Geological and geochemical data from Mackenzie corridor. Part XI: New geochemical, magnetic susceptibility, and X-ray diffraction data from the Horn River Group (Devonian) in cores and outcrops south of Norman Wells, Northwest Territories

Abstract

This report compiles previously unpublished analytical data from two cores and an outcrop section of the sedimentary rocks of Middle-Upper Devonian age bundled in the Horn River Group in central Mackenzie Valley between Norman Wells and Tulita. This includes a broad range of high-precision elemental geochemical data, carbon and oxygen stable isotope data, mineral composition based on X-ray diffraction data, pyrolysis data providing parameters of fossil organic matter, and magnetic siusceptibility measurements. These data are used in two recent publications. Scientific implications of this study shed light on redox systems in Devonian black-shale basins globally, including signatures and nature of multiple anoxic events, the conditions that were conductive for vigorous stocking and preservation of planktogenic organic matter in many shelfal basins of the world. This line of research aslo explores the greenhouse (warm and ice-free) state of Earth surface in the remote Past and therefore has relevance to predict the ultimate state of the global warming.