Ordovician stratigraphy of Dobbin Bay, Radmore Harbour, and John Richardson Bay, east-central Ellesmere Island

Abstract

Stratigraphic sections were measured and described at three localities on east-central Ellesmere Island, providing two, nearly continuous composite sections through more than 2 km of Ordovician strata. These successions conform to previously established formations from the Arctic Archipelago and northwest Greenland. All units are platformal in character: restricted-marine carbonates deposited above storm wave-base are the rocks of the Christian Elv Formation and of part of the Baumann Fiord, Eleanor River, and Bay Fiord formations; normal- marine, lagoonal carbonates are represented by the Cape Clay, Eleanor River, Thumb Mountain, Irene Bay, and Allen Bay formations, as well as parts of the Bay Fiord Formation. Peritidal deposits are present in parts of the Eleanor River and Bay Fiord formations. Lagoonal evaporites are present in the Baumann Fiord and Bay Fiord formations.

Lower Ordovician trilobites from the Baumann Fiord Formation, Ellesmere Island, Arctic Canada

“…The Lower Ordovician Baumann Fiord Formation is a shallow-water unit developed on the Arctic Platform across the southern and eastern Canadian Arctic Archipelago (Kerr 1967(Kerr , 1968(Kerr , 1974Thorsteinsson and Kerr 1968;McGill 1974;Morrow and Kerr 1977;Mayr 1978Mayr , 1980Mossop 1979;Mayr and de Freitas 1992;Turner and Mayr 1999). The formation is represented in northern Greenland as the Poulsen Cliff and Nygaard Bay formations (see Peel and Christie 1982) and was studied in detail across central Ellesmere Island by Mossop (1979).…”