Coalbed Methane Potential of the Bonnet Plume Formation (Cretaceous-Tertiary), Yukon, Canada

Grant W. Lowey
Yukon Geological Survey, Whitehorse, YT, Canada

The Bonnet Plume Formation contains the thickest and most extensive coal deposit in Yukon, Canada, with an estimated 660 million tonnes of high volatile bituminous C coal and 1.4 billion tonnes of lignite. Occupying a physiographic and structural depression near the eastern margin of the Frontal Belt of the Cordilleran Orogen in northern Yukon, the Bonnet Plume Formation is informally subdivided into the Lower Bonnet Plume formation and the Upper Bonnet Plume formation. The Lower Bonnet Plume formation (Albian) uncomformably overlies Paleozoic marine mudstone and limestone. It is approximately 1500 m thick and consists of interbedded conglomerate, sandstone, mudstone and bituminous coal deposited in a fluvial environment. The Upper Bonnet Plume formation (Paleocene) is approximately 400 m thick and consists of fluvial sandstone, mudstone and lignite. The total estimated potential coalbed methane resource is 8.6 tcf. Although the Bonnet Plume Formation is relatively isolated, the proposed Mackenzie Valley Pipeline would make this potential coalbed methane resource more economically viable.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90078©2008 AAPG Annual Convention, San Antonio, Texas