Elizabeth B. More
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B. Sc. Honours Thesis
(PDF - 35.6 Mb)
A comprehensive study was made on a roughly 60 metre thick succession of sedimentary and volcanic rocks on the North Baddeck River, central Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. The sequence comprises thinly-laminated grey clastics and coarse to fine redbeds interlayered with a single tholeiitic basalt flow. Compositional and textural studies on the red sediments have suggested a nearby Pre-Carboniferous granitic and metamorphic source, with deposition in a semi- arid, alluvial fan and alluvial plain environment. The nature of the finer grey strata infers sedimentation in quiet, lacustrine areas.
K/Ar dating on the relatively fresh basalt flow has yielded an age of 328 + 7 m.a.
Comparisons between the Lower Carboniferous-Upper Devonian Fisset Brook Formation in Cape Breton and the north Baddeck sequence suggest similar styles of volcanism and clastic accumulation. Contemporaneous eruption and sedimentation occurred within a continental-type setting adjacent to uplifted crystalline basement complexes.
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Pages: 95
Supervisors: Becky Jamieson
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