Type Locality:

The type section is located on a ridge along the north shore of Strand Fiord, 15.5km due west of the mouth of Kanguk River and 3 km due east of Twin Diapirs, at latitude 79°14'N and longitude 91°27W (Ricketts, 1986).

Distribution:

Thick Paleocene shale that can be mapped throughout eastern Sverdrup Basin on Axel Heiberg and Ellesmere islands and correlated beyond, has been assigned to the Strand Bay Formation (Ricketts, 1994). Maximum thicknesses occur at Strand Fiord and Canon Fiord (287 and 276 m, respectively), and at other localities values range from 122 to 196 m (Ricketts, 1986).

Locality Data:

Thickness(m): Minimum 122, Maximum 287.

Lithology:

This unit is easily recognized in most areas as a thick sequence of dark grey shale. Tabular bedded sandstones are minor, composing less than 10 per cent at Strand, Strathcona and Vesle fiords. However, the sandstone component increases north and west along Fosheim Peninsula, and at the north end of Fosheim anticline, sandstone locally composes up to 60 per cent of the formation; thin coal seams also are present. The shale weathers to a grey or blue-grey colour and has a blocky fracture. Resistant sandstone beds that have tabulr geometries and cumulative thicknesses of 25 to 30m occur in the lower third of the formation at Strand Fiord. In comparison, sandstone units exposed at Canon Fiord and elsewhere along Fosheim Peninsula form distinct coarsening- and thickening-upward cycles, that locally are capped by thin coal seams. The proportion of sandstone also increases northward along this trend although shale remains the dominant rock type. Hummocky crossbedding occurs in the lower parts of these cycles on Fosheim Peninsula. These features indicate overall eastward- and northward-shoaling trends in the Strand Bay Formation (Ricketts, 1986).

Relationship:

This unit is a formation of the Eureka Sound Group. In most places, contact with the underlying Expedition Formation is abrupt. Sandstone at the top of the Expedition Formation is succeeded by thick, blocky weathering shale of the Strand Bay Formation. Stratigraphic relationships across this contact vary from conformable to unconformable. Contact with sandstone of the superjacent Iceberg Bay Formation generally is conformable and gradational over a few metres of interbedded shale and sandstone. Even in areas of poor exposure, shale of the Strand Bay Formation can be traced as a recessive interval bounded by formations of resistant sandstone. The Strand Bay Formation includes approximately the upper 200 m at Member II at south Strathcona Fiord, recorded by West et al. (1981) (Ricketts, 1986).

History:

The formation is named after Strand Bay, which marks the entrance to Strand and Expedition fiords on west Axel Heiberg Island (Ricketts, 1986).

Remark:

* see Strand Fiord Formation (Arctic Lexicon) - There is a duplication of names

References:

Ricketts, B.D., 1986. New formations in the Eureka Sound Group, Canadian Arctic Islands; in, Current Research, Part B; Geological Survey of Canada, Paper 86-1B, pp. 363-374.

Ricketts, B.D., 1994. Basin analysis, Eureka Sound Group, Axel Heiberg and Ellesmere Islands, Canadian Arctic Archipelago; Geological Survey of Canada, Memoir 439, 126 p.

West, R.M., Dawson, M.R., Hickey, L.J., and Miall, A.D., 1981. Upper Cretaceous and Paleogene sedimentary rocks, eastern Canadian Arctic and related North Atlantic areas; In: Kerr, J. W., and Fergusson, A. J. (Eds.), Geology of the North Atlantic Borderlands; Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists, Memoir 7, p. 279-298.