Quick
Search: 		  
advanced search
 GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help 
The Leading Edge Don't get GSW? Talk to your librarian.
JOURNAL HOME HELP CONTACT PUBLISHER SUBSCRIBE ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Leading Edge; January 2001; v. 20; no. 1; p. 74-79; DOI: 10.1190/1.1438884
© 2001 Society of Exploration Geophysicists
This Article
Right arrow Figures Only
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when eLetters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Newson, A. C.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
GeoRef
Right arrow GeoRef Citation

The future of natural gas exploration in the Foothills of the Western Canadian Rocky Mountains

Andrew C. Newson

Moose Oils Ltd., Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Corresponding author: A. C. Newson, mooseoil@home.com

The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below.

The Foothills of the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin (WCSB) cover 40 000 miles2 in the fold and thrust belt of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. The topmost northwestern point lies just north of the Northwest Territories border at the town of Fort Liard. The Foothills also occupy part of the adjacent Yukon Territory, run southeast through British Columbia and Alberta, and terminate near the U.S./Canadian border (Figure 1).


Figure Removed (Available Only in the Full Text)
View larger version (31K):
[in this window]
[in a new window]
  		Figure 1. The Foothills are enclosed by the blue dots. Red = Rocky Mountain Fold and Thrust Belt. Green = Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. White line indicates the position of Figure 2.

 

Figure Removed (Available Only in the Full Text)
View larger version (14K):
[in this window]
[in a new window]
  		Figure 2. Cross-section through the Alberta Foothills. Green = Cretaceous. Blue = Mississippian. Purple = Devonian. Red = Cambrian. (After Widdowson, 1995).

 
The northwestern and southeastern limits are controlled by political boundaries and the extent of the natural gas gathering system. The width is defined on more geologic grounds. The Triangle Zone (Figure 2) defines the eastern side. This is a descriptive term for the subsurface shape of the rocks (in cross-section) that form the effective edge of the fold and thrust belt beyond which lie WCSB's conventional exploration and development plays. The western edge is defined generally by the topographic high formed by the front ranges of the Rocky Mountains. The extreme relief of this topographic high limits access. It is also frequently the eastern edge of national or provincial parks, another restriction to access.

The Foothills are part of the larger fold and thrust belt of the Rocky Mountains, where the sedimentary rock has been deformed by horizontal compression. The rocks have been effectively shortened by one of two mechanisms. In some cases, reservoir rocks faulted and stacked on top of each other to form structures in which the reservoir rock may be fault repeated two or three . . . [Full Text of this Article]






JOURNAL HOME HELP CONTACT PUBLISHER SUBSCRIBE ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 2009 by Society of Exploration Geophysicists