Detrital petrology and provenance of the Logan Canyon Formation sandstones, Scotian Basin

Abstract

There were two main objectives for this study. The first, to understand the detrital mineral assemblages at different depths in a group of wells in the Central Scotian Basin, eastern Canada. The second, to determine the provenance and see how the results change between the wells, as well as different stratigraphic levels. Samples were taken from the middle to upper part of the Logan Canyon Formation for study. Heavy minerals were separated, and mineral identification was completed using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). This provided information on the detrital heavy mineral assemblages in each of the samples. The main heavy detrital minerals in these samples are tourmaline, garnet, zircon, ilmenite, chromite and TiO2 minerals (identified as rutile). Previous provenance studies in the area suggest three main sources relating to four Cretaceous river systems, used for transportation. These three sources are: the Grenville Appalachians, the main Appalachians, which includes New Brunswick, potentially northern Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, and the Meguma Terrane. Minerals in the samples were compared to those anticipated to be found from these three sources and it appears that there is major input from the main Appalachians and Meguma Terrane. This indicates that the use of the Sable River and small local rivers from the Meguma Terrane were main sources of the detrital minerals.