The Dorothy bentonite: an extraordinary case of secondary thickening in a late Campanian volcanic ash fall in central Alberta

Abstract

The late Campanian (~73 Ma) Dorothy bentonite outcrops in the marine Bearpaw Shale for 20 km along the Red Deer River valley east of Drumheller, Alberta, and is up to 13.5 m thick. An isopach map based upon 230 sub surface and surface thickness measurements illustrates an elongated southwest–northeast lobe with maximum dimensions of about 300 km by 50 km. The volume is ~57 km3 distributed within an area of ~11 000 km2. This bentonite is the altered product of what is believed to be a short-lived Plincan-type eruption from part of the Howell Creek Instrusives in southeastern British Columbia. Fortuitous preservation of the original ash in an up to 2.5 m thick calcite-cemented tuffaceous zone near the middle of the bentonite shows the original ash to have been >99% glass shards and pumice. The remainder of the ash is a crystal component consisting mostly of plagioclase and biotite. The silica content of the isotropic glass shards of about 77%, and a refractive index of 1.503 ± 0.001, suggest a magma of rhyolitic composition.