More than 50 conspicuous tephra beds occur in the Kanguk Formation on the southwestern coast of Banks Island. Their glass shards are remarkably well preserved and permit comprehensive characterization, offering the potential for reliable, precise correlation of Upper Cretaceous sedimentary rocks across the three major depocentres of the Arctic Archipelago and adjacent northern continental margin: Sverdrup, Banks, and the Beaufort–Mackenzie basins. Twenty-one tephra beds were analyzed; all have a high-K, peraluminous, rhyolitic composition, with quartz, plagioclase, ilmenite, biotite, and zircon as the dominant minerals. Trace-element concentrations, especially low Nb and Ta, show that the parental magmas formed in a continental-margin subduction environment. Glass fission-track ages range from 100 Ma to younger than 60 Ma, and indicate a very low sedimentation rate giving a very condensed sedimentary sequence on southwestern Banks Island — a sequence that may well contain the K–Pg transition. Source calderas are unknown but most likely are situated in east-central Alaska and the central and northern Kuskokwim volcanic belt, some 1000 to 1500 km distant from southwestern Banks Island. It is also possible that some of the very thin tephra beds come from the Okhotsk–Chukotka volcanogenic belt in northeastern Russia.
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
Research Article|
May 04, 2021
Glass fission-track ages, composition, and origin of tephra beds in the Upper Cretaceous Kanguk Formation, Banks Island, Arctic Canada
John A. Westgate;
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 3B1, Canada.
Corresponding author: John A. Westgate (email: westgate@es.utoronto.ca).
Search for other works by this author on:
Colin J. Bray
Colin J. Bray
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 3B1, Canada.
Search for other works by this author on:
Colin J. Bray
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 3B1, Canada.
Corresponding author: John A. Westgate (email: westgate@es.utoronto.ca).
Publisher: Canadian Science Publishing
Received:
08 Mar 2021
Accepted:
30 Apr 2021
First Online:
10 Nov 2021
Online ISSN: 1480-3313
Print ISSN: 0008-4077
Published by NRC Research Press
Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences (2021) 58 (11): 1233–1251.
Article history
Received:
08 Mar 2021
Accepted:
30 Apr 2021
First Online:
10 Nov 2021
Citation
John A. Westgate, Colin J. Bray; Glass fission-track ages, composition, and origin of tephra beds in the Upper Cretaceous Kanguk Formation, Banks Island, Arctic Canada. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 2021;; 58 (11): 1233–1251. doi: https://doi.org/10.1139/cjes-2021-0031
Download citation file:
You could not be signed in. Please check your email address / username and password and try again.
Email alerts
Index Terms/Descriptors
Latitude & Longitude
Citing articles via
Related Articles
The late Tertiary – Quaternary stratigraphic record of the Duck Hawk Bluffs, Banks Island, Canadian Arctic Archipelago
Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences
Revision of the tephrostratigraphy of the lower Sixtymile River area, Yukon Territory, Canada
Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences
Manganese Spherulites at an Intra-Cretaceous Disconformity, Banks Island, Northwest Territories
Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences
CRETACEOUS AND TERTIARY STRATIGRAPHY, BANKS AND EGLINTON ISLANDS AND ANDERSON PLAIN (N.W.T.)
Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology
Related Book Content
Stratigraphy, depositional environments, and basin structure of the Hadar and Busidima Formations at Dikika, Ethiopia
The Geology of Early Humans in the Horn of Africa
Thermochronometric reconstruction of the prethrust paleogeothermal gradient and initial thickness of the Lewis thrust sheet, southeastern Canadian Cordillera foreland belt
Whence the Mountains? Inquiries into the Evolution of Orogenic Systems: A Volume in Honor of Raymond A. Price
Correlation and stratigraphy of the BKT-2 volcanic complex in west-central Afar, Ethiopia
The Geology of Early Humans in the Horn of Africa
The record of volcanism in the Brushy Basin Member of the Morrison Formation: Implications for the Late Jurassic of western North America
Late Jurassic Margin of Laurasia–A Record of Faulting Accommodating Plate Rotation