HYPERSPECTRAL IMAGING OF THE MIDDLE MCMURRAY FORMATION: AN AID IN FACIES ANALYSIS

GINGRAS, M.K.; SPETA, M.; SHCHEPETKINA, A.; RIVARD, B.

Quebec City

Conferencia; ISC 2018; 2018

IAS

The middle McMurray Formation is a stratigraphic unit of great economic interest in northeastern Alberta (Canada), and has been extensively studied by academics and industry alike. The paleoenvironments represented by the middle McMurray Formation have been actively debated within the last few decades. Two current interpretations of its paleodepositional environment constitute a predominantly estuarine environment5, 2 versus a predominantly fluvial environment1. Highly detailed core studies have investigated the ichnology of the middle McMurray (Kearl Oilsands area) to refine the paleodepositional conditions of these sediments3. However, oil saturation makes diagnostic sedimentary and biogenic features difficult to recognize in core. Recently, shortwave infrared (SWIR) hyperspectral imaging was demonstrated to be a useful technique for enhancing the visibility of physical and biogenic features in oil sands core4. Comparison of such SWIR imagery with a previously studied middle McMurray Formation interval3 revealed that the hyperspectral imagery significantly enhanced the visibility of physical and biological sedimentary structures, especially within coarse-grained, bitumen-saturated intervals. While the previous visual core analysis placed the middle McMurray sedimentation within the inner to middle estuary locale, the expanded ichnological and sedimentological dataset provided by the hyperspectral imagery strongly suggests a persistently brackish-water, tidally influenced environment that is most consistent with sedimentation in the middle estuary.