Unit Name: Eleanor River Formation
Unit Type: Lithostratigraphic
Rank: Formation
Status: Formal
Usage: Currently in use
Age Interval: Early Ordovician - Middle Ordovician (488.3 - 460.9 ma)
Age Justification: The formation, sparsely fossiliferous, is dated by scattered faunas including gastropods, trilobites and cephalopods (Kerr, 1968) and by conodonts (Barnes, 1973; Nowlan, 1976).
Province/Territory: Nunavut
Originator: Thorsteinsson, 1958.
Type Locality:
Along unnamed tributary of Eleanor River, east-central Cornwallis Island (75 deg 13'N, 94 deg 42'W); reference section near Irene Bay, central Ellesmere Island (79 deg 18'N, 80 deg 55'W), established by Kerr (1967).
Distribution:
Exposed on northeast, central and southern Ellesmere Island, Devon Island and Cornwallis Island. The unit has been encountered in the subsurface of Bjorne Peninsula, and probably correlative strata were penetrated in the subsurface of Melville Island. Thickness rages from about 150 m in the southeast to 1,000 m in the central part of the miogeosyncline. The formation thins again to the northwest (Kerr, 1968).
Lithology:
Resistant, thick bedded limestone mottled with dolomite. In many localities a middle unit of thin bedded, recessive dolomite and limestone is present.
Relationship:
The Eleanor River lies conformably between the underlying Baumann Fiord and the overlying Bay Fiord Formations. The upper part of the Ship Point Formation on Brodeur Peninsula (northern Baffin Island) is correlative.
History:
The formation was defined on central Cornwallis Island; however, the base of the unit was not defined until later, when the Eleanor River and older sedimentary sequence was studied on both Ellesmere and Cornwallis Islands (Kerr, 1968; Thorsteinsson and Kerr, 1968).
Other Citations:
Thorsteinsson, 1958; Kerr, 1967, 1968; Thorsteinsson and Kerr, 1968; Barnes, 1974; Nowlan, 1976.
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: U. Mayr
Entry Reviewed: Yes
Name Set: Lithostratigraphic Lexicon
LastChange: 29 Apr 2003