These formations are also called: rose rock, polar euhendral aggregate, interpreted as calcite pseudomorphs after thenardite, rosettes, hedge hogs

Rosettes (Rose Rock) are found in a sequence of shale-siltstone beds that were deposited in the inland Arctic basins (Sverdrup)during the late upper Jurassic period to the early Cretaceous period.
'Rose Rocks' are absent everywhere except for distinctive Polar Regions. Eureka, Ellesmere Island, NWT Canada is the most notable and renown area the 'Rose Rock' is found. They are unknown in the cretaceous of the Canadian mainland, the USSR, and even in east Greenland. However they do occur in the valangianian of Spitzbergen.
'Rose Rocks' are formed under high latitude, cold Polar extreme water conditions. The original aggregates form in muddy marine sediments because of a glaubrite crystallization during a chilling of marine water to temps below 0 deg C. The formation is by means of slow radical crystallization of primary minerals in the upper layers of the argillaceous sediment deposited on the sea bottom. The mud was pressed aside by the crystallization instead of being incorporated in the crystallineatter. Source:http://www.geocities.com/eureka2000_ca/ to learn more about this interesting part of Canada.