Mount Cap Formation
The Mount Cap Formation is a geological formation in northern Canada . It extends over areas of the Mackenzie Mountains and the east of the Mackenzie River nearby Franklin Mountains in the Northwest Territories to the area of the Bluenose Lake in Nunavut . The Paleozoic formation is named after Mount Cap (also Cap Mountain ), which at 1570 m is the highest point in the Franklin Mountains.
The Mount Cap Formation is underlain by the Mount Clark Formation and overlaid by the Saline River Formation . The Mount Cap Formation contains microfossils in the Burgess schist there . The formation is dated to the middle Cambrian .
The formation was first described by Howel Williams in 1923 as a sequence of green, limonitic , thin-layer sandstones and green, limonitic, fissile claystones occurring in the southwest of Fort Norman . In the area of Bluenose Lake , the formation consists of green, gray and red slate , which alternates with banks of glauconitic sand and siltstone . Orange-colored weathered dolomite can also be found in some sections. In individual outcrops , which are mainly to be found on or near deeply cut watercourses, green dolomite and slate also come to light. The Mount Cap Formation shows signs of strong bioturbation , especially traces of worms.
The maximum thickness of the Mount Cap Formation was measured in the Erly Lake area to be approximately 70 meters, it is assumed that the formation is relatively evenly thick. The formation of the formation is explained by deposits in shallow sea water near the shore.
literature
- TA Jones, CW Jefferson, GR Morrell: Assessment of mineral and energy resource potential in the brock inlier - bluenose lake area, NWT Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 2434 . Natural Resources Canada, April 1992, pp. 24-27 ( books.google.at ).