The White Rock Formation is the lowermost formation of the Rockville Notch Group, an assemblage of Silurian–Devonian rocks preserved in five areas along the northwestern margin of the Meguma terrane of Nova Scotia. The formation consists mainly of mafic and felsic metavolcanic rocks, interlayered with and overlain by marine metasedimentary rocks. Felsic metatuff has now been dated from four locations near both the bottom and top of the volcanic pile and yielded a narrow age range (with errors) of about 446–434 Ma. These dates confirm a 30 Ma hiatus after deposition of the Early Ordovician Hellgate Formation in the underlying Halifax Group. This hiatus is coeval with the “Sardian gap” in the Lower Palaeozoic of peri-Gondwanan Europe. The metavolcanic–metasedimentary assemblage is overlain by mainly metasiltstone with abundant quartzite and metaconglomerate lenses; some of the latter were previously interpreted to be Ordovician tillite, an interpretation no longer viable. New detrital zircon data from metasedimentary samples indicate that the major sediment sources for the White Rock Formation have ages of ca. 670–550 and ca. 2050 Ma, similar to ages from the underlying Goldenville and Halifax groups. A smaller population of Mesoproterozoic zircon grains indicates that the Meguma terrane interacted with a terrane composed mainly of Mesoproterozoic crust during the Silurian and Devonian. The occurrence of the “Sardian gap” and the detrital zircon record constrain the palaeoposition of the Meguma terrane to have been close to Cadomia and West Africa in the Early Cambrian to Early Silurian.
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Research Article|
April 09, 2018
U–Pb (zircon) ages and provenance of the White Rock Formation of the Rockville Notch Group, Meguma terrane, Nova Scotia, Canada: evidence for the “Sardian gap” and West African origin
Chris E. White
;
Chris E. White
a
Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources, Halifax, NS B3J 2T9, Canada.
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Sandra M. Barr
;
b
Department of Earth and Environmental Science, Acadia University, Wolfville, NS B4P 2R6, Canada.Corresponding author: Sandra M. Barr (email: sandra.barr@acadiau.ca).
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Ulf Linnemann
Ulf Linnemann
c
Senckenberg Naturhistorische Sammlungen Dresden, Königsbrücker Landstr. 159, D-01109 Dresden, Germany.
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Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences (2018) 55 (6): 589-603.
Article history
received:
18 Sep 2017
accepted:
02 Mar 2018
first online:
07 Jun 2018
Citation
Chris E. White, Sandra M. Barr, Ulf Linnemann; U–Pb (zircon) ages and provenance of the White Rock Formation of the Rockville Notch Group, Meguma terrane, Nova Scotia, Canada: evidence for the “Sardian gap” and West African origin. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences ; 55 (6): 589–603. doi: https://doi.org/10.1139/cjes-2017-0196
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Index Terms/Descriptors
- absolute age
- Appalachian Phase
- Avalonia
- Canada
- Eastern Canada
- lithostratigraphy
- Lower Silurian
- Maritime Provinces
- Meguma Terrane
- nesosilicates
- Nova Scotia
- orthosilicates
- Paleozoic
- Permian
- petrography
- probability
- provenance
- silicates
- Silurian
- statistical analysis
- stratigraphic gaps
- U/Pb
- Yarmouth County Nova Scotia
- Yarmouth Nova Scotia
- zircon
- zircon group
- White Rock Formation
- Wolfville Nova Scotia
- Cadomia
- Torbrook Nova Scotia
- Bear River Nova Scotia
- Rockville Notch Group
- Sardian Gap
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