Clastic sedimentology of the Beaufort Formation, Prince Patrick Island, Canadian Arctic Islands: late Tertiary sandy braided river deposits with woody detritus beds

Abstract

The Beaufort sediments exposed on Prince Patrick Island appear to be the most proximal portion of a northwest- (offshore-), thickening clastic sheet. The eroded upper surface of the Beaufort Formation, of regional extent on the western arctic coastal plain, is covered with a highly polymict gravel lag that is far coarser and compositionally more diverse than gravel within the Beaufort Formation. Beaufort clasts and younger gravels (former glacial deposits?) appear to have been mixed together to form this residual lag, which at one site has been reworked into (glacio-?) fluvial gravel and sand filling a paleovalley. -from Author