Chapel Island Formation

Unit Name: Chapel Island Formation
Unit Type: Lithostratigraphic
Rank: Formation
Status: Formal
Usage: Currently in use
Age Interval: Early Cambrian (541 - 513 ma)
Age Justification: Early Cambrian fossils have been discovered in exposures on the southern part of the Burin Peninsula (Bengtson and Fletcher, 1983).
Province/Territory: Newfoundland & Labrador

Originator: Widmer, 1950.

Type Locality:

South from Farmers Cove Head, east side of Chapel Island, Fortune Bay, Newfoundland (47°33'N, 55°21'W; NTS 1 M/11).

Distribution:

At the type section, the formation is 518 to 610 m thick; the top is not exposed. The Chapel Island Formation outcrops in Belle Bay (NTS 1 M/11) (Williams, 1971b), at Blue Pinion Cove, on Brunette and Sagona Islands (NTS 1 M/12) (Greene, 1975a, 1975b), and on the southern part of the Burin Peninsula (NTS 1 M/4, 1 L/13) (O'Brien et al., 1977).

Lithology:

Grey, green, red, and purple siltstone and argillite, with green micaceous sandstone interbeds, from 0.5 to 2.0 cm thick. Siltstones and argillites locally show wavy irregular bedding, the sandstones display small-scale cross-bedding.

Relationship:

The Chapel Island Formation conformably overlies the Proterozoic III to Lower Cambrian Rencontre Formation at all localities where the contact is exposed and is conformably overlain by the Lower Cambrian Random Formation. The Youngs Cove Group includes the Chapel Island, Random, and Chamberlains Brook formations. The group is actually considered to be a correlative of the three formations. For a complete description, see Youngs Cove Group.

History:

The name was proposed by Widmer (1950) and accepted and published by Hutchinson (1962). The type section of the Chapel Island was included in the Youngs Cove Group by Williams (1971b). O'Brien et al. (1977) extended the name to strata underlying the Random Formation on the southwestern Burin Peninsula.

References:

Bengtson, S. and Fletcher, T.P., 1983. The oldest sequence of skeletal fossils in the Lower Cambrian of southeastern Newfoundland; Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, vol. 20, pp. 525-536.

Greene, B.A., 1975a. Harbour Breton map-area; in, Report of Activities, 1974, Fleming, J.M. (ed.); Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, Department of Mines and Energy, Mineral Development Division, Report 75-01, pp. 3-9, Geofile Number: NFLD/0865.

Greene, B.A., 1975b. Harbour Breton, Newfoundland; Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, Department of Mines and Energy, Mineral Development Division, Open File 1M/05/0137, Map with marginal notes, Scale: 1:50 000, Geofile Number: 001M/05/0137.

Hutchinson, R.D., 1962. Cambrian stratigraphy and trilobite faunas as of southeastern Newfoundland; Geological Survey of Canada, Bulletin 88, 156 p.

O'Brien, S.J., Strong, P.G., and Evans, J.L., 1977. Geology of the Grand Bank (1 M/4) and Lamaline (1 L/13) map-areas, Burin Peninsula, Newfoundland; Newfoundland Department of Mines and En-ergy, Mineral Development Division, Report 77-7, 16 p.

Widmer, K., 1950. The Geology of the Hermitage Bay area, Newfoundland; Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, 502 p., Geofile Number: 001M/0008.

Williams, H., 1971b. Geology of Belleoram map-area, Newfoundland (1 M/11) (Report and Map 1323A); Geological Survey of Canada, Paper 70-65, 39 p. + "A" Series Map 1323A, Geology, Belleoram, Newfoundland, Scale: 1:50 000, NTS: 1 M/11.

Source: CSPG Lexicon of Canadian Stratigraphy, Volume 6, Atlantic Canada; G.L. Williams, L.R. Fyffe, R.J. Wardle, S.P. Colman-Sadd, Boehner, R.C. (editor)
Contributor: B.A. Greene
Entry Reviewed: Yes
Name Set: Lithostratigraphic Lexicon
LastChange: 10 Jan 2011