Sedimentology, Ichnology and Stratigraphic Architecture of the Viking Formation in the Chedderville Field Area, Alberta, Canada

The Late Albian Viking Formation is a siliciclastic unit that accumulated in the Western Interior Seaway. The thesis study area encompasses Townships 36-41, Ranges 3-9W5 in Alberta, Canada, and includes the Chedderville Field, the southern Willesden Green and Farrier fields, the northern Caroline and Garrington fields, and the western Gilby, Medicine River and Sylvan Lake fields. Using sequence stratigraphic principles, the Viking Formation is divided into five depositional sequences (Sequence 1-5), predominantly bound by transgressively modified subaerial unconformities (sequence boundaries). Depositional sequences are arranged in six facies associations (FA1-6) that consist of seventeen facies (F1-17). The study focuses on the wave-dominated, storm-influenced estuarine incised valley deposits of Sequence 2, wave-dominated, fluvial-influenced, storm-affected delta complexes of Sequence 3; and the fluvial successions of Sequence 4. Sequences 2-4 are bounded below by mudstone deposits of the Joli Fou Formation and “regional Viking” (Sequence 1) and above by the Westgate Formation (Sequence 5).