Paleoenvironmental and tectonostratigraphic evolution of the west Cumberland Basin of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick during the Upper Mississippian

Abstract

The Cumberland Basin, which spans the provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, contains one of the most complete stratigraphic records of upper Mississippian (Viséan - Namurian) strata within the Maritimes Basin. The paleoenvironmental and tectonostratigraphic evolution of these units is here assessed, as well as lateral variations and stratigraphic relationships between upper Mississippian units in the western half of the basin. This exercise resulted in necessary petrographic and stratigraphic correlations across the study area, and several redundancies and inconsistencies in the pre-existing stratigraphic nomenclature were identified and informally amended based on equivalencies and precedence. Three source areas were identified in the west Cumberland Basin during the upper Mississippian, and a paleogeographic model was created for that interval based on geophysical, paleocurrent, provenance and facies distribution data.