Sedimentology of the Carboniferous Canso Group at Broad Cove, Nova Scotia

• Main Author: Brown, Yvonne
• Format: Report
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2021
• Subjects: Breton Island; Canso; Saline Lake
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10222/80402

Carboniferous Canso Group strata are well exposed on the west coast of Cape Breton Island at Broad Cove, 5 km northeast of Inverness. The study area is a coastal section extending from the mouth of Smith's Brook, which drains into Broad Cove, south to Plaster Rocks Cove. The Canso Group was deposited in a fault-bound basin, part of a series of interconnected basins and surrounding uplifted blocks and stable platforms collectively known as the Fundy Basin. Three facies assemblages are recognized in the Canso strata at Broad Cove. The carbonate facies assemblage includes calcareous shale, dolostone, calcareous mud, stromatolitic limestone, and oolitic limestone. The siliciclastic facies assemblage comprises sandstone and mudstone. The mixed facies assemblage comprises carbonate and siliciclastic units interbedded on a fine scale. Evidence indicates that the depositional setting was a shallow saline lake on an alluvial plain. Deposition was under conditions of climatic aridity. Abundant carbonate minerals precipitated in a saline lake during periods of evaporation and low clastic influx. Flood waters from storms inundated the plain and clastic sediments were deposited in the lake. The clastic sediments were transported from surrounding uplands by the flood waters and surface runoff during storm events. Keywords: Pages: 90 Supervisor: Martin Gibling