Chronology and stratigraphy of the Fundy and related Nova Scotia offshore basins and Morocco based on core and outcrop

The Late Triassic age Blomidon Formation consists nearly entirely of massive gypsiferous mudstone and sandstones arranged into distinctive sand patch cycles, many of which show various salt dissolution features. Identical Late Triassic, cyclical, largely clastic facies are widespread in Morocco, on the conjugate margin to Nova Scotia, where Blomidon-like strata frequently pass in the subsurface into extensive thick and laterally extensive halite deposits. Similar deposits are also present on the Scotian, Newfoundland, and Moroccan shelves. The GAV-77-3 core, collected by Getty Mines in 1977 as part of a Uranium prospecting survey, covers nearly all of the North Mountain Basalt and the entire fine-grained portion of the Blomidon Formation. Two other cores, GAV-77-1 and GAV-77-2, were also collected in the same area, but cover less of the section. These cores nicely complement the spectacular outcrops along the Fundy shores and provided a basis for the development of a complete lithological and paleomagnetic reversal stratigraphy for the Blomidon Formation (Kent and Olsen, 2000). The paleomagnetic polarity stratigraphy of the outcropping Blomidon Formation is known only for isolated intervals, but in conjunction with lithostratigraphy allow unambiguous correlation registry between core and outcrop. Correlation of the GAV-77-3 core polarity stratigraphy with the Newark GPTS, also based on core, is fairly straightforward as is correlation with the Moroccan Bigoudine Formation of the Argana basin. These correlations demonstrate that the major cyclical wet climatic intervals in the Newark basin sequence can be recognized in the Fundy and Argana basins and should also be expressed in the intervening basins on the shelves. In addition they demonstrate the synchrony of major climate changes caused by the very long-term celestial mechanical cycles of a very large part of central Pangea.