Morphogenesis of a new landform responsive to superimposed sulphate and carbonate buried karsts in western Canada

Abstract

This case study documents the morphogenesis of a new karstic landform consisting of a calcareous tufa mound with a gypsum caprock that developed at La Saline Lake, an oxbow of the Athabasca River in northeast Alberta, Canada. The development of this novel tiered carbonate‐sulphate mound architecture resulted from emplacement above the largest known buried salt dissolution collapse‐subsidence karst system, which was superimposed by an overlying buried carbonate karst. Dissolution of halite‐anhydrite beds of the Middle Devonian Prairie Evaporite, 200 m below, resulted in extensive subsidence and brecciation of the overlying Upper Devonian carbonate karst. The development of the calcareous tufa mound resulted from meteoric‐driven groundwater mixed with glacial meltwater directed along the shallowly buried karstic carbonate terrain of Middle‐Upper Devonian limestone, which floors the McMurray Formation, the main reservoir unit of the Lower Cretaceous Athabasca Oil Sands. The flow of the carbonate‐saturated groundwater responsible for the emplacement of the tufa mound at the surface was abruptly redirected along a deeper pathway in response to dissolution collapse‐subsidence adjustments within the buried salt karst of the Prairie Evaporite. The redirected groundwater flow deeper encountered an anhydrite‐dominated segment of the salt dissolution trend within the Prairie Evaporite Formation, 200 m below. The migration up‐section of sulphate‐saturated brine onto the surface of the previously formed tufa mound resulted in the emplacement of a gypsum caprock as a new landform.