The Maritimes Basin of Atlantic Canada covers an area of 210 000 km2. However, with more than 70% of the basin lying offshore, relatively little is known about its regional stratigraphic history. Offshore studies of the Upper Viséan to Lower Permian
strata have identified the presence of five major depositional cycles of second order duration. The cycles are bounded by regionally identifiable, conformable to unconformable sequence boundaries. Each cycle consists of a basal coarse grained facies with an overlying finer grained facies. The basal
facies are interpreted to be forestepping systems tracts, developed in response to increased sedimentation rates and decreased accommodation space. This caused braidplain fan deltas to prograde basinward. Backstepping systems tracts overlie both the basal unit and a transgressive surface. These
tracts developed in response to decreasing sediment supply and increasing accommodation space. This resulted in a relative rise of base level, allowing finer grained sedimentation on the basin flanks.
Coal Measures penetrated by oil and gas exploration wells in Gulf of St. Lawrence - Sydney Basin are a regionally mappable seismic facies. The broad extent of this seismic facies has prompted the speculation that it reflects cyclothem deposition, analogous to
cyclothem deposits of the Illinois Basin and Mid-Continent Basin region of the United States. This implies that the depositional cycles included periods of marine incursion. Evidence for such incursions, in the form of agglutinated foraminifera assemblages, has been reported from coal-bearing strata
of the Sydney Basin, Cape Breton Island. Similar assemblages have now been found in two offshore wells in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. This discovery supports arguments for cyclothymic deposition, enhances the possibility of marine source rocks for hydrocarbon generation, and underlines the need for
review of the paleogeographic and depositional history of the Central Maritimes Basin.
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