Unit Name: Emma Fiord Formation
Unit Type: Lithostratigraphic
Rank: Formation
Status: Formal
Usage: Currently in use
Age Interval: Visean (345.3 - 328.3 ma)
Age Justification: Cardiopteris abbensis Read - a plant fossil from the type section identified by W.A. Bell and dated as Viséan. Convolutispora sp., Reticulatisporites sp., Microreticulatis porites lunatus, Murospora sp., Anulatisporites annulatus, Densosporites sp., Lycospora uber, Lophozonotriletes appendices - a spore assemblage from the type section.
Province/Territory: Nunavut
Originator: Thorsteinsson, 1974.
Type Locality:
Between Bjare Strait and Audhild Bay on Kleybolte Peninsula, Ellesmere Island (81°34'N, 91°20'W).
Distribution:
347 m at the type section on Kleybolte Peninsula of Emma Fiord. At the Svartevaeg Cliffs, Axel Heiberg Island, there is 122 m and near the head of Clements Markham Glacier on the northern Ellesmere Island there is an exposure of unknown thickness. Up to 134 m are preserved on northern Grinnell Peninsula, Devon Island. Strata included in the Sail Harbor Group on northeastern Ellesmere Island may represent the Emma Fiord Formation.
Locality Data:
Thickness(m): Typical 347.
Lithology:
Mainly grey to black, thin to medium bedded, argillaceous, carbonaceous, micaceous siltstone. Minor constituents include silty, carbonaceous shale, light grey quartzose sand, quartz pebble conglomerate and coal.
Relationship:
This unit, the oldest known formation of the Sverdrup Basin, is separated from underlying rocks of the Franklinian Geosyncline by a major unconformity and is overlain disconformably by Borup Fiord Formation or Canyon Fiord Formation.
History:
The nonmarine Mississippian beds of northern Ellesmere and Axel Heiberg Islands were described by Kerr and Trettin (1962); the beds were noted by Thorsteinsson (in Thorsteinsson and Tozer, 1970), who referred to the Emma Fiord Formation. The unit was later defined by Thorsteinsson (1974).
Other Citations:
Kerr, 1976a.
References:
Kerr, J. Wm., 1976a. Geology of outstanding Arctic aerial photographs, 3. Margin of Sverdrup Basin, Lyall River, Devon Island; Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists (CSPG), Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology, vol. 24, no. 2 (June), pp. 139-153.
Kerr, J.W. and Trettin, H.P., 1962. Mississippian Rocks and the mid-Paleozoic earth movements in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago; Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists (CSPG), Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology, vol. 10, no. 5 (May), pp. 247-256.
Thorsteinsson, R. and Tozer, E.T., 1970. Geology of the Arctic Archipelago, Chapter X, pp. 458-590; in Douglas, R. J. W. (ed.), Geology and Economic Minerals of Canada, Geological Survey of Canada, Economic Geology Report, no. 1, 5th ed., 838 p.
Thorsteinsson, R., 1974. Carboniferous and Permian stratigraphy of Axel Heiberg Island and western Ellesmere Island, Canadian Arctic Archipelago; Geological Survey of Canada, Bulletin 224, 115 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: Ed Fogg
Entry Reviewed: Yes
Name Set: Lithostratigraphic Lexicon
LastChange: 21 Jan 2011