The Folster Lake Formation, Nunavut: remnant of a littoral to fluvio-deltaic source to the Paleoproterozoic-age Penrhyn basin.
The Folster Lake Formation consists of Paleoproterozoic-age sedimentary cover units unconformably deposited on deeply weathered Archean basement of the Rae craton on Melville Peninsula, Nunavut. It comprises a lower member, formed of basal conglomerate, hematite-specularite iron-formation, mica schi...
| Published in: | Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences |
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| Main Authors: | , , |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Canadian Science Publishing
2024
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjes-2024-0031 https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/cjes-2024-0031 |
| Summary: | The Folster Lake Formation consists of Paleoproterozoic-age sedimentary cover units unconformably deposited on deeply weathered Archean basement of the Rae craton on Melville Peninsula, Nunavut. It comprises a lower member, formed of basal conglomerate, hematite-specularite iron-formation, mica schists, siltstone, marl, and cross-bedded arkose, and an upper member dominated by arkosic sandstone with planar and trough cross-beds, including giant (up to 10 m thick) foresets, overlain by quartzite with heavy mineral bands. The entire sequence has been historically interpreted as a near-shore, tide-dominated sequence derived from a source to the southeast. Our field observations, supported by SHRIMP U-Pb analyses on detrital zircon, suggest that the Folster Lake Formation represents the remnants of a 1.91 to 1.88 Ga sand-dominated delta advancing on a tide-dominated littoral, sourced by detritus eroded from the Thelon, Queen Maud, and Boothia-Somerset uplift to the west-northwest. This fluvio-deltaic system transported sediments to the Upper Penrhyn Group, which was contemporaneously being deposited in a basin opened to the southeast of the Folster Lake Formation. |
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