Structural geometry and kinematics of deformation in the Stanley Head region, western Cornwallis Island, Nunavut ...

• Main Author: Henrichsen, Michael C.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2009
• Subjects: Cornwallis Island; Nunavut; Polaris
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0052337; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0052337

The Stanley Head region of western Cornwallis Island, Nunavut is located southeast and along strike from the Late Devonian Zn-Pb Polaris mine. The area incorporates Middle Ordovician - Lower Devonian strata that is folded and faulted and constitutes a part of the Lower Devonian Cornwallis fold belt. 1:15000 scale mapping of the Stanley Head region led to the identification of previously unrecognized shallow level folds and thrust faults that collectively define the Stanley Head anticline. These structures exhibit some of the characteristic elements of "evaporite detachment thin-skinned contractional deformation" (Davis and Engelder, 1985), and are interpreted to represent an evaporite based fold and thrust system in which there are multiple levels of detachment. Three phases of deformation have been documented in the study area: 1) northeast and southwest verging folds and thrust faults associated with an east-west compressional D1 event, 2) strike slip faulting and folding associated with a north-south ...