Abstract
New palynological analysis of samples from 13 offshore wells on the Canadian Margin and six wells on the West Greenland Margin has led to a new event biostratigraphic framework for Cretaceous–Cenozoic strata of the Labrador Sea – Davis Strait – Baffin Bay (Labrador–Baffin Seaway) region. This framework is based on about 150 dinoflagellate cyst taxa and 30 acritarch, algal, fungal and plant microfossil (mostly miospore) taxa. In the systematics we include three new genera of dinocysts (Scalenodinium, Simplicidinium and Taurodinium), 16 new species of dinocysts (Chiropteridium gilbertii, Chytroeisphaeridia hadra, Cleistosphaeridium elegantulum, Cleistosphaeridium palmatum, Dapsilidinium pseudoinsertum, Deflandrea borealis, Evittosphaerula? foraminosa, Ginginodinium? flexidentatum, Hystrichosphaeridium quadratum, Hystrichostrogylon digitus, Impletosphaeridium apodastum, Scalenodinium scalenum, Surculosphaeridium convocatum, Talladinium pellis, Taurodinium granulatum and Trithyrodinium? conservatum), four emendations of dinocyst genera (Alterbidinium, Chatangiella, Chiropteridium and Surculosphaeridium), six new combinations for dinocyst species (Alterbidinium biaperturum, Deflandrea majae, Kleithriasphaeridium mantellii, Simplicidinium insolitum, Spongodinium grossum, Spongodinium obscurum), one new acritarch species (Fromea quadrangularis), one new miospore species (Baculatisporites crenulatus) and one new combination for miospores (Tiliaepollenites crassipites). Most of the taxa included provide age information, almost exclusively last occurrences (range ‘tops’), but some are useful mainly for environmental interpretations. Collectively, they provide a powerful tool for helping to establish the geological history of the Labrador–Baffin Seaway.
Highlights
Canada and Greenland are separated, from south to north, by the Labrador Sea, the Davis Strait, Baffin Bay, and the narrow Nares Strait (Fig. 1)
Timing for the geological evolution of the seaway’s margin is based primarily on biostratigraphic analyses from exploration wells drilled between 1971 and 2000 on the Labrador Margin, off West Greenland and in the Davis Strait, and from some shallow cored boreholes drilled in Baffin Bay in the 1980s (Figs 1, 2)
Additional information comes from numerous Cretaceous–Cenozoic outcrop sections in the Nuussuaq Basin in West Greenland, a few onshore sections in Labrador and on Baffin and Bylot islands (Figs 1, 2), and from ODP Leg 105, hole 645 in Baffin Bay (Fig. 1)
Summary
Canada and Greenland are separated, from south to north, by the Labrador Sea, the Davis Strait, Baffin Bay (which we call collectively the Labrador–Baffin Seaway), and the narrow Nares Strait (Fig. 1). Timing for the geological evolution of the seaway’s margin is based primarily on biostratigraphic analyses from exploration wells drilled between 1971 and 2000 on the Labrador Margin, off West Greenland and in the Davis Strait, and from some shallow cored boreholes drilled in Baffin Bay in the 1980s (Figs 1, 2). These drilling activities revealed thick successions of Mesozoic–Cenozoic sediments on both sides of the seaway, and the lithostratigraphy of these has developed in tandem with the biostratigraphy. Large basins (400–0 Ma) Basalts and intrusives (60–30 Ma) Basement locally covered by sediment
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