Stratigraphy of the Ordovician of the Lac Saint-Jean and Chicoutimi outliers, Quebec

• Published in: Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences
• Main Authors: Desbiens, Sylvain, Lespérance, Pierre J.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Science Publishing 1989
• Subjects: General Earth and Planetary Sciences; Arctic; Bleue; Galets; Tremblay
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/e89-101; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/e89-101

Four previously defined formations within the Chicoutimi outlier are extended to the Lac Saint-Jean outlier; these formations are gradational into one another. The lowest of these formations, the Tremblay, is restricted to siliciclastic strata (predominantly coarse-grained sandstones); the overlying Simard, to micritic limestones. This last-named formation is succeeded by the highly fossiliferous Shipshaw Formation, composed of alternating limestones and shales, whereas the youngest of the previously named carbonates, the Galets Formation, is made up of echinodermal calcarenites. Graptolitic shales, herein assigned to the new Pointe-Bleue Shales, overlie in sharp contact the Galets; the youngest limestones of the area, previously assigned to the Richmondian, are different from the other Ordovician limestones. Trilobite faunas from the Shipshaw (and Galets) are correlated with the Edenian; the same correlation is probable for the uppermost of the four informal units recognized within the Simard Formation. The lowest three informal units of the Simard Formation are assigned to the Kirkfieldian; Shermanian strata have not been identified but are probably present. The Pointe-Bleue Shales were previously assigned to the Maysvillian. The Simard Formation contains an "Arctic" fauna, also present in the Manicouagan outlier but yielding in this last case a Shipshaw–Galets trilobite fauna. The Simard fauna, previously correlated with the "Black River," is thus interpreted as significantly time transgressive and of limited stratigraphic use. Depositional environments present in the Lac Saint-Jean and Chicoutimi outliers, but absent in southern Ontario during the Shermanian and Edenian, account for the necessity of significantly increasing the biozones of numerous taxa.