Jennifer Noade

2007 - Michael Keen Memorial Awards

Early Carboniferous strata of the Horton Group are excellently exposed in the Cheverie shoreline along the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia. The type section of the Tournaisian-aged Cheverie Formation disconformably overlies the Horton Bluff Formation and is overlain by the Macumber Formation of the Windsor Group. The section is part of a depocenter positioned in the Maritimes Basin. Sedimentation was controlled by continental-scale dextral strike-slip faults and thermal subsidence. Field work illustrates the stratigraphic domains of the Cheverie Formation, outlined in both a generalized stratigraphic column and in a set of three detailed subsections. Petrologic work from a suite of samples collected from the section examines details pertaining to lithology, provenance of grains, clasts and fragments, cement, porosity, and small-scale structures. In the outcrop, paleoflow direction and sedimentary structures are analyzed and facies are designated to intervals in the general section. The facies are interpreted as channel, floodplain and abandoned channel deposits. Overall, the Cheverie Formation best represents a meandering fluvial system that was experiencing arid to semi-arid conditions. Reactivation of faults in the Maritimes Basin have caused shortening, resulting in deformation of Cheverie Formation strata.

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Pages: 100
Supervisor: J.W.F. Waldron