Abstract Granitic plutons dominated by felsic-intermediate compositions are commonly spatially and temporally associated with mafic intrusions; however, the genetic relationship between the apparently coeval but compositionally dissimilar magmas is controversial. To better understand this relationship, we present new lithogeochemical and isotopic data from coeval late Neoproterozoic plutonic rocks in the Antigonish Highlands of Nova Scotia where the regional context is well documented. The predominantly mafic Greendale Complex contains lamprophyre, appinites and leucocratic dykes. The appinites are remarkably variable in their textures, and consist of hornblende pegmatites, hornblende cumulates, porphyritic hornblende gabbro and coarse-grained, equigranular hornblende gabbro. Geochemical data show enrichment in large-ion lithophile elements and depletion in the high field strength elements suggesting an arc setting. ε Nd (607) values from the Greendale Complex range from +3.2 to +5.0 and are on average slightly more juvenile than coeval granitic rocks which have petrological characteristics typical of continental arc magmas. Hydrous mafic magmas were likely contaminated by subducted sediments and their ascent was facilitated by lithospheric-scale faults. Felsic magmas were derived by anatexis of heterogeneous Avalonian crust that oscillated between fluid-saturated to fluid-deficient (dehydration) melting, consistent with the evolution from arc to intra-arc rift environment.

In paleoequatorial parts of Europe and North America, late Paleozoic cyclic successions are widely inferred to reflect glacio-eustasy. However, many of these successions accumulated in basins in the Pangean collisional zone, where variations in tectonics and sediment supply could also have generated cyclic successions. Cyclic successions are ubiquitous in the Maritimes Basin of Atlantic Canada but are especially prominent in the Visean and Bolsovian to Cantabrian, when subsidence rates on coastal plains were low and probably steady during periods of thermal subsidence. During relatively humid climatic conditions in the Bolsovian to Cantabrian, fluvial systems generated clastic cyclic successions with deep valleys and mature interfluve paleosols, providing strong evidence for alternate rise and fall of sea level—a characteristic glacio-eustatic feature. Under arid conditions in the Visean, with few rivers, carbonate-evaporite rhythms formed with little evidence for incision. Comparisons with near- and far-field records for Gondwanan glacial activity suggest that these two periods correspond to sea-level changes on the order of a few tens of meters, probably due to melting and accumulation of small ice caps rather than continent-wide ice sheets. Cyclic successions that formed in basins undergoing steady thermal subsidence may provide the most reliable evidence for glacio-eustasy in the paleoequatorial realm.

The Early Silurian–Early Devonian Arisaig Group, in the Avalon terrane of Nova Scotia, consists of a thick (∼1900 m) sequence of unmetamorphosed fossiliferous siliciclastic strata that unconformably overlies the 460 Ma bimodal Dunn Point Formation volcanic rocks and is unconformably overlain by basalts and red clastic rocks of the McArras Brook Formation. The Dunn Point volcanic rocks were deposited when Avalonia was a microcontinent, in a New Zealand–type arc setting ∼1800 km north of Gondwana and 1700–2000 km south of Laurentia. Geochemical, Sm-Nd, and U-Pb (detrital zircon) isotopic data of all Arisaig Group strata show fundamental differences from the underlying Avalonian rocks, indicating that they were not derived from Avalonian basement. These data are instead compatible with derivation from Baltica, implying that Avalonia had accreted to Baltica by the earliest Silurian and that the Arisaig Group is part of a clastic sequence that has overstepped Appalachian-Caledonide terrane boundaries. The lack of penetrative deformation and the approximately concordant nature of the contact between the Dunn Point Formation and the Arisaig Group suggest that this portion of Avalonia was located on the trailing edge of the Avalonia plate during the collision. Regional syntheses suggest that the basin was initiated by local transtension during oblique sinistral collision between Avalonia and Baltica. An overall trend toward increasingly negative ϵ Nd values in the clastic rocks toward the top of the Arisaig Group is thought to reflect increasing input from Laurentia by the time of deposition of the Early Devonian strata. The basin also preserves evidence of loading in the Late Silurian, which is thought to reflect the development of a foreland basin and the ongoing shortening across the orogen associated with the onset of the Acadian orogeny. The unconformity between the Arisaig Group and the overlying McArras Brook Formation is the local expression of the deformation associated with Acadian orogeny in the Antigonish Highlands. The orientation and style of Acadian deformation preserved in the Arisaig Group is compatible with dextral movement along major northeast-trending faults, consistent with evidence of regional dextral shear along the northern margin of the Rheic Ocean in the Middle Devonian. Late Devonian–early Carboniferous deposition of the predominantly continental clastic rocks of the Horton Group occurred around the Antigonish Highlands in a series of grabens and half-grabens, most notably represented by the St. Mary's basin, which originated by dextral shear along the boundary between the Meguma and Avalon terranes. Continued episodes of dextral shear in the late Carboniferous resulted in localized regions of transtension and basin development, and also in episodes of transpression, manifested by intense deformation, thrusting, and S-C fabric development. Taken together, Middle Devonian–late Carboniferous episodes of dextral shear reflect the local accommodation of oblique convergence and eventual collision between Gondwana and Laurussia.