Peace River Formation

Peace River Formation Stratigraphic range: Middle Albian PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N
Sand grains from the Cadotte Member sandstone
Type	Geological formation
Unit of	Fort St. John Group
Sub-units	Paddy Member, Cadotte Member, Harmon Member
Underlies	Shaftesbury Formation
Overlies	Spirit River Formation
Thickness	up to 60 feet (20 m)
Lithology
Primary	Greywacke, sandstone, shale
Other	coal
Location
Coordinates	56°12′N 117°20′W / 56.200°N 117.333°W / 56.200; -117.333 (Peace River Formation)Coordinates: 56°12′N 117°20′W / 56.200°N 117.333°W / 56.200; -117.333 (Peace River Formation)
Region	Peace River Country
Country	Canada
Type section
Named for	Peace River
Named by	McConnell, 1893.

The Peace River Formation is a stratigraphical unit of middle Albian age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin.

It takes the name from the Peace River, and was first described on the banks of the river, downstream from the Smoky River confluence to the mouth of the Notikewin River by McConnell in 1893.

The Peace River Formation consists of greywacke, coal, coarse to fine marine sandstone and dark, fissile, non-calcareous shale.

Gas is produced from the Cadotte Member in northern-western Alberta.

The Peace River Formation is 60 feet (20 m) thick on average. The formation has different extents at different stages, with the Paddy Member present only in the Peace River Country in northern Alberta south of Clear Hills, while the Cadotte Member and the Harmon Member occur in both Alberta and north-eastern British Columbia.

The Peace River Lowland, a landform region in the Alberta Plateau. The landform region is a gently rolling lowland without clearly defined outer boundaries, extending east of the Rocky Mountains on both sides of the Peace River, sloping downward to the north and east. The higher hills in the foothills east of the Rockies in northeastern British Columbia have elevations of about 1000 m and the plains west of Lake Athabasca are about 300 m above sea level. The lowland’s Quaternary sediments of the former lake bottom of Glacial Lake Peace are underlain by Upper and Lower Cretaceous sedimentary rocks mainly shales of the Shaftesbury formation and sandstones of the Dunvegan and Peace River formations. The Peace River and its immediate tributaries have incised almost 200 meters into the sediments and into the Cretaceous bedrock in the western section but only about 70 meters in the east side further north around Fort Vermilion.