Regional geology, northeast Ellesmere Island

The report area is situated in the northeastern part of the Arctic Archipelago and contains parts of several stratigraphic and tectonic provinces and structural belts. These terranes are the Canadian Shield, the Arctic Platform, and the Franklinian Mobile Belt-the latter consisting of the northernmost part of the Central Ellesmere Fold Belt, and the southeastern portion of the Hazen Fold Belt. The Canadian Shield comprises Paleoproterozoic basement gneisses and a thin, unconformably overlying Mesoproterozoic sedimentary succession intruded by diabase dykes and sills. The Arctic Platform is characterized by a thin, fl at-lying, lower Paleozoic, shallow-water carbonate succession. Neoproterozoic and lower Paleozoic rocks form the Central Ellesmere and Hazen fold belts. The Proterozoic and lower Paleozoic succession was folded during the Ellesmerian Orogeny. The Ellesmerian structures are represented by a classic fold-and-thrust belt. The Eurekan Orogeny resulted in spectacular thrust sheets associated with thick, syntectonic conglomerate, and in sinistral strike-slip faulting and parallel refolding of Ellesmerian structures.