New evidence for the chronology of the Eurekan Orogeny from south-central Ellesmere Island

• Published in: Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences
• Main Authors: Riediger, Cynthia L., Bustin, R. M., Rouse, G. E.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Science Publishing 1984
• Subjects: General Earth and Planetary Sciences; Arctic; Ellesmere Island; Eureka; Eureka Sound; Arctic Archipelago; Baffin
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/e84-133; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/e84-133

Discovery of a post-orogenic coarse-grained sandstone and pebble- to cobble-conglomerate unit on south-central Ellesmere Island provides important new evidence for the chronology of the Eurekan Orogeny in the eastern Arctic Archipelago. Palynological studies indicate an Early Miocene age for these deposits, which rest with marked angular unconformity on mid-Paleocene strata. In adjacent areas, strata of the Eureka Sound Formation as young as Middle Eocene are folded, thereby bracketing the major orogenic phase of the Eurekan Orogeny on southern Ellesmere Island as post-Middle Eocene to pre-Early Miocene. Furthermore, the occurrence of the coarse-grained sandstone and conglomerate deposits indicates an Early Miocene phase of epeirogenic relative uplift of southeastern Ellesmere Island and possible coeval tectonism along the margin of Baffin Bay.The discovery and dating of these post-orogenic deposits provide additional chronological evidence for tectonism that constrains paleogeographic and paleo-plate reconstructions of the eastern Arctic during the Tertiary.