GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA OPEN FILE 7950 (revised) Report of Activities for High Arctic Large Igneous Province (HALIP) – GEM 2 Western Arctic Region Project: Bedrock Mapping and Mineral Exploration M.-C. Williamson (Editor) 2016 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA OPEN FILE 7950 (revised) Report of Activities for High Arctic Large Igneous Province (HALIP) – GEM 2 Western Arctic Region Project: Bedrock Mapping and Mineral Exploration M.-C. Williamson (Editor) Geological Survey of Canada, 601 Booth Street, Ottawa, Ontario 2016 © Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada, as represented by the Minister of Natural Resources, 2016 doi:10.4095/297781 This publication is available for free download through GEOSCAN (http://geoscan.nrcan.gc.ca/). Recommended citation Williamson, M.-C. (ed.), 2016. Report of activities for High Arctic Large Igneous Province (HALIP) – GEM 2 Western Arctic Region Project: Bedrock Mapping and Mineral Exploration; Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 7950 (revised), 48 p. doi:10.4095/297781 Publications in this series have not been edited; they are released as submitted by the author HALIP REPORT OF ACTIVITIES: BEDROCK MAPPING AND MINERAL EXPLORATION Foreword……………………….……………………………………………….……….…………......................1 M.-C. Williamson HALIP intrusions, contact metamorphism, and incipient diapirism of gypsum-carbonate sequences........3 J.H. Bédard, V. Troll, F. Deegan HALIP volcanic-intrusive complexes, Axel Heiberg Island, Nunavut............................................................14 M.-C. Williamson, B.-M. Saumur, C.A. Evenchick Summary of paleontological work conducted on Axel Heiberg Island, Nunavut, Summer 2015 – Stratigraphy of the Late Mesozoic…………………….....................................................................................27 L.A. Neville, J.M. Galloway, K.C. Sulphur Collaborative bedrock mapping of White Glacier basin, Axel Heiberg Island, Nunavut...…………...…..35 L. Thomson, L. Copland Recommended citation for individual papers within this volume: Bédard, J.H., Troll, V., and Deegan, F., 2016. HALIP intrusions, contact metamorphism, and incipient diapirism of gypsum-carbonate sequences, in Report of Activities for High Arctic Large Igneous Province (HALIP) – GEM 2 Western Arctic Region Project: Bedrock Mapping and Mineral Exploration, (ed.) M.-C. Williamson; Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 7950 (revised), p. 3–13. i FOREWORD Marie-Claude Williamson Geological Survey of Canada, 601 Booth Street, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0E8, Canada (email: [email protected]) FOREWORD mineralogical and geochemical studies; (3) the The Geo-mapping for Energy and Minerals (GEM) development of geological models and a regional program1 is laying the foundation for sustainable stratigraphic and structural framework to identify economic development in the North. The Program volcanic-intrusive complexes that could host provides modern public geoscience that will set the nickel sulphide deposits; and (4) the transfer of stage for long-term decision making related to data, maps and knowledge to decision-makers and investment in responsible resource development. stakeholders in northern communities, Geoscience knowledge produced by GEM supports government, and industry. evidence-based exploration for new energy and mineral resources and enables northern 2015 FIELD SEASON communities to make informed decisions about This report highlights the results of field work their land, economy and society. Building upon the conducted by three teams based out of the Eureka success of its first five-years, GEM has been Weather Station in July 2015. Bédard et al. report renewed until 2020 to continue producing new, field observations on five sets of HALIP–related publically available, regional-scale geoscience intrusions and wallrocks that were sampled as part knowledge in Canada’s North. of a regional study of geochemical signatures indicative of Ni-Cu-PGE exploration potential. During the summer 2015, the GEM program has Williamson et al. describe the highlights of field successfully carried out 17 research activities that investigations on the Strand Fiord Formation flood include geological, geochemical and geophysical basalts and on volcanic-intrusive complexes located surveying. These activities have been undertaken in in western and southern Axel Heiberg Island. The collaboration with provincial and territorial paper by Neville et al. presents the results of late governments, northerners and their institutions, Mesozoic stratigraphic studies conducted in eastern academia and the private sector. GEM will continue Axel Heiberg Island. Finally, Thomson and to work with these key collaborators as the program Copland describe a collaborative research proposal advances. that involves mapping of bedrock in the vicinity of White Glacier, Expedition Fiord. OBJECTIVES The volcanic terrain of Cretaceous age exposed in As highlighted in this field report, the HALIP the east-central Sverdrup Basin, known as the activity is providing a new metallogenic framework Canadian portion of the High Arctic Large for the study areas in the Western Arctic Region, Igneous Province (HALIP), is the focus of an through thematic studies of the stratigraphy, activity approved for the second phase of structure, petrology, geochemistry and NRCan’s Geo-Mapping for Energy and Minerals geochronology of Cretaceous igneous rocks. This Program (Western Arctic Region Project). knowledge is required to develop reliable models for Ni-Cu PGE and hydrocarbon potential, and to The main objective of this activity, from 2014 to clarify the role of diapiric evaporites in the history 2017, is to identify areas on Axel Heiberg Island of the east-central Sverdrup Basin. In addition to and Ellesmere Island that show a high potential bedrock mapping and sampling of HALIP rocks, a for Ni-Cu-PGE deposits (Figure 1). Specific detailed knowledge of the timing and extent of activities include (1) detailed mapping of sills and magmatic events in the Canadian HALIP is dykes not included in current 1:250 000 scale essential to develop models of Ni-Cu-PGE geological maps; (2) the collection of samples for prospectivity and thermal models for petroleum maturation to be tested against the results obtained in the circum-Arctic HALIP. 1 http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/earth-sciences/resources/federal- programs/geomapping-energy-minerals/10904 1 Figure 1. Regional map of the GEM 2 activities (2014-2017) showing the area covered by the Western Arctic Region Project. The area covered by the HALIP activity (red dotted line) includes Axel Heiberg Island and northern Ellesmere Islands, Nunavut. 2 HALIP INTRUSIONS, CONTACT METAMORPHISM, AND INCIPIENT DIAPIRISM OF GYPSUM-CARBONATE SEQUENCES Jean H. Bédard1, Valentine Troll2, Frances Deegan2 1Geological Survey of Canada (GSC-Quebec), 490 de la Couronne, Quebec, Quebec (email : Jean.Bé[email protected]) 2Department of Earth Sciences, Centre for Experimental Mineralogy, Petrology, and Geochemistry (CEMPEG), Uppsala University, Villavägen 16, 75236 Uppsala, Sweden ABSTRACT As part of the High Arctic Large Igneous Province to allow the team to generate a state-of-the-art (HALIP) GEM2 project, five sets of HALIP-related geochemical dataset (including S isotope data) to intrusions and wallrocks were sampled for a allow petrogenetic interpretation of the HALIP regional-scale study of geochemical signatures (e.g., Evenchick et al., 2015) magma suite(s) and to indicative of PGE-Ni exploration potential. define their prospectivity for Ni-Cu-PGE deposits Investigation of a bedded gypsum-carbonate (cf., Jowitt et al., 2014). Additional objectives sequence revealed possible incipient diapiric included examination of contact metamorphic structures with a wavelength of ~100 m and an effects to obtain a more regional-scale view of how amplitude of ~40 m. Incipient diapiric mass flow magmatism affected potential gas/oil producing appears to be the result of a diagenetic (?) reaction lithologies such as organic rich shales (cf., Jones et between the two lithologies that generate large al. 2007). We also sought field evidence that could amounts of gas or fluid that brecciate wall rocks enhance our understanding of the context and (decreasing strength) and increase volume mechanisms of emplacement (e.g., sills or dykes? (generating buoyancy). Several sample sections fault-related or passive intrusion? magma were collected through an oil-shale adjacent to a sill throughflow or stagnant differentiation? saucer- to better constrain the impact of HALIP intrusions shaped or flat sill shapes?). Contact- on the basin’s oil and gas potential, to quantify the metamorphosed host rock samples will be volumes and species of environmentally significant examined for mineral assemblages that could gas species expelled, and to determine the impact of provide pressure-temperature constraints and be shale assimilation on magma chemistry and dateable. Selected shale/hornfels samples will be possible sulphide immiscibility. analyzed for their degree of gas depletion, thermal metamorphism, and organic matter maturation versus distance from contacts, comparing results INTRODUCTION from RockEval with temperature-step gas As part of the High Arctic Large Igneous Province chromatography. Three sections were examined on (HALIP) GEM2 project, fieldwork was done on Axel Heiberg Island (Figure 1): Schei Peninsula, Axel Heiberg and Ellesmere islands between the Mokka Fiord, and North Geodetic Hills. Existing 9th and 20th of July. This contribution provides a geochemical data from