Record of Late Mississippian tectonics in the new Percé Group (Viséan) of eastern Gaspésie, Quebec

Abstract

Viséan clastic units and structures at the northwest margin of the upper Paleozoic Maritimes Basin provide information on tectonic events that are only poorly recorded in more central parts of the basin. These continental units are time equivalent to marine sediments of the Windsor Group of Nova Scotia. They are herein assigned to the new Percé Group, which includes the La Coulée and Bonaventure formations, as well as a new unit, the Cap d'Espoir Formation. The latter unit unconformably underlies the Bonaventure Formation in a small but thick sub-basin of the Ristigouche Basin in eastern Quebec. It is characterized by a succession of sandstone and mudstone rhythmites that contrast with the coarse alluvial fan deposits of the overlying Bonaventure Formation. The Cap d'Espoir Formation was sourced from a broad area of subdued topography occupied by the Viséan La Coulée Formation and underlying units. Erosional remnants of the La Coulée Formation are unconformably overlain by the Bonaventure Formation in marginal parts of the Ristigouche Basin, whereas these units are separated by the Cap d'Espoir Formation in more central areas of the basin. The La Coulée and Cap d'Espoir formations underwent tilting and erosion during a normal faulting event that preceded deposition of the fault-controlled Bonaventure Formation. This series of events is interpreted to represent different steps in the reactivation of a pre-Carboniferous dextral strike-slip system in response to northwest–southeast compression during the Viséan in Gaspésie.