Early Cambrian braid-delta deposits, MacKenzie Mountains, north-western Canada

Latest Neoproterozoic to earliest Cambrian strata in north-western Canada provide an example of a pre-vegetation braid-delta depositional system. Depositional environments represented in the succession include braided fluvial and braid-delta distributary channels, aeolian dune fields and interdistributary lagoons/bays, as well as mouth bar, beach to shoreface, and prodelta to distal shelf settings. Three formations have been investigated: the Ingta Formation formed in wave-dominated nearshore to offshore shelf environments with little or no apparent deltaic influence, whereas the overlying Backbone Ranges and Vampire formations contain an extensive record of braid-delta deposits ranging from braidplain to distal prodelta facies. On the braid-plain, river channels reached widths of up to several kilometres. Such channels terminated seaward in braid deltas that showed some shoreline protuberance and were characterized by fluvial-dominated mouth-bar deposition with lesser wave influence; wave-dominated deltaic successions are rare in the succession. Interdeltaic areas were characterized by wave-dominated prograding shorelines. Interdistributary lagoons probably formed primarily in abandoned distributary channels. Delta-front/prodelta deposits are silt-rich and contain abundant soft-sediment deformation, including slumps. The deposits in these formations illustrate the significantly different nature of sedimentation prior to the advent of land plants. This is illustrated in the dominance of braided fluvial deposition and of silt-rich offshore facies that may have resulted from enhanced aeolian transport of loess. The non-actualistic effects of limited bioturbation and extensive microbial binding apparently exerted relatively little control on the distribution of facies. However, the absence of extensive bioturbation is manifest in pristine preservation of primary sedimentary structures, while the hypothesized latest Proterozoic-earliest Cambrian decline in microbial binding may be reflected in the upward increase in the abundance of sole marks in the succession.