Unit Name: Baumann Fiord Formation
Unit Type: Lithostratigraphic
Rank: Formation
Status: Formal
Usage: Currently in use
Age Interval: Tremadocian - Arenig (488.3 - 471.8 ma)
Province/Territory: Nunavut

Originator: Kerr, 1967a.

Type Locality:
Latitude 78 deg 23'N, Longitude 84 deg 34'W, on the west side of the head of a small hook-shaped bay on the east side of Trold Fiord, central Ellesmere Island.

Distribution:
On Ellesmere Island ranges from about 200 m along the edge of the Precambrian craton to about 475 m at the basinward margin of the depositional wedge. Present on Grinnell Peninsula (Kerr et al., 1973) where little evaporite is present. Also occurs on Cornwallis Island (800 m).

Locality Data:
Thickness(m): Minimum 0, Maximum 800, Typical 400.

Lithology:
Three members on Ellesmere Island: lower (A) thick gypsum-anhydrite; middle (B) thin limestone; upper (C) thin gypsum-anhydrite. Mossop described as a sabhka deposit on Ellesmere Island. Cyclic lithology, with a carbonate-anhydrite cycle typically 3.5 m thick. Some sections contain up to 120 superposed cycles. Hydration by present-day meteoric water locally promotes gypsification, but as a rule unaltered anhydrite outcrops.

Relationship:
Upper and lower contacts sharp but conformable. May be absent to southeast on Arctic Platform, where represented by a hiatus. Laterally equivalent to parts of the Ninnis Glacier and Bulleys Lump formations on NE Ellesmere Island.

History:
Exposures of the mainly gypsum-anhydrite Baumann Fiord unit were first assigned to the Cornwallis Formation, parts of which are similar; further study and collection of fossils resulted in definition of a new formation (see Kerr, 1967a).

Other Citations:
Kerr, 1967a, 1968; Thorsteinsson and Kerr, 1968; Kerr, Morrow and Savigny, 1973; Mayr, 1978; Mossop, 1979; Mayr et al., 1994; Mayr et al., 1998.

References:
Kerr, J. Wm., 1967a. New nomenclature for Ordovician rock units of the eastern southern Queen Elizabeth Islands, Arctic Canada: Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 91-113.

Source: CSPG Lexicon of Canadian Stratigraphy, Volume 1, Arctic Archigelage (District of Franklin); R.L. Christie, A.F. Embry, G.A. Van Dyck (editor)
Contributor: J.W. Kerr; K. Dewing
Entry Reviewed: Yes
Name Set: Lithostratigraphic Lexicon
LastChange: 18 Mar 2009