Unit Name: Hell Gate Formation
Unit Type: Lithostratigraphic
Rank: Formation
Status: Formal
Usage: Currently in use
Age Interval: Late Devonian (385.3 - 359.2 ma)
Province/Territory: Nunavut
Originator: Embry and Klovan, 1976.
Type Locality:
East shore of Okse Bay, Ellesmere Island.
Distribution:
Southwestern Ellesmere Island and eastern Grinnell Peninsula. Recorded thicknesses range from 200 to 637 m.
Lithology:
Mainly white, fine- to medium-grained sandstone in units 5 to 25 m thick. Trough cross-beds with sets up to 2 m thick are common. Scour surfaces with associated shale chip conglomerates occur at the base and within sandstone units. Recessive shale-siltstone units, 3 to 7 m thick, occur throughout the formation. Plant remains and fish debris are the only fossils found.
Relationship:
Conformably overlies the Fram Formation and is conformably overlain by the Nordstrand Point Formation; stratigraphically equivalent to the middle portion of the Beverley Inlet Formation of the western Arctic.
History:
The stratigraphic interval was originally described as the "Upper sandstone member" of the Okse Bay Formation (McLaren , 1963a). Embry and Klovan (1976) raised the Okse Bay to group status and formally defined the Hell Gate Formation.
Other Citations:
McLaren, 1963a; Embry and Klovan, 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: A.F. Embry
Entry Reviewed: Yes
Name Set: Lithostratigraphic Lexicon
LastChange: 29 Apr 2003