The Sverdrup Basin is an elongate pericratonic depression underlying much of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The oldest rocks in the basin, nonmarine marlstones that constitute the Viséan Emma Fiord Formation, occur in isolated structural depressions along
the southern margin and in the centre of the basin. The Borup Fiord Formation, consisting mainly of marine and nonmarine siliciclastics, was the first widespread sedimentary unit to be deposited following initial rifting and collapse of the basin. At its type section on northern Ellesmere Island,
the Borup Fiord Formation contains a thin marine limestone with biseriamminid and asteroarchaediscid foraminifers of Serpukhovian (Chesterian) age. This limestone is the only datable unit within the entire Borup Fiord Formation. Continued rifting and subsidence of the Sverdrup Basin led to
predominantly marine conditions, which are recorded at the basin margins by a thick succession of bioclastic limestone belonging to the Nansen Formation. The presence of primitive fusulinaceans from the lower several metres of the Nansen in its type area strongly suggests an early Bashkirian
(Morrowan) age. Erosional relief, coupled with biostratigraphic evidence, indicates an unconformable contact between the Borup Fiord and Nansen formations. Successively higher deposits within the lower 350 m of the Nansen are characterized by fusulinacean assemblages that range from Bashkirian
through early late Moscovian (early Desmoinesian) time. Fusulinaceans are particularly useful in correlating Middle Carboniferous strata in the Sverdrup Basin with standard reference sections in subArctic North America, Russia, and elsewhere in the Commonwealth of Independent States. The Nansen
contains species of primitive pseudostaffellins previously documented from the Bashkirian stratotype on the western slope of the south Urals. A lineage for the origin of the Fusulininae is tentatively proposed. Evolutionary inferences suggest that both pseudostaffellin and fusulinin clades arose in
early Bashkirian time from the splitting of plectostaffelloid stock. One new species, Plectostaffella reitlingeri Groves, is described.
The Carboniferous and Permian succession of the Sverdrup Basin is extensive in the subsurface of northern Prince Patrick Island of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, Northwest Territories. The succession is known from a series of seismic profiles and four
exploratory wells drilled during the early 1970s. Upper Paleozoic strata are characterized by two broad packages. The lower package comprises Carboniferous to Lower Permian clastic and carbonate rocks truncated by a number of northwest southeast-trending synsedimentary normal faults. The upper
package is composed of Middle Permian (Guadalupian) clastic rocks that were deposited during a regime of passive subsidence following the cessation of faulting. These strata are separated from the underlying Lower Permian and Carboniferous succession by a widespread and locally angular unconformity.
Eleven upper Paleozoic formations have been identified on Prince Patrick Island: Borup Fiord, Canyon Fiord, Belcher Channel, Nansen, Raanes, Hare Fiord, 'unnamed clastics', Trappers Cove, Sabine Bay, van Hauen, and Trold Fiord. The succession contains eight major unconformities that can be
correlated over a significant area. Five of these unconformities were encountered in three of the drilled wells. Three additional unconformities were observed on seismic profiles only. The eight unconformities and the seven transgressive regressive sequences between them have been traced seismically
using a series of profiles. The ages of these sequences are Serpukhovian(?), Bashkirian Kasimovian, Gzhelian Sakmarian, Sakmarian Artinskian, Kungurian, Roadian Wordian and Capitanian(?). The Carboniferous and Permian geological history of Prince Patrick Island includes a complex succession of
events whereby tectonic pulses, as evidenced by brittle deformation, alternated with episodes of tectonic quiescence and passive subsidence. Climatic conditions evolved from warm and relatively arid during the Bashkirian Sakmarian interval to increasingly cooler during the Artinskian Capitanian(?).
More humid conditions were also established during the Kungurian. A major river system fed the Prince Patrick area with large amounts of clastic material during the Artinksian Guadalupian interval. The current geological setting of the area suggests the presence of many unexplored oil and gas plays.
Unfortunately, the succession lies too deeply in the subsurface to envision any mineral exploration effort in the future.
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