Unit Name: Nansen Formation
Unit Type: Lithostratigraphic
Rank: Formation
Status: Formal
Usage: Currently in use
Age Interval: Middle Pennsylvanian - Early Permian (311.7 - 270.6 ma)
Province/Territory: Northwest Territories; Nunavut
Originator: Thorsteinsson, 1974. Emend. Beauchamp and Henderson, 1994.
Type Locality:
On Girty Creek, near the head of Hare Fiord, Ellesmere Island (81 deg 13'N, 82 deg 02'W)
Distribution:
The formation outcrops along a northwestern belt across northern Axel Heiberg and northwestern Ellesmere Islands. The type section is 2,370 m thick while on the northwestern end of Ellesmere Island a section 1,219 m has been measured. The formation occurs in the subsurface on northern Ellef Ringnes Island and Brock Island.
Lithology:
Generally a uniform, poorly fossiliferous, fine-grained, grey limestone with beds of biogenic limestone, coquina, or oolite occurring in some areas. The formation commonly has chert nodules and/or beds in the upper part of the section. The limestone tends to become darker, more argillaceous and siltier as it approaches the transition zone from Nansen to Hale Fiord Formation. Reefal development occurs along the Nansen-Hare Fiord facies front. On northwestern Axel Heiberg, there is a 110 m quartzose sandstone bed interbedded with the typical limestone strata. Volcanic rocks are associated with the Nansen in some localities.
Relationship:
In most places, overlies the Borup Fiord Formation with gradational con-tact. Near Hare Fiord, overlies Otto Fiord evaporites and on Kleybolte Peninsula volcanic rocks. The Nansen may be disconformably overlain by any of the Van Hauen Esayoo, Degerböls or Trold Fiord Formations. The Hare Fiord and Otto fiord Formations appear to be basinal equivalents of the Nansen Formation while on the southeast, Nansen is equivalent to Canyon Fiord and Belcher Channel Formations or Canyon Fiord, Antoinette, Mount Bayley and Tanquary Formations.
History:
Emended by Beauchamp and Henderson, 1994.
Other Citations:
Thorsteinsson and Tozer, 1970; Thorsteinsson, 1974; Meneley et al., 1975; Davies, 1975a, 1977a.
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; P.H. Davenport
Entry Reviewed: Yes
Name Set: Lithostratigraphic Lexicon
LastChange: 29 Apr 2003