A new Lower Devonian rock unit in the Canadian Arctic Islands

• Published in: Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences
• Main Author: Ormiston, Allen R.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Science Publishing 1969
• Subjects: General Earth and Planetary Sciences; Arctic; Bathurst Island; Prince of Wales Island; Peel Sound; Drake Bay; Stuart Bay
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/e69-112; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/e69-112

A thin, shelf-type carbonate unit with an abundant shelly fauna of Lower Devonian age is developed in the vicinity of Drake Bay, northwestern Prince of Wales Island where it rests on a dolomitic western facies of the dominantly clastic Peel Sound Formation. These limestones and shales which contrast in thickness, lithofacies, and biofacies with coeval rocks exposed in the Stuart Bay area of Bathurst Island 190 miles (306 km) to the north, represent a new stratigraphic unit.The lithologic characteristics, stratigraphic relations, fauna, and age of the unit are documented, but no name is proposed because of the incompleteness of the exposure and because a more suitable type section is available.