LE3 .A278 1981

1981

Moore, Reg

Acadia University

Master of Science

Masters

Geology

Earth & Environmental Sciences

The Lower Visean Windsor Group in southern New Brunswick, found in the Moncton, Marysville and Cumberland Subbasins, is divisible into six formations and three informal units that have insufficient areal extent to warrant formation status. The six are: Gays River, Macumber, Parleeville, Upperton, Cassidy Lake and Clover Hill Formations. Two informal units are named: Samp Hill and Demoiselle Creek beds. The stratigraphic section in the Moncton Subbasin is as follows. The basal limestone consists of shallow-water, basement-fringing, algal buildups (Gays River), in places with intercalated siliciclastics (Parleeville), which are laterally equivalent to deeper-water, very thin to thinly bedded, euxinic, limestone (Macumber). The Macumber is overlain by stratiform, nodular to mosaic, anhydrite (Upperton) that is hosted by carbonate or calcareous siliciclastics. The sulphate also is equivalent, in part, to the algal buildups. Deep-water salts (Cassidy Lake and Clover. Hill) overlie the "basal-anhydrite"; have a . basin-center distribution, and are capped by greenish grey mudstone ("transitional beds"). Thinly bedded, euxinic limestone with interbedded_ greenish grey mudstone (Samp Hill) is found between Gays River and "transitional" rocks in the Havelock area, only. All these rocks belong to the A subzone of the Windsor Group. The exposed stratigraphic section in the Marysville Subbasin consists of Parleeville and "transitional" rocks. However, it is probable that some of the other units fourid in the Moncton Subbasin also are present in the subsurface. The Cumberland Subbasin contains two units not found elsewhere in south~rn New Brunswick. The uppermost one (Demoiselle Creek) consists of two carbonate subunits separated by red beds and the lower one (unnamed) is composed entirely of red beds. These rocks belong to the B subzone of the Windsor Group; not the C subzone - as previously believed. Rocks like those in the Moncton Subbasin also occur in this area. The lithofacies distribution in the study area indicates 1) the Moncton Subbasin was open to the north-east but not the southwest, 2) the Marysville Subbasin, bordered on three sides by Lower Paleozoic Upland, contains Windsor rocks in the sub-surface probably as far north as the Fredericton Fault, and 3) the Gays River Formation contains mo-st of the high calcium limestone and all the known base metal sulphide accumulations in the Windsor Group.

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