page_title: Prairie Evaporite Formation
section_title: Relationship to Other Units
hierarchical_section_title: Prairie Evaporite Formation / Relationship to Other Units
caption_attribution_description: English: A worker samples potash minerals at a mine in Saskatchewan.
context_page_description: The Prairie Evaporite Formation, also known as the Prairie Formation, is a geologic formation of Middle Devonian age that consists primarily of halite and other evaporite minerals. It is present beneath the plains of northern and eastern Alberta, southern Saskatchewan and southwestern Manitoba in Canada, and it extends into northwestern North Dakota and northeastern Montana in the United States.
  The formation is a major source of potash, most of which is used for fertilizer production. Salt is also produced from the formation, and solution caverns are created in its thick salt beds for natural gas storage.
context_section_description: The contact between the Prairie Evaporite Formation and the underlying Keg River Formation (in the north) and Winnipegosis Formation (in the south) is sharp and conformable. The contact with the overlying Watt Mountain Formation (in the north) and Second Red Bed Member of the Dawson Bay Formation (in the south) is sharp and disconformable.
  The northern limit of the formation occurs at about 58° north latitude in Alberta, where the Prairie Evaporite grades into the anyhdritic Muskeg Formation through a decrease in its halite content and an increase in its anhydrite content. Along its eastern and southern margins the formation grades into the breccia that results from the dissolution of its halite and anhydrite. Along its western margin it thins to zero at its depositional limit.
caption: A worker samples potash minerals at a mine in Saskatchewan. Note the thin interbeds of grey claystone.
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