Schetselaar, Ernst
2 GEOLOGICAL CONTEXT
The study area is located near the southeastern coastal region of Baffin Island, Nunavut on the Meta
Ingognitia Peninsula (figure 1). The area has been recently surveyed at 1:100,000 scale by Quaternary
(Hodgson 1997) and bedrock (St-onge et al. 1996a, 1996b) geologic mapping by the Geological Survey
of Canada. Extensive well exposed (> 80% of total area) bedrock zones are characteristic of this area.
Vegetation is confined to low lying shrubs, arctic grasses, moss and lichen cover. These more vegetated
zones are typically located along river valleys, adjacent to lakes and coastlines. Quaternary studies
suggest that the area has been extensively glaciated with many localized ice flow domains resulting in
deposition of minor till cover in the study area.
Figure-1: Study area, roughly 60 x 60 km, in the arctic of Nunavut, Canada. Stippled pattern on detailed map
indicates unconsolidated quaternary cover, white indicates lakes, coloured (Blues, Reds and greens) areas
underlain by supracrustals of Level-3 Lake Harbour Group Markham Bay sequence (Hanging wall cover
rocks). Grays indicate regions underlain by Level-2 Orthogneisses.
Topographic variation is from near sea level in the south to 800 meters in the central study area. A
network of incised drainage valleys cut the area in roughly north-south direction (Figure 2). Much of
the structural fabric in the region is characterized by northeast dipping gneissosities in orthogneisses
and foliation/bedding fabric in supracrustal rocks. This contributes to the regional northwest-southeast
grain to the landscape with numerous northeast dip slopes.
Figure-2: Digital Elevation Model of the study area. Elevation ranges from « 200 meters (Browns
and tans) to 800 meters (Light to dark greens). Note northeast dip-slopes in top right of image.
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International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXIII, Part B7. Amsterdam 2000.