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A Regional Synthesis Paul E Document generated on 09/28/2021 9:30 p.m. Atlantic Geology A Regional Synthesis Paul E. Schenk Volume 11, Number 1, April 1975 URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/ageo11_1rep04 See table of contents Publisher(s) Maritime Sediments Editorial Board ISSN 0843-5561 (print) 1718-7885 (digital) Explore this journal Cite this article Schenk, P. E. (1975). A Regional Synthesis. Atlantic Geology, 11(1), 17–24. All rights reserved © Maritime Sediments, 1975 This document is protected by copyright law. Use of the services of Érudit (including reproduction) is subject to its terms and conditions, which can be viewed online. https://apropos.erudit.org/en/users/policy-on-use/ This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ 17 A Regional Synthesis PAUL E. SCHENK, Department of Geology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia Introduction southern zone (the Meguma Belt). The Avalon Plat­ form is composed of Late Cryptozoic and Early The Devonian Acadian orogeny divides the Nova Paleozoic shelf sedimentary rocks and volcanics. Scotia section into two contrasting assemblages: In contrast, the Meguma Belt contains an Early to (1) the pre-orogenic units, which are mainly marine; Middle Paleozoic succession which shows evidence and (2) the post-orogenic units, which are mainly of shoaling upwards from deep-sea fans to paralic redbeds with later marine overlap. The stratigraph­ lithosomes. The Belt extends seaward 200 km toward ic section is applied to Folk's tectonic cycle and the present continental slope. The two pre- plate tectonic events is shown in Figure 1. orogenic belts are separated structurally by the Glooscap Fault system - a major geostructure of The pre-orogenic assemblages can be separated questionable age and slip (Fig. 2). into a northern belt (the Avalon Platform) and a NOVA SCOTIA - A CHIP OF AFRICA ! Nouvelle Maroc Plate Units Event LATE PALEOZOIC my CEN0Z0IC UPPER spread MESOZOIC ing TRIASSIC rifting -200 PERMIAN seal t MABOU o WINDSOR -330 Africa- HORTON N. Am. T0RBR00K collision KNOYDART KENTVILLE closing ARISAIG 420 WHITE ROCK subduct -•440 MEGUMA spread -ing CAMBRIAN OF C. BRETON FOURCHlT rifting •560 collision jOOO GEORGE R. closing ■1500 FIG . 1. Nova Scotian stratigraphic section as applied to Folk’s FIG . 2. Presumed paleogeographic position of Atlantic tectonic cycle, with plate-tectonic events. Canada and Northwestern Africa during the late­ st Paleozoic. Earliest Mesozoic strike-slip com­ ponent on faults not considered but argued mini­ mal in text. Note the disruption in the Mauritan- ide Eugeocline, possibly represented by the Meg­ uma Belt through the Ifni Gap. 18 The post-orogenic rock is distributed in two along the platform at this time. Although the Siluro- belts differing with respect to location both in Devonian is not preserved on Cape Breton Island, time and space. The northern belt of Late Devon- outcropping, Devonian granites suggest emplacement ian to Late Triassic rock forms part of the mainland and enclosing metamorphism at ">10km" depth (i.e. bedrock, consisting of redbeds and minor carbonate, a Silurian cover has since been eroded) (Wiebe, all deposited in intermontane basins of a rift- 1972). The older rocks were deformed and metamor- valley setting. This belt subcrops southward under phosed in the later Ordovician (Taconic) and possibly the present continental shelf. The southern belt through the Lower Silurian (Wiebe, 1972; Helmstaedt is almost entirely offshore, on the Scotian Shelf, and Telia, 1973). and consists of a wedge of Mesozoic to Holocene age paralic sediments that generally thicken toward In the western segment of the Platform, the shelf edge. This belt is the miogeocline of successions of Lower Ordovician volcanics and the present East Coast Geosyncline (King( et al. , Silurian-Lower Devonian shallow marine and continent- 1975), al clastics cap an older tectonized terrain. Pre- ceding Acadian tectonism, a lower Devonian (?) pile The following sections outline the geologic of andesitic volcanics accumulated on the western evolution of these belts by a preliminary plate- (Cobequid) fringe of the Platform,, The Acadian tectonic. model. In brief, the pre-Acadian Avalon deformation was mild in this belt but is profound Belt was a Late Precambrian sialic block extensively north and south of the belt. modified by Early Paleozoic subduction along its "northwestern" flank. The Meguma belt was a deep- Southern Belt - The Meguma Belt sea fan passing upward into shallow-water complexes, and deposited off northwestern Africa. The Acadian The Meguma Group forms most of the present geo- orogeny marks the initial impact of continental