Field Trip 2

The Cretaceous Chaswood Formation: On-land extension of the Scotian Basin

Georgia Pe-Piper

Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Nova Scotia

David J.W. Piper

Geological Survey of Canada (Atlantic), Dartmouth, Nova Scotia

Description

The Lower Cretaceous Chaswood Formation of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick is a fluvial succession up to 200 m thick that is the chronologic equivalent of the Missisauga and Logan Canyon reservoir sandstones of the Scotian basin. The formation was deposited in fault-bound basins that show the same phases of deformation as the offshore Orpheus graben, Laurentian Subbasin and Jeanne d’Arc Basin along tectonic strike. The Chaswood Formation preserves a record of the:

  • (indirectly), climate and hinterland relief that supplied sediment to the Scotian basin
  • importance of syndepositional strike-slip deformation
  • style of diagenesis in the proximal parts of the Scotian Basin
  • detrital petrography (gravel through clay fraction) supplied to the western part of the Scotian Basin
  • thermal evolution of the proximal part of the Scotian Basin

The first part of this trip will visit the only sizeable outcrop of the Chaswood Formation in Nova Scotia where evidence of multiple phases of deformation and examine in the field the varied detrital petrography preserved in the gravel fraction of the formation. The second half will bring participants back to Halifax to examine in the lab drill core showing selected examples of Chaswood Formation lithofacies

Schedule

Date: Sunday, August 19, 2018

  • Morning: Field excursion to the Shaw Resources Limited`s West Indian Road pit near Hardwoodlands, Nova Scotia
  • Afternoon: Classroom lecture and examine Chaswood Formation cores from Musquodoboit Valley, Brierly Brook, Belmont and Vinegar Hill locations at Saint Mary’s University, Halifax

Locations

  • West Indian Road pit at Hardwoodlands, Nova Scotia (morning) and
  • Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Nova Scotia

Duration

Single day combined field trip (morning), and classroom lecture and core examination (afternoon).

Cost: $120.

Note: This field trip is fully subscribed and registrations are no longer being accepted.