Unit Name: Cape Storm Formation
Unit Type: Lithostratigraphic
Rank: Formation
Status: Formal
Usage: Currently in use
Age Interval: Silurian (443.7 - 416 ma)
Age Justification: Fossils indicate Late Llandovery to Early Ludlovian age.
Province/Territory: Nunavut
Originator: Kerr, 1975.
Type Locality:
In sea cliffs on the south coast of Ellesmere Island at Latitude 76°24'N, Longitude 87°05'W, east northeast of Cape Storm.
Distribution:
At type section lower member is 49 m thick, upper member 158 m thick. Both members widespread on Ellesmere Island and Grinnell Peninsula. The Cape Storm is now recognized as a mappable unit on Boothia Peninsula and Somerset , Prince of Wales, Cornwallis, and western Devon Island.
Lithology:
On Ellesmere Island: lower member massive limestone and/or dolomite; upper member thin bedded, variable intertidal rocks, mainly fine-grained to porcellaneous dolomite. On Devon Island three lithofacies: a limestone intraclast facies, a stromatolite facies, and a dolomite pelmicrite facies.
Relationship:
On Ellesmere Island conformably overlies Allen Bay Formation (emended) and is conformably overlain by Douro Formation; on western Grinnell Peninsula overlies an unconformity marking Pulse 1 of the Cornwallis Disturbance (Kerr, 1977). On southeastern Cornwallis Island, where the Cape Storm is 520 m thick, the unit includes about 284 m of beds that originally formed the upper part of the Allen Bay Formation and about 236 m of beds previously included in the Read Bay Formation.
Other Citations:
Reinson et al., 1976; Morrow and Kerr, 1977; Thorsteinsson and Uyeno, 1980.
References:
Kerr, J. Wm., 1975. Cape Storm Formation; a new Silurian unit in the Canadian Arctic; Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists (CSPG), Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology, vol. 23, no. 1 (March), pp. 67-83.
Kerr, J. Wm., 1977. Cornwallis Fold Belt and the mechanism of basement uplift; Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, vol. 14, no. 6 (June), pp. 1374-1401.
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.
Reinson, G.E., Kerr, J. Wm., and Stewart, W.D., 1976. Stratigraphic field studies, Somerset Island, District of Franklin, in, Report of Activities, Part A, Blackadar, R.G., Griffin, P.J., and Dumych, Helen (Eds. and Compilers); Geological Survey of Canada, Paper 76-1A, pp. 497-499.
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.
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.W. Kerr
Entry Reviewed: Yes
Name Set: Lithostratigraphic Lexicon
LastChange: 18 Aug 2009