Abstract The Scotian Basin, under Atlantic Canada’s continental shelf and slope, encompasses a corridor 100 to 150 km wide by 900 km long on the southeastern continental slope of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. Since 1967, a total of 103 exploration wells have been drilled in the shelf portion of the basin within the setting of the Sable subbasin. The Scotian Basin is divided into a series of geologically distinct subbasins. Opening occurred during the Middle to Late Triassic, in response to separation of North America from Africa. During this time, synrift red beds, restricted marine dolomites and halites of the Eurydice, Iroquois and Argo formations, respectively, have been deposited. From the Early Jurassic to the end of the Cretaceous, the basin continues to subside, infilling with significant quantities of fluvio-deltaic and shelf sandstones. During lowstands, incision of the shelf carries sands down the paleoslope into deep marine environments, where they are deposited within a variety of subaqueous facies. The Tertiary-aged Banquereau Formation consists of fluvial, deltaic, and deep water sandstone environments. Although tectonically passive, deep water portions of the Scotian Basin contain the Scotian salt province. This subbasin is extensively deformed by halokinetic movement of Late Triassic Argo Formation halite, which mobilized to form swells, walls, ridges, and domes. Sedimentation and play-types vary considerably along the 900 km of the salt province within water depths of 1,000 to 3,000 metres with the potential for a number of distinct petroleum systems throughout the subbasins and include potential subsalt exploration targets.

Abstract In the inner to middle Sable Subbasin, offshore Nova Scotia, a thick (~100-200 m) and areally-extensive (>20 km x > 100 km) sheet-like fluvial-marine succession has been identified at the top of the Missis-auga Formation using core, well log, and seismic (2D and 3D) data. Despite its relatively planar nature and significant width perpendicular to interpreted paleoflow (at least 20 km), the base of the fluvial sheet is interpreted to be a wide incised valley formed during slow relative sea level fall and lowstand. Deposition of the fluvial-marine succession has occurred during subsequent slow relative sea level rise, which was punctuated by several higher frequency relative sea level falls that episodically caused fluvial systems to bypass the shelf, allowing for continued shelf margin progradation.