Sedimentology, stratigraphy, and U-Pb detrital zircon geochronology of the Mesoproterozoic Husky Creek Formation, Coppermine River Group, Nunavut, Canada

Abstract

The Husky Creek Formation (part of the Coppermine River Group, western Nunavut, Canada) is a <1.23-billion-year-old siliciclastic sedimentary unit that represents the uppermost portion of the Sequence A stratigraphic subdivision – a package of Proterozoic volcanic and sedimentary rocks correlative across the Canadian Arctic. Sedimentologic indicators suggest a continental, temperate to arid depositional environment for the Husky Creek Formation, which included fluvial channel belts and floodplains subject to local aeolian winnowing. U-Pb detritalzircon geochronology resolved derivation from rocks related to the Mackenzie Igneous Event, or recycling from older sediments such as the Hornby Bay Group. The Husky Creek Formation was deposited in the waning stages of the Mackenzie Igneous Event, in a restricted basin that was carved atop an extensive mafic volcanic plateau. A dominantly west-northwestward palaeoflow suggests that sediment transport from the core of the Laurentian craton was not significantly disrupted by crustal doming related to large-igneous-province emplacement.