Stratigraphy, paleocurrents and stromatolites of Hadrynian (Upper Precambrian) rocks of Victoria Island, Arctic Archipelago, Canada

Abstract

Abstract The Hadrynian (Upper Precambrian) rocks of Victoria Island in the western part of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago comprise a sedimentary sequence some 12,000 ft. (4,000 m) thick, capped by a 1,000 ft. (330 m)-thick basic volcanic and pyroclastic unit. These rocks outcrop in an elongate, topographic high called the Minto Arch, and in smaller inliers in Lower Paleozoic rocks in the south part of the island (Duke of York and Wellington highs). Stratigraphic and sedimentological investigation of these rocks in the southern part of the Wellington high near Cambridge Bay suggest that they were deposited by rivers flowing from a land mass that lay to the east. Clasts in the Hadrynian sedimentary rocks attest to the existence of at least two earlier periods of sedimentation and one phase of tectonic compression in the basement rocks. Study of the lower part of the Hadrynian succession (Glenelg and Reynolds Point Formations) in the northeastern part of the Minto Arch reveals a general thickening to the west. Rock types present include dolomite, limestone, siltstone, sandstone and shale deposited in a dominantly shallow marine environment together with some marine deltaic units and possibly distal fluvial deposits. Cross bedding and ripple-mark orientations suggest a paleoslope to the northwest. However, the pattern of cross-bedding distribution is complex with modes not only in the northwest quadrant, but also in the northeast and southwest quadrants, the latter possibly reflecting longshore currents in a generally shallow marine environment. Stromatolites are abundant in both formations studied. They are almost exclusively laterally linked shallow-dipping domes in the cherty dolomites of the Glenelg Formation. However the capping stromatolitic dolomite of this formation is composed of columnar stromatolites, as also are the abundant stromatolitic banks and reefs of the overlying Reynolds Point Formation. Elongate domes in the lower part of the Glenelg Formation have a preferred orientation in a northwest-southeast direction, perhaps reflecting tidal currents. The topmost stromatolitic unit of the Glenelg Formation in more easterly areas has large elongate mounds on its upper surface. Elongation of these mounds has a preferred orientation in a northeast-southwest direction. Possibly this orientation is related to longshore currents flowing along the depositional strike. The Hadrynian sediments of Victoria Island and areas to the south and west may have been deposited in a shallow embayment of the Upper Precambrian Sea, open to the northwest and in continuity with a wedge of sediment that thickened westward and extended along the length of the North American continent. There is some evidence to support the existence of three such embayments in the southern part of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, separated and defined by northerly salients of older rocks of the Canadian Shield. These salients reflect an east-west tectonic stress on a very large scale.