RG 100(A) UPTON AREA, BAGOT, DRUMMOND, RICHELIEU, ST-HYACINTHE AND YAMASKA COUNTIES GOVERNMENT OF QUEBEC DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES RENÉ LEVESQUE, Minister P.-E. AUGER, Deputy Minister GEOLOGICAL EXPLORATION SERVICE H.W. McGERRIGLE, chief GEOLOGICAL REPORT 100 UPTON AREA BAGOT, DRUMMOND, RICHELIEU ST-HYACINTHE AND YAMASKA COUNTIES by T.H. CLARK QUEBEC 1964 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION 1 General statement 1 Location 1 Transportation 2 Previous work 2 Method of work 2 GENERAL GEOLOGY 3 STRATIGRAPHY 5 Formations west of the Champlain fault 5 Bécancour River formation 5 Pontgravé River formation 6 Nicolet River formation 6 Yamaska River exposures 6 St-Germain complex 10 St-François River exposures 12 St-Germain river 16 Fields west and northwest of St-Germain 17 David river 18 Chibouet river 18 Road cuts along Sir Wilfrid Laurier boulevard 19 Formations east of the Champlain fault 19 Lévis limestone 19 Sillery sandstone 20 STRUCTURAL GEOLOGY 20 Chambly-Fortierville syncline 20 St-Hugues structure 21 Thickness of sedimentary section 21 The St-Barnabé fault 22 The St-Germain complex 22 Chibouet river 22 St-François river 23 St-Germain river 24 The Appalachian terrane and Champlain fault 24 ECONOMIC POSSIBILITIES 25 Oil and gas 25 Limestone 25 Miscellaneous 25 - I - Page APPENDIX A 26 APPENDIX B 34 BIBLIOGRAPHY 35 ALPHABETICAL INDEX 36 ILLUSTRATIONS Map No. 1411 - Upton area, geological map, also show- ing location of water wells. (In pocket) Figures 1 - Generalized geological cross section of the Upton area 4 2 - Map of exposures on Yamaska river near St-Hugues 9 3 - Structure sections of St-Germain complex along St-François river 13 Plates IA - St-François river above St-Joachim-de-Courval B - Bed of St-François river near St-Joachim-de-Courval, at low water IIA - Thin-bedded Utica slate in St-Germain complex. St-Frangois river, near St-Joachim-de-Courval B - Detail of A above C - Closely spaced tension cracks in slates, same locality as above IIIA - Felsenmeer developed on calcareous slates of St-Germain complex 3 miles northwest of St-Germain-de-Grantham B - Detail of A above Iv - Landslide near St-Louis-de-Bonsecours UPTON AREA BAGOT, DRUPMAOND, RICHELIEU ST-HYACINTHE, and YAMASKA COUNTIES by T.H. Clark INTRODUCTION General Statement The Upton area is part of the St. Lawrence Lowlands, except for its southeastern corner which lies within the Appalachian geological.. province. The mapping (1944, revised to June 1, 1961) of the Upton area is part of a programme of investigation covering the whole of the St. Lawrence Lowlands, the purpose of which is to provide a better understanding of the distribution and kinds of rocks present, with particular reference to the search for oil, natural gas, limestone, and other useful products. Outcrops are very few in this area. Nevertheless, strati- graphic boundaries, determined partly from outcrops within this area and partly by extensions of boundaries from the Yamaska area to the north and the St-Hyacinthe area to the south, can be confidently delineated, and will, it is hoped, provide those engaged in the search for natural resources with helpful guides. Location. The Upton area is in the St. Lawrence Lowlands to the south of St. Lawrence river. It is bounded by latitudes 45°45' and 46°, and by longitudes 72°30' and 73°. It includes parts of Bagot, Drummond, Richelieu, St-Hyacinthe, and Yamaska counties. Two large rivers cross the area. St-Frangois river cuts across its northeastern corner, and Yamaska river flows from south to north not far from its western border. Although these two rivers pass through Drummondville and St-Hyacinthe, respectively, before entering the area, they have within this area no towns of importance upon their banks. In fact, no large towns occur here at all. St-Germain - 2 - (pop. 925)*, St-Guillaume d'Upton (pop. 802), St-David (pop. 800), Massueville (pop. 647), St-Jude (pop. 700), St-Hugues (pop. 487), and St-Bonaventure (pop. 383) are the largest villages. These and several smaller communities are concerned almost wholly with mixed agriculture and related affairs. Transportation. A network of good, fair, and poor roads serves practically all of this area, and no spot is more than two miles from some sort of a road. Both main rivers are beset with rapids which make their use as highways impossible. The smaller streams, St- Germain, Chibouet, Salvail, David, and aux Vaches rivers, are all un- suitable as through-going routes even for small barges. There are three railroads. The main line of the Canadian National Railways from Montreal to Halifax cuts across the southeast corner; a branch of the same line runs roughly parallel to and west of Yamaska river. A Canadian Pacific branch line runs from St-Guil- laume d'Upton in the centre of the area southwestward to St-Hugues and thence south to St-Hyacinthe. An abandoned track once connected St-Guillaume d'Upton with St-Germain and Drummondville. Previous work. Very little has been published that relates to the rocks of this area, and only those publications by Foerste, Clark, and Belyea are of importance. Brief notes can be found in Logan (1863, p. 205), and in Ells (1896, p. 18J, 22J). Foerste (1916, pp. 50-52) gave a description of the exposures at St-Hugues, and his report of 1924 contains descriptions of many of the fossils found there. Parks (1931, pp. 89-92) recorded a series of observations along St-Frangois river, and though it is impossible to recbnstruct a section therefrom, these observations do show the complex structure of the outcrops forming the cliffs of that river. Snider and Farish (1935, pp. 97, 98) added nothing new. Clark (1947, pp. 15, 16), in a general review of the stratigraphic succession south of the St-Lawrence, established the St-Germain Complex as a structural rock unit. Belyea (1952, pp. 54-60) gave a detailed lithologic log of St-Gérard No. 1 well. Method of work. The base map used in this work was the Upton map (Dept. National Defence, Canada 31 is , 1 mile to 1 inch). Enlargements to twice published scale were provided for field plotting. x Population data are taken from Canadian Railway Guide with Airlines, June, 1960. - 3 - All rivers were traversed, the St-Frangois along both banks. Cross- country traverses were made by pace and compass in all areas where there was likelihood of finding outcrop. No air photographs were available. Preliminary studies were made in parts of the seasons of 1942 and 1943, but mapping was systematically carried out during the season of 1944, with Jean Préfontaine as field assistant. GENERAL GEOLOGY The rocks of this area are all sedimentary and, with one or two possible exceptions in the southeast corner, are all of Ordo- vician age. By far the greatest part belongs to- the series elsewhere characteristic of the extensive syncline which dominates the struc- ture of the rocks exposed in the St: Lawrence lowland. In the south- east corner there are a few exposures of rocks characteristic of the folded Appalachian mountain belt. Formations Exposed in the Upton Area Formations of the St. Lawrence Lowlands Group Formations, with brief descriptions 0 Richmond Bécancour River formation, usually referred to as the red Queenston shale. Seen only at St-David. R Pontgravé River formation. Not seen D 0 Lorraine Nicolet River formation V St-Hilaire member (Pholadomorpha zone). Not seen. I Chambly member (Proetus zone). Not seen. C Breault member (Crvptolithus zone). Outcrops I along Yamaska river near St-Hugues, and along St-François river below'St-Joachim-de-Courval. A N St-Germain A complex of faulted and folded beds of Lorraine, Complex Utica, and possible Trenton ages. St-François river above and below St-Joachim-de-Courval; Chibouet, David, and St-Germain rivers. Formations of the Appalachian Province ORDOVICIAN Lévis limestone. Southeast corner of area ? CAMBRIAN Sillery sandstone. Southeast corner of area - 4 - Riv. Yamaska 1 N.W. aJ 6 6 4 LEGEND 8 BÉCANCOUR RIVER 3 ST. GERMAIN COMPLEX 7 PONTGRAVÉ RIVER 2 SILLERY 6 NICOLET RIVER LEVIS 5 UTICA 0 5 10 Scale in miles 4 TRENTON FIGURE 1 Generalized cross-section from the northwest corner to the southeast corner of the Upton area. Vertical exaggeration approximately 10 D.N.R.O. 1962 NO. 1429 - 5 - As with most of the St. Lawrence Lowlands, the western part of this area is dominated by the Chambly-Fortierville syncline, the axis of which cuts across the northwestern corner. Straddling Yamaska river near St-Hugues is a structure, superimposed upon the main syncline, consisting of two anticlines and an intervening syn- cline, all developed in Lower Lorraine (Breault member) rocks. This folding cannot be. recognized further to the northeast, and is shown as a closed structure on the map. The eastern half, more or less, of the area consists of Lorraine, Utica, and possible Trenton beds, highly contorted by both folding and faulting. In the extreme southeast corner there are some exposures of the Sillery sandstone and of a limestdne that is probably a correlative of the Lévis limestone. The order in which the formations are listed in the pre- ceding table from the top downwards, is also the order in which they are found as one progresses from northwest to southeast across the area. The probable geological structure, much simplified, along the northwest-southeast diagonal of the map, is indicated above in Figure 1. It will be noticed that there is, in general, an increase in structural complexity toward the southeast. STRATIGRAPHY Formations West of the Champlain Fault., Bécancour River Formation The red shales and sandstones of this formation are exposed only in the bed of David river at St-David.