morphic massif. The Group is a complex, atv least collision which sandwiches the Avalon between 10 km thick, consisting basically of alternating Africa and North America. The northern belt of layers of quartz metawacke and slate. Conventional post-orogenic redbeds record Carboniferous shear stratigraphic classification is essentially based as the impact of continental collision passed south- on the sand/shale ratio - the sandier, supposedly ward, and Triassic rifting when Atlantic Canada was basal Goldenville Formation, and the shaly, suppos- a triple junction between the American, African, edly upper Halifax Formation (Fig. 3). Goldenville and European plates. The southern belt also con- lithosomes are channel deposits of former deep- tains a record of this rifting, but mainly of drift sea complexes derived from the present southeast as the present Atlantic Ocean widened. The Meguma (Fig. 4) . Belt is unique in the Appalachians for.being the only outcropping remnant of Africa left in North America (Fig. 2). Sediment dispersal patterns bend to the right, from northerly to easterly. This deflection could be due to: (1) an offshore bathymetric high (the Avalon Platform?) (Fig. 5), (2) the Coriolis effect in the southern hemisphere; or (3) vector rotation PRE-OROGENIC ROCKS due to the strain induced by Acadian folding. Fluidized sediment flow was the main transport Northern Belt - The Avalon Platform mechanism for thicker sand layers, and turbidity currents for the thinner strata. The source area The Avalon Platform is a sialic residual of was a broad, low-lying, metasedimentary/meta- the cryptozoic (Pig. 2). On Cape Breton Island igneous terrane of presumed Cryptozoic age. A the oldest known rocks are (miogeoclinal) carbonates continent-sized source is required because the and arenites (George River Group) possibly 1400 to Meguma volume probably exceeds 1.3 x 10 km (see 1700 my in age (Wiebe, 1972). The Group has been Harris and Schenk, this volume). Siliclastics from intruded by diorites (Wiebe, 1972) which are, in this source were well-sorted both texturally and 03 turn, overlain by Eocambrian metavolcani (the compositionally before introduction into the fan Forchu Group). These volcanics are related to system„ either an episode of proto-Atlantic rifting (Schenk, 1971), or an arc-type volcanism (Helmstaedt Water depth over the Meguma lithotope is and Telia, 1973). The Forchu may include the wide- questionable but probably great. Transported, spread Eocambrian tillites (A.F. King, personal angular pebbles of phosphate within some thick communication). Notably all of these rocks were sands may have been derived from an outer shelf or penetratively deformed by the Eocambrian "Avalonian" upper slope regime similar to the area where phos- orogeny and intruded by epizonal granites (560 my) phate is known to precipitate today (200 to 1500 m, (Wiebe, 1972; Helmstaedt and Telia, 1973). Recent marine depth). These clasts may have been eroded dating of granites may reveal a similar history in by headward migrating canyons. Persistence of a the Cobequid Mountains. uniform, consistent current pattern throughout 10 km of the Group is characteristic of deep water Intermittant volcanism, shallow-water clastic fans and "troughs". Absence of large-scaled deposition, and frequent hiatuses continued through cross-stratification and predominance of massive Cambrian and Early Ordovician. A record of an- to graded layering also suggest deep water. Massive desitic (?) volcanic accumulation in this period coalescing carbonate concretions which occur in is preserved in the Antigonish-Pictou Highlands the middle of thick sand layers may have concentrat- (Brown's Mountain Group)„ Benson (1974) suggested ed from dissolving shell debris due to acidic inter- that this represents a volcanic arc that formed stitial marine water below the carbonate compen- 19 FIG. 3. Meguma Group outcrop, boxed area on u j (/ i Eastern Shore is Fig. 1 of Harris and C d id 0 3 <_> Schenk (this volume). \ SANDS FUNNELED DOWNSLOPE BY TURBIDITY CURRENTS \ VERY LARGE, LOWLYING THROUGH CANYONS TO LOWER \ DEEPLY ERODED, RISE AND ABYSSAL PLAIN. GNEISSIC SOURCE FLOWS DEFLECTED BY TOPO- \ AREA, 7PRECAMBRIAN GRAPHIC HIGHS OF OFFSHORE AGE AVALON PLATFORM BLOCKS. BOTTOM CURRENTS ON LOWER RISE ARE IMPORTANT. SANDS WELL-SORTED AND WINNOWED ON \ WIDE SHELF DISPERSAL- PROVENANCE FIG. 4. Dispersal and provenance of the Meg­ MEGUMA GROUP uma Group. 20 FIG. 5. Speculative setting along the “ eastern” Paleozoic North Atlantic during deposition of the Meguma Group. Delta complex from Algeria; continental shelf in Morocco; upper Meguma perhaps a lower continental rise contourite; lower Meguma perhaps an abyssal
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