Unit Name: Belcher Channel Formation
Unit Type: Lithostratigraphic
Rank: Formation
Status: Formal
Usage: Currently in use
Age Interval: Early Permian (299 - 270.6 ma)
Age Justification: Abundant Lower Permian brachiopods, corals and fusulinaceans described by Harker and Thorsteinsson (1960) and by Nassichuk and Wilde (1977).
Province/Territory: Nunavut
Originator: Harker and Thorsteinsson, 1960; Emended by Beauchamp and Henderson, 1994.
Type Locality:
West bank of Lyall River, 5.1 km upstream from the river's mouth, northern Grinnell Peninsula, Devon Island.
Distribution:
Exposed along the southern and eastern edges of the Sverdrup Basin; on Melville Island it ranges from a feather edge to 60 m in surface sections but in the subsurface it is known to attain thicknesses exceeding 300 m. In the type area, the formation is about 180 m thick but thicknesses up to 365 m are known farther east on Grinnell Peninsula (Kerr, 1976). In the Lake Hazen region, the formation ranges in thickness from nearly 150 m to 750 m.
Lithology:
Limestone, quartzose, fine to coarsely crystalline, and interbedded argillaceous limestones, shales and quartzose sandstones. Locally, limestones contain chert nodules and in the upper part of the formation, where limestones are particularly dominant, bioherms may be present.
Relationship:
Generally rests on Canyon Fiord Formation; locally at least the two forma-tions are separated by a disconformity. In some parts of Ellesmere Island the Belcher Channel Formation oversteps the Canyon Fiord and rests with angular unconformity on rocks of Ordovician and Silurian age. The upper contact of the Belcher Channel is a disconformity and the formation is variously overlain by the Sabine Bay, Assistance or Bjorne Formations.
History:
The Belcher Channel Formation was discovered by Thorsteinsson in 1955 during "Operation Franklin". Thorsteinsson's description of the formation was designated "original description'' but was delayed in publication (see Thorsteinsson, 1963b) and the account given by Harker and Thorsteinsson (1960) stands as the original reference. Three distinctive lithological divisions were originally ascribed to the Belcher Channel: lower, conglomerate; middle, sandstone; and upper, limestone. Nassichuk (1965) later confirmed the earlier suggestion that the lower two units are indeed Canyon Fiord Formation and that a prominent disconformity separates the Canyon Fiord and Belcher Channel Formations. The formation was emended by Beauchamp and Henderson, 1994.
Remark:
First Published: Geological Survey of Canada Map 20-1959.
Other Citations:
Harker and Thorsteinsson, 1960; Thorsteinsson, 1963b; Nassichuk, 1965; Thorsteinsson, 1974; Kerr, 1976; Nassichuk and Davies, 1975; Nassichuk and Wilde, 1977.
References:
Beauchamp, B., and Henderson, C. 1994. The Lower Permian Raanes, Great Bear Cape and Trappers Cove formations, Sverdrup Basin, Canadian Arctic; stratigraphy and conodont zonation. Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology, vol.42, no.4, pp. 562-597.
Harker, P. and Thorsteinsson, R., 1960. Permian rocks and faunas of Grinnell Peninsula, Arctic Archipelago: Geological Survey of Canada, Memoir 309, 145 p.
Nassichuk, W.W. and Wilde, G.L., 1977. "The Permian Belcher Channel Formation at Blind Fiord, southwestern Ellesmere Island; stratigraphy and fusulinaceans"; Geological Survey of Canada, Bulletin 268, 59 p.
Source: CSPG Lexicon of Canadian Stratigraphy, Volume 1, Arctic Archigelage (District of Franklin); R.L. Christie, A.F. Embry, G.A. Van Dyck (editor)
Contributor: W.W. Nassichuk; P.H. Davenport
Entry Reviewed: Yes
Name Set: Lithostratigraphic Lexicon
LastChange: 20 Mar 2009