In the Quebec Appalachians, disruption, imbrication, and thrusting of the Taconian foreland basin sequence are responsible for the development of chaotic units within the turbiditic sequence of the Caradocian Sainte-Rosalie Group, the main lithologic assemblage of the parautochthonous zone. These chaotic units have been termed olistostromes or tectonosomes on the basis of field criteria and following Pini's (1999) classification. Olistostromal units containing blocks of the middle mudstone (Utica Shale) and upper turbidite units (Ste-Rosalie Group) of the foreland basin and spanning the Caradocian N. gracilis, C. americanus, O. ruedemanni, and C. spiniferus graptolite zones were deposited and incorporated into the Sainte-Rosalie Group. Disruption of more competent beds of the flyschic sequence and fault stacking and slicing of older rock units occurred along major thrust faults and now form structurally aligned corridors or tectonosomes. Graptolites and new chitinozoan data from both olistostromes and tectonosomes indicate older ages (early Late Ordovician) than the flysch units of Sainte-Rosalie Group (mid Late Ordovocian). Lithological, stratigraphic, and structural criteria indicate that tectonosome slices are imbricated foreland basin rocks that are correlative to the Black River, Trenton, Utica, Sainte-Rosalie, and Lorraine groups of the Laurentian platform. Thermal maturation data indicates that disruption of the autochthonous sequence, and folding and thrusting of the entire foreland basin sequence, must have occurred shortly after their deposition. Contrary to what had been suggested, blocks in the olistostromes and tectonosomes were not derived from the allochthonous Chaudière thrust sheet, even though it presently marks the southern contact with the parautochthonous zone. Imbrication of the foreland basin sequence must have occurred before emplacement of the Chaudière thrust sheet.

Geothermal resource quantification requires underground temperature and volume information, which can be challenging to accurately assess at the regional scale. The analytical solution for steady-state heat conduction with internal heat generation is often used to calculate temperature at depth, while geological models can provide volume information. Both approaches were originally combined in a single 3D geological model, in which the underground temperature is directly computed, to accurately evaluate geothermal resources suitable for power generation in the St.Lawrence Lowlands sedimentary basin covering 18,000 km 2 in Quebec, Canada, and improve methods for geothermal resource quantification. This approach, used for the first time at such a large scale, allowed to determine the volume of each thermal unit providing a detail assessment of resource depth, temperature and host geological formation. Only 5% of geothermal resources at a temperature above 120 °C that is suitable for power generation were shown to be hosted in the Cambro-Ordovician sedimentary rock sequences at a depth of 4 to 6 km, while 95% of the resource is hosted by the underlying Precambrian basement.