Unit Name: Cape Phillips Formation
Unit Type: Lithostratigraphic
Rank: Formation
Status: Formal
Usage: Currently in use
Age Interval: Late Ordovician - Late Silurian (460.9 - 416 ma)
Province/Territory: Northwest Territories; Nunavut
Originator: Thorsteinsson, 1958.
Type Locality:
Between Cape Phillips and Stuart Bay, northeast Cornwallis Island.
Distribution:
Thorsteinsson (1958) estimated a thickness of 2,500 m for the type section, whereas Thorsteinsson and Kerr (1968) measured 2,250 m of incomplete section and estimated a total thickness of about 3,000 m for the type locality. On Bathurst Island the formation thickness varies from 824 to 310 m (Kerr, 1974); and on Ellesmere Island thicknesses attain 945 m (Kerr, 1976b) but is as thin as 30 m. Also present on Melville, Prince Patrick and Banks Islands.
Lithology:
Shale, calcareous shale and argillaceous limestone. Divided into three members at the type locality.
Relationship:
Conformably overlies the Irene Bay Formation throughout its distribution. Gradationally overlain by the Bathurst Island Formation on Bathurst Island and by the Danish River Formation on Ellesmere Island. Laterally equivalent to the Allen Bay, Cape Storm, Douro, Barlow Inlet formations.
Other Citations:
Thorsteinsson, 1963b; McGill, 1974; Morrow and Kerr, 1977; Mayr,1980; Trettin, 1979; Thorsteinsson and Uyeno, 1980.
References:
Kerr, J. Wm., 1974. Geology of Bathurst Island Group and Byam Martin Island, Arctic Canada; Geological Survey of Canada, Memoir 378, 152 p.
Kerr, J. Wm., 1976b. Stratigraphy of central and eastern Ellesmere Island, Arctic Canada, III. Upper Ordovician (Richmondian), Silurian and Devonian; Geological Survey of Canada, Bulletin 260, 55 p.
Mayr, Ulrich, 1980. Stratigraphy and correlation of Lower Paleozoic formations, Subsurface of Bathurst Island and Adjacent Smaller Islands, Canadian Arctic Archipelago; Geological Survey of Canada, Bulletin 306, 52 p.
McGill, P.C., 1974. The stratigraphic and structure of the Vendom Fiord area; Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists (CSPG), Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology, vol. 22, no. 4 (December), pp. 361-386.
Morrow, D.W. and Kerr, J.W., 1977. Stratigraphy and sedimentology of lower Paleozoic formations near Prince Alfred Bay, Devon Island; Geological Survey of Canada, Bulletin 254, 122 p.
Thorsteinsson, R. and Kerr, J. Wm., 1968. Cornwallis Island and adjacent smaller islands, Canadian Arctic Archipelago: Geological Survey of Canada, Paper 67-64 , 16 p.
Thorsteinsson, R. and Uyeno, T.T., 1980. Stratigraphy and conodonts of Upper Silurian and Lower Devonian rocks in the environs of the Boothia Uplift, Canadian Arctic Archipelago; in, Contributions to stratigraphy, Geological Survey of Canada, Bulletin 292, p. 1-38.
Thorsteinsson, R., 1958. Cornwallis and Little Cornwallis Islands, District of Franklin, Northwest Territories: Geological Survey of Canada, Memoir 294 (1959), 134 p.
Thorsteinsson, R., 1963b. Northern Grinnell Peninsula around Lyall River, pp. 250-256: in Fortier, Y. O. et al., Geology of the north-central part of the Arctic Archipelago, Northwest Territories (Operation Franklin), Geological Survey of Canada, Memoir 320, 671 p.
Trettin, H.P., 1979. Middle Ordovician to Lower Devonian deepwater succession at southeastern margin of Hazen Trough, Canon Fiord, Ellesmere Island; Geological Survey of Canada, Bulletin 272, 84 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: J. Dixon
Entry Reviewed: Yes
Name Set: Lithostratigraphic Lexicon
LastChange: 17 Aug 2009