Abstract

During the final assembly of Pangea, the Maritimes Basin of Atlantic Canada was tectonically active for ∼120 Myr from the Mid-Devonian to the Early Permian, following terrane accretion and ocean closure in the region. The basin's history records a prolonged period of convergence that post-dated the collision of Gondwana and Laurussia. The 12 km of basin fill was laid down in suites of periodically connected depocenters, and parts of the region experienced a polycyclic basin history, with repeated subsidence and inversion of fault-bounded depocenters, many associated with strike-slip faults. During two periods in the basin history, sedimentation overstepped fault zones under a regime of thermal subsidence to blanket much of the region. The basin fills are largely continental but include one open-marine interval with evaporite accumulation (Mississippian), as well as restricted-marine intervals, reflecting progressive loss of oceanic connection. Basinal architecture testifies to rapid subsidence against a backdrop of glacioeustatic influence in a paleoequatorial setting. Volcanics and intrusions were especially prominent during Devonian to Mississippian convergence, and halokinesis greatly influenced later basin development.

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