Reconstructing Ancient Continental-Scale Sediment Routing Systems: Source-to-Sink Analysis of the Early Cretaceous McMurray Formation of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin
Bibliographic record
Abstract
The alternative depositional environments of deposition for the Early Cretaceous McMurray Formation of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin have been debated over the past decade with no meaningful resolution. Recent research has more clearly supported both fluvial and estuarine depositional models, but did resolve the conundrum of their coexistence.We utilize multiple quantitative macro-, meso- and micro-scale approaches to further resolve the McMurray conundrum, with source-to-sink and scaling-relationship applications. First, we present published results of recent paleogeographical reconstruction of the McMurray river system paleodrainage basin area, which puts the McMurray depositional process in context of a continental-scale system. Then, we utilize the high-density McMurray subsurface dataset to approximate downstream morphological and lithological transformations related to normal-backwater transitions in context of recent modern-system analysis, which indicate that the McMurray shows no evidence of such transformations and that the environment of deposition must have been primarily continental. Lastly, light, oxygen and carbon isotope analysis reveal that the water chemistry during and shortly after deposition preclude the presence of marine brackish water conditions, further supporting the a fully continental regime.The results of the study are independent from bed-scale observations previously used to interpret the McMurray environment of deposition. Our results conclude that the deposition of the McMurray Formation took place further upstream from any interaction with the ocean, creating an opportunity to reevaluate previous marine environment interpretations.
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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 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.003 | 0.003 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| 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".