Microbiostratigraphy of young Cenozoic marine deposits of the Qivituq Peninsula, Baffin Island

Abstract

Analysis of assemblages of fossil foraminifera in sediment samples from the wave-cut cliff of the Qivituq Peninsula on the northeast coast of Baffin Island, Arctic Canada, made possible a stratigraphical subdivision of the deposits into nine assemblage zones indicated by letters from zone A, youngest, to zone I, oldest. The paleoecological inference of these zones is discussed and correlation with other stratigraphical units in Baffin Island, viz., at Broughton Island and Clyde Foreland, is carried out. Comparison of 14C-dated and micropaleontologically investigated deposits in Baffin Island with 14C-dated and micropaleontologically distinguished units of the Arctic Soviet Union indicate a Pleistocene age for zones C through F of the Qivituq Peninsula, for the Islandiella islandica zone of the Clyde Foreland Formation, and for the so-called Cape Broughton Interstadial deposits of Broughton Island. Comparison of foraminiferal assemblages of the zones H and I of the Qivituq Peninsula and of the Cibicides grossa zone and the Nonion tallahattensis zone of the Clyde Foreland Formation with foraminiferal assemblages in material from deep borings in the North Sea indicate a Late Tertiary, most probably Pliocene, age for these zones. Zone G of the Qivituq Peninsula and the Cassidulina teretis zone of the Clyde Foreland Formation may form transitional units between the Tertiary and the Quaternary. 14C-dates indicate a Holocene age for zones A and B of the Qivituq Peninsula.