Camille Malcolm

B.Sc. (Honours) Thesis

Identifying clast species to define the upper age-bracket of the Claremont conglomerate, Eastern Cobequid Highlands, Nova Scotia

(PDF - 15.5 Mb)

The structural complexities of the Cobequid Highlands, NS caused by the Acadian orogeny restricts the ability to date sedimentary units therein. Accurate dating requires extensive geochemical analyses or is limited to homogenous, unaltered material. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the potential of using conglomeratic clasts to bracket the age of the Claremont conglomerate in the Eastern Cobequid Highlands. This is attempted by identifying the suites of clasts present in the conglomerate using petrography and XRF geochemistry to correlate the clasts to proximal units of known age. Due to data and time limitations, this thesis focuses on the upper age-bracket of the Claremont conglomerate. The Claremont conglomerate consists of volcanic, siltstone and limestone clasts. The clasts were divided into three groups: mafic, felsic and sedimentary. These correlated with the Diamond Brook-Byers Brook Formation and Wilson Brook Formation. The presence of red siltstones, unique to the Diamond Brook Formation, determined the youngest age for the clasts: 348+3 Ma. The Wilson Brook Formation is the suspected source of the group of sedimentary clasts. The upper age bracket for the Claremont conglomerate is thus set to 348+3 Ma which is consistent with the stratigraphic constraint imposed by the Boss Point Formation (320 Ma)..

Keywords:
Pages: 130
Supervisor: Anne-Marie Ryan