Unit Name: Sabine Bay Formation
Unit Type: Lithostratigraphic
Rank: Formation
Status: Formal
Usage: Currently in use
Age Interval: Early Permian (299 - 270.6 ma)
Age Justification: Contains Lower Permian ammonoids (Sverdrupites), brachiopods (Yakovlevia, Kochiproductus) gastropods (Bellerophon, Euphemitopsis) and pelecypods.
Province/Territory: Nunavut
Originator: Tozer and Thorsteinsson, 1964.
Type Locality:
1.6 km northwest of Tingmisut Lake, west of Weatherall Bay on eastern Melville Island (see Tozer and Thorsteinsson, 1964, Pl. XXI).
Distribution:
Occurs discontinuously along the southern and eastern margins of Sverdrup Basin; on Melville Island, ranges from less that 6 m to 120 m across Sabine Peninsula. On Ellesmere Island the formation attains a thickness of 240 m between Fosheim Peninsula and Lake Hazen.
Lithology:
Quartzose sandstone; light grey, weathering pale orange, medium-grained, commonly cross-bedded. Coarse-grained quartzose sandstone and thin beds of varicoloured chert pebble conglomerate, as well as carbonaceous bands and coal seams up to 4 cm thick occur in the upper part of the formation; thin beds of sandy carbonaceous limestone occur at the base.
Relationship:
Sabine Bay Formation is separated from underlying Belcher Channel Formation and overlying Assistance Formation by prominent disconformities. Stratigraphically equivalent to the lower portion of the Assistance.
History:
The original description of the formation (Tozer and Thorsteinsson, 1964, p. 101) was revised in an addendum (p. 229) of the same paper.
Other Citations:
Tozer and Thorsteinsson, 1964; Nassichuk, 1965; Thorsteinsson, 1974.
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: W.W. Nassichuk
Entry Reviewed: Yes
Name Set: Lithostratigraphic Lexicon
LastChange: 29 Apr 2003