Unit Name: Peel Sound Formation
Unit Type: Lithostratigraphic
Rank: Formation
Status: Formal
Usage: Currently in use
Age Interval: Late Silurian - Early Devonian (422.9 - 397.5 ma)
Province/Territory: Nunavut
Originator: Thorsteinsson and Tozer, 1963.
Type Locality:
East flank of Cape Anne Syncline, northwestern Somerset Island.
Distribution:
Occurs on eastern Prince of Wales and Russell Islands and on western Somerset Island. Maximum thickness is about 600 m.
Lithology:
Thorsteinsson (in press) recognizes two informal members in the Peel Sound Formation. The lower member consists of interbedded sandstone and conglomerate with minor siltstone, limestone and dolomite. The upper member consists of polymict conglomerate and sandstone with minor siltstone and shale. The conglomerates occur near the Boothia Uplift and change facies to sandstone away from the uplift.
Relationship:
The Peel Sound Formation conformably overlies either the Douro or Somerset Island Formation except close to the Boothia Uplift where the upper member of the Peel Sound unconformably overlies the Douro Formation. On western Prince of Wales and Russell Islands the Drake Bay Formation is equivalent to the Peel Sound.
History:
Thorsteinsson and Tozer (1963) originally defined the Peel Sound to encompass a succession of clastic strata on western Somerset Island and eastern Prince of Wales Island. Christie (in Blackadar and Christie, 1963) included stratigraphically equivalent limestones on western Prince of Wales in the Peel Sound, a practice followed by Miall (1970a). Mayr (1978) excluded these limestones from the Peel Sound and placed them in a new formation, the Drake Bay Formation. Miall et al. (1978) placed the basal dolomitic siltstones of the original Peel Sound Formation in a new unit, the Somerset Island Formation.
Other Citations:
Thorsteinsson and Tozer, 1963; Blackadar and Christie, 1963; Miall, 1970a, b; Miall et al., 1978; Miall and Gibling, 1978; Mayr, 1978; Thorsteinsson, in press.
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; A.D. Miall
Entry Reviewed: Yes
Name Set: Lithostratigraphic Lexicon
LastChange: 29 Apr 2003