Unit Name: Eureka Sound Formation
Unit Type: Lithostratigraphic
Rank: Formation
Status: Formal
Usage: Superseded
Age Interval: Late Cretaceous - Early Tertiary
Age Justification: Biostratigraphy: Palynomorphs and carbonized plant fragments are present throughout most of the formation and have been described by Fry (in Tozer, 1963a); Felix and Burbridge (1973) and Plauchut and Jutard (1976). West et al. (1975) and West (1977) have described an extensive vertebrate fauna from the area of Bay and Strathcona Fiords, southwestern Ellesmere Island.
Province/Territory: Arctic Offshore; Nunavut
Originator: Tozer, 1963a; Souther, 1963.
Type Locality:
Along Ariaksak Creek, Kanguk Peninsula, western Axel Heiberg Island.
Distribution:
It presently occurs on Banks, Devon, Somerset, Bathurst, Melville, Ellef Ringnes, Amund Ringnes, Lougheed, Cornwall, Axel Heiberg, Ellesmere, Meighen and Bylot Islands. Seismic data suggests it is present in the interisland seaways and off the northern margin of the Archipelago. The maximum reported thickness of the formation is 3,250 m at Fosheim Peninsula, Ellesmere Island. Other thick sections occur at Yelverton Bay, northern Ellesmere Island (700 m), Mokka Fiord, eastern Axel Heiberg Island (1,500 m), Kanguk Peninsula, western Axel Heiberg Island (2,700 m), Banks Island (1,000 m) and in the subsurface on Meighen Island (1,500 m).
Locality Data:
Thickness(m): Maximum 3250.
Lithology:
Most sections of the formation are remarkably uniform and consist of cyclically interbedded dark grey shale, mudstone, siltstone, buff to light grey, quartzose sandstone, coal and minor amounts of ironstone and conglomerate. Thick intervals of shale, mudstone and siltstone containing marine fossils are commonly present in the lower part of the formation where it con-formably overlies the Kanguk Formation. Conglomerate is a major component of the formation locally on northern and eastern Ellesmere Island.
Relationship:
Conformably overlies marine shales of the Kanguk Formation in the cen-tral and southern parts of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago; on the northern margin of the Archipelago (northern Ellef Ringnes and Meighen Islands) it rests unconformably on Mesozoic strata and on the eastern margin (eastern Ellesmere Island) it lies unconformably on Mesozoic and Paleozoic or Proterozoic rocks. Notable exceptions to the above generalizations occur along the flanks of northwest trending Cornwall (central Cornwall and Amund Ringnes Island) and Princess Margaret (central Axel Heiberg Island) Arches where the Eureka Sound Formation rests unconformably on Mesozoic strata. The Eureka Sound Formation is unconformably overlain by the Beaufort Formation on northern-most Ellesmere and Banks Islands and in the subsurface of Banks, Meighen and northern Ellef Ringnes Island.
History:
Troelsen (1950) proposed the name Eureka Sound Group for deposits of sandstone, shale and lignite outcropping on Ellesmere island. He considered these deposits to be Cenozoic in age and younger than the last major orogeny. As a result of field work during Operation Franklin, Tozer (1963a) suggested the Eureka Sound Group be called a formation and Souther (1963) designated as the type section approximately 2,700 m of interbedded sandstone, shale, mudstone and coal conformably overlying the Kanguk Formation on western Axel Heiberg Island.
Remark:
See Eureka Sound Group
References:
Felix, C.J. and Burbridge, P.P., 1973. A Maastrichtian microflora from Arctic Canada: Geoscience and Man, vol. 7, pp. 1-29.
Plauchut, B.P. and Jutard, G.G., 1976. Cretaceous and Tertiary stratigraphy, Banks and Eglinton Islands and Anderson Plain (N.W.T.): Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists (CSPG), Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology, vol. 24, no. 3 (September), pp. 321-371.
Souther, J.G., 1963. Geological traverse across Axel Heiberg Island from Buchanan Lake to Strand Fiord; pp. 426-448: in Fortier, Y.O. et al. , Geology of the north-central part of the Arctic Archipelago, N.W.T. (Operation Franklin), Geological Survey of Canada
Tozer, E.T., 1963a, Mesozoic and Tertiary stratigraphy, pp. 74-95: in Fortier, Y.O. et al., Geology of the north-central part of the Arctic Archipelago (Operation Franklin), Geological Survey of Canada, Memoir 320, 671 p.
Troelsen, J.C., 1950. Contributions to the geology of Northwest Greenland, Ellesmere Island, and Axel Heiberg Island: Meddelelser om Gronland, vol. 149, no. 7.
West, R.M., 1977. Warm-climate life on ancient Ellesmere Island: Geos, Winter, 1977, pp. 9-11.West et al., 1975
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: R.M. Bustin
Entry Reviewed: Yes
Name Set: Lithostratigraphic Lexicon
LastChange: 08 Dec 2010