Ordovician geology of Akpatok Island, Ungava Bay, District of Franklin
The Paleozoic sequence of Akpatok Island consists of a least 800 ft (3244 m) of exposed limestone, underlain by 1098 ft (334.7 m) of limestone, shale, and sandstone, as recognized in Premium Homestead Akpatok L-26 drill hole located on the west-central coast. The exposed carbonate rocks contain a megafaunal sequence and a limited conodont fauna ranging in age from late Middle (Barneveld) to early Upper (Maysvillian) Ordovician; a similar sequence is present within the upper Bad Cache Rapids - Churchill River Groups of Southampton Island, Hudson Bay. A conodont fauna present in the core 119 to 231 ft (36.3-70.4 m) above the Precambrian is of early Middle (Whiterockian) Ordovician age; a similar fauna is reported from the upper Ship Point Formation of Foxe Basin. One new species of the colonial coral Crenulites from the Maysvillian exposures and two new species of conodonts from the subsurface Whiterockian carbonate interbeds are erected.