Thermal maturation of the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin in the Rocky Mountain foothills and plains of Alberta south of the Red Deer River
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Vitrinite reflectance was measured for over 600 samples of coal and coaly particles from Jurassic to Paleocene strata in the Foreland Basin of southern Alberta, south of the Red Deer River, to establish a regional base of maturity data for modeling thermal history. The relationship between random and maximum reflectance for coals in the study area is: %RoR = 0.938 x %RoMax + .00112. Maturity of coal in strata of the same age generally increases from east to west across the Plains; however, significant variation in maturity is apparent in the Plains, possibly as a result of varying geothermal gradients. Maturity increases from south to north in the Disturbed Belt in the study area. Coalification gradients in the axis of the Basin are exceedingly low, averaging 0.07 log %RoR/km, a manifestation of very low paleogeothermal gradients resulting from rapid sediment deposition in the Paleogene. Time-averaged paleo-geothermal gradients for the deepest part of the Basin range from 7.5 to 15 deg. C./km based on measured coalification gradients. The thickness of eroded Tertiary section in the axis of the Basin is estimated to range from 5 to 9 km with an average value of about 6 to 7 km. Time-temperature modeling using an integral form of the Lopatin equation shows that for most of the Jura-Cretaceous wedge, the level of maturity required for hydrocarbon generation was not attained until the late Eocene. Syn- to post-orogenic maturation of strata in the Plains is a result of Basin loading by overthrust sheets or molasse. In the Disturbed Belt, a significant component of maturation resulted from overthrusting, as evident from maturity profiles of deep wells. A model describing the effect of overthrusting on maturity of footwall strata shows that paleo-geothermal gradients in the Disturbed Belt have been low, less than 20 deg. C./km, since Jurassic, and that thrust sheet thickness was probably 5 km or less in the Waterton, Highwood River (Foothills), and Jumping Pound areas, and greater than 5 km in the Highwood River (Front Ranges), and Burnt Timber Creek areas.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".