Anatomy of a telescoped pull-apart basin: an example from the Cambro- Ordovician rocks in the Antigonish Highlands of Nova Scotia

Abstract

Cambrian-Lower Ordovician rocks outcrop in the northernmost Antigonish Highlands where they unconformably overlie the Precambrian Georgeville Group. They are divided into two groups that are interpreted to be lateral facies equivalents; the Iron Brook Group and the McDonalds Brook Group. These rocks are inferred to have been deposited in a pull-apart basin produced in the overlap zone between two dextral NE-trending faults. Cambro-Ordovician rocks in the central part of the basin were subsequently thrusted (?)northeastwards and then back thrusted. Associated NW-SE folds verge away from a central zone. This complex structure dies out towards the NE and SW ends of the basin, where the lowest Cambrian units are relatively mildly deformed and the basal unconformity with Precambrian rocks is preserved. These structures are inferred to have been produced by sinistral motion on the NE-SW bounding faults with compression concentrated locally in the pull-apart basin. These structures are truncated by the sub-Silurian unconformity, thereby constraining the time of deformation to the Ordovician. Both the Cambro-Ordovician and Siluro-Devonian were deformed during the Devonian by upright NE-SW folds that are preferentially developed adjacent to the major NE-SW faults. The folds are consistently oriented slightly anticlockwise of the faults thereby indicating renewed dextral movements on the NE-SW faults. -from Authors