Alberta Table of Formations

The Alberta Table of Formations is a schematic representation of the stratigraphic succession of geological units in the province and serves as a fundamental reference for the energy, mineral, and groundwater resource industries in Alberta to identify and properly name the geological formations encountered by wells. As our understanding of Alberta's geology evolves with new drilling, sample analysis, and research results, the Alberta Geological Survey evaluates and determines if updates to the Alberta Table of Formations are necessary to ensure that it reflects current geological knowledge. We document all updates to the Alberta Table of Formations  in a change log that provides references to the scientific literature supporting the changes.

The most recent Alberta Table of Formations replaces the one released in 2015. Scientific changes include updated numerical ages for some time-stratigraphic subdivision in the Permian to conform with the latest version of the International Chronostratigraphic Chart, stratigraphic nomenclature updates for the Neoproterozoic Miette Group, adjustments to the representation of Cambrian carbonate strata, and corrections and updates to the stratigraphic position of some Devonian and Upper Cretaceous units. Also, we chose to adopt the colour scheme of the International Chronostratigraphic Chart for the time-stratigraphic subdivisions.