Abstract

On Northern Banks Island, Cretaceous and Tertiary rocks of Barremian to Miocene age are represented by a clastic section 2,375 m (7,800 feet) thick. It consists of several cycles; transgressive for the Lower Cretaceous formations and regressive for the rest of the section.

— The Lower Cretaceous, 495 m (1,625 feet) thick, unconformably overlies the Upper Devonian clastic rocks and is divided into three formations:

— Isachsen (Barremian to lower Albian) consisting of fluvial sand;

— Christopher (lower to middle Albian) consisting of marine shale and silt;

— Hassel (upper Albian) consisting of littoral sands containing ammonites.

— The Upper Cretaceous is 280 m (920 feet) thick. At the base, a disconformity and hiatus from upper Albian to Santonian occur. It is represented by the marine shale of the Kanguk Formation (Santonian to Danian). A black bituminous shale member, locally with brick red burnt shale, is usually present at the base, while a lenticular sand unit occurs at the top.

— The lower Tertiary non marine deposits, named the Eureka Sound Formation (Paleocene and Eocene), are 1,480 m (4,800 feet) thick. They overlie the Kanguk Formation, possibly disconformably. The Eureka Sound Formation consists of a lower shale and silt member, a middle sand member with coal seams and an upper sand and silt member with abundant wood remains.

— The upper Tertiary (up to 150 m, 500 feet thick), is represented by the fluvial deposits of the Beaufort Formation which unconformably overlie earlier formations. These deposits can be subdivided into three lithologic units, separated by unconformities. Only the upper two units consisting of sand, gravel and unaltered wood occur between Mercy Bay and Antler Cove.

Excellent correlations with the Cretaceous and Tertiary strata of the Anderson Plain on the mainland and with the Sverdrup Basin strata can be drawn.