstones, in contrast, form poor reservoirs due to the presence of abundant feldspathic and lithic sand grains which, upon compaction and alteration to clay minerals, severely reduces reservoir quality. Lithic channels commonly followed the trend of earlier Glauconitic channels, preferentially eroding the less-resistent mud-filled facies. Glauconitic channel systems flowed northward feeding quartzose shoreface complexes in the Hoadley area. Lithic channels followed similar trends to a feldspathic shoreface complex in the Drayton Valley area.