Abstract The Canadian Arctic transect corridor (Corridor G) extends across a wide range of geologic settings. In the south at Somerset Island, Archean crystalline rocks of the craton are exposed (Fig. 1). Northward across Cornwallis and Devon Islands the crystalline rocks are covered by Proterozoic and early Paleozoic platform deposits that were uplifted, eroded, and deformed in Silurian through Early Carboniferous time. Overlying these rocks between Devon and Ellef Ringnes Islands are late Paleozoic and Mesozoic strata of the Sverdrup Basin. These strata were locally deformed by evaporite diapirism and repeated episodes of mafic igneous intrusion and, east of Corridor G, were regionally deformed in latest Cretaceous and Paleogene time. Northwest of Ellef Ringnes Island the corridor traverses the latest Cretaceous and younger clastic terrace wedge that covers the continental margin of the Canada Basin. The corridor terminates at abyssal depths over the continental rise. The corridor was selected to incorporate deep crustal seismic results between Cornwallis and northern Ellef Ringnes Islands (Sander and Overton, 1965; Hobson and Overton, 1967) and offshore refraction and reflection work along the east coast of Ellef Ringnes Island (Sobczak, 1982; Sobczak and Overton, 1984). Phanerozoic strata are almost completely represented along the corridor, and reflection seismic data (courtesy of Panarctic Oils Ltd., Calgary) locate stratigraphic horizons at several points. Borehole data are available for Cornwallis, Bathurst, Amund Ringnes, and Ellef Ringnes Islands, and there is regional coverage by gravity (Sobczak, 1978) and aeromagnetic (Coles and others, 1976) data, including detailed measurements in the Sverdrup Basin

Abstract Two first-order depositional provinces are distinguished — a southeastern shelf, which encompasses nearly all of the Arctic Platform and a large part of the Franklinian mobile belt, and a northwestern deep water basin. The latter, in turn, is divisible into a southeastern sedimentary subprovince, and a northwestern sedimentary and volcanic subprovince. The unstable boundary between deep water basin and shelf migrated cratonward from late Early Cambrian to Early Devonian time. In the preceding chapter, the Cambrian to Silurian depositional history of North Greenland has been divided into seven evolutionary phases that are applicable to both shelf and deep water basin as they are based, to some extent, on shifts of their mutual boundary. This organization was feasible because in Greenland only northern parts of the shelf province, which have been affected markedly by the cratonward expansion of the basin, are exposed. Separate schemes for shelf and basin, however, are required in the Arctic Islands where both provinces are more extensive and more complex stratigraphically. It is most convenient to discuss the stratigraphy of Franklinian Shelf and Arctic Platform in terms of informal time-rock slices, and that of the deep water basin in terms of unrelated, variably diachronous, informal rock units. The basic differences in the stratigraphic record of the two provinces reflects the fact that different geological processes are important in them. Eustatic fluctuations in sea level, for example, affect primarily the shelf; tectonic events in “outboard” orogenic belts affect primarily the basin. The different classifications chosen in Chapters 7

Abstract Sources of information are published and unpublished maps, cross sections, reports and manuscripts of the Earth Physics Branch, Geological Survey of Canada and Panarctic Oil Ltd., Calgary. This display is intended to portray factual information as well as interpretation for areas such as the polar margin and lower crust where data are few. Information available to October 1982 is incorporated into the display.