| Title | The shallow geology of a portion of Laurentian Channel east of Cape Breton Island, offshore Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador |
| Download | Downloads |
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| Licence | Please note the adoption of the Open Government Licence - Canada
supersedes any previous licences. |
| Author | King, E L |
| Source | Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 6731, 2014, 26 pages, https://doi.org/10.4095/293173  Open Access |
| Image |  |
| Year | 2014 |
| Publisher | Natural Resources Canada |
| Document | open file |
| Lang. | English |
| Media | digital; on-line |
| File format | pdf |
| Province | Eastern offshore region |
| Area | Laurentian Channel |
| Lat/Long WENS | -59.6667 -56.5000 47.1667 46.1667 |
| Subjects | surficial geology/geomorphology; marine geology; engineering geology; glacial features; glacial deposits; glacial landforms; seafloor topography; seabottom topography; geophysical surveys; bathymetry;
muds; sands; tills; boulders; submarine features; Cenozoic; Quaternary |
| Illustrations | location maps; cross-sections; tables; profiles |
| Program | Offshore Geoscience |
| Released | 2014 06 03 |
| Abstract | (Summary)
Current hydrocarbon and environmental interests in part of the central Laurentian Channel, south of Burgeo Bank, demands a review of the current understanding of the area's shallow
geological conditions. Multi-layered map themes, both new and old, show the distribution and attributes of the bedrock and overburden. Broadly folded and faulted Carboniferous siliciclastics and evaporites of the Sydney Basin floor the entire area.
The bedrock surface is glacially smoothed and overlain by a simple stratigraphic series of one or two tills, up to 60 m thick, followed by glacimarine deposits, up to 30 m thick. Both are turbated by relict iceberg scours. At the seafloor muds are
common below about 250 m water depth and patchy sand and gravel shallower than about 80 m, while till and glacial sediments underlie most of the area, yet crop out over large areas. Physical properties indicate competent tills with strengths of 150
kPa, much softer overlying glacimarine muds (ca. 10-20 kPa) and very thin covering muds (<10 kPa). GSC-A data holdings include no biological observations; other areas of the Channel with muddy seafloor support moderate sponge and sea pen populations
with anemones and greater diversity on harder (generally glacial) substrate. Geo-features of potential interest to engineering application include shallow gas and pockmarks, rare buried channels and submarine sediment mass failure (old), heavily
relict icebergscoured terrain and both hard and soft sediments. Neo-tectonic activity level around salt diapirs and faults are inconclusive in terms of magnitude and timing. |
| GEOSCAN ID | 293173 |
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