Steven A. Harnish

B. Sc. Honours Thesis

Stratigraphy and Depositional Environment of the Meaghers Grant Formation of the Musquodoboit Valley, Central Nova Scotia.

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The Meaghers Grant Formation is a Lower Carboniferous siliclastic sequence in the Musquodoboit Valley of central Nova Scotia. It has been studied in outcrop and mainly in core. It lies wholly within the Lower Windsor Group since, (1) it overlies a marine limestone, (2) marine fossils are present, and (3) it is observed to interfinger with the Gleason Brook Formation ("Basal Anhydrite").

Twenty-one holes were logged in great detail which resulted in the recognition of fifteen lithofacies of which one is the Gleason Brook Formation. An attempt at lithostratigraphic correlation was made resulting in no correlation to very uncertain correlation. Thin sections from Mg-43 were examined to give a greater insight into lithofacies and depositional environment.

The environments represented within the Meaghers Grant Formation are: (1) alluvial fan-sediment, (2) deltaic-mixed clastic, (3) tidal flats-sand flats, tidal influenced channel with a complicated point bar sequence. The distinctive Lindsay Brook Marker seen at or near the top of the formation is interpreted as a coastal desert with calcretification of most of the carbonates.

Two environments of deposition are distinguished in the Gleasan Brook Formation; (1) sabkha (rare), (2) hypersaline precipitate (basinal).

The mounds of the Gays River Formation, the first marine deposit in the area, are of different ages suggesting a gradual progression of the sea up the Valley.

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Pages:147
Supervisor:  D. J. W. Piper

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