Eureka Sound Formation

[1] During the early Tertiary period, marine beds began forming in the Eureka Sound Formation within an area that was previously thought to be almost exclusively non-marine.

[1] Some fossils discovered in the Eureka Sound Formation were Paleogene land vertebrates that include fish, turtles, and several types of mammals.

[5] On Southern Ellesmere Island, the Eureka Sound Formation is up to 480 meters thick and consists of a sequence of predominantly non-marine sandstones, mudstones, coal and minor siltstones.

Sandstone petrography and heavy mineral analyses indicate that the Eureka Sound sediments were derived mainly from Precambrian granulite-grade metamorphic rocks of the Canadian Shield located to the southeast of the Formation.

[6] Another finding states that significant amounts of the rocks of the Eureka Sound Formation on Western Ellesmere Island are marine in origin.