Pennsylvanian–Early Permian Carbonate Shelf to Slope Transition, Sverdrup Basin, Northwest Ellesmere Island, Arctic Canada (Nunavut)

• Main Author: Shultz, Candice Victoria
• Other Authors: Beauchamp, Benoit
• Format: Master Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Graduate Studies 2013
• Subjects: Geology; Carbonates; Pennsylvanian–Early Permian; Sverdrup Basin; Arctic; Nunavut; Ellesmere Island; Canada; Ramp The; Hare Fiord; Climate change; sverdrup basin
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11023/1048; https://doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/27283

Near continuous outcrop of Pennsylvanian to Early Permian carbonate strata were studied on northwest Ellesmere Island, in the Sverdrup Basin, Arctic Canada. Six sections were examined displaying shallow water facies of the Nansen Formation and deeper water facies of the Hare Fiord Formation. Petrographic analysis and field observations identified 15 microfacies that represent four main depositional environments along a distally steepened ramp. The environments are: restricted shelf, shoal and patch reef, open shelf, and slope with evidence for exponential slope geometry. This is a new interpretation as the Nansen Formation studied to the north was interpreted as a rimmed shelf with a planar slope geometry. Slope morphology is influenced by: climate change, oceanography and prevailing wind direction, and tectonics